A Mega-Star, Happily Balanced

2010-05-12 (수) 12:00:00

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MALIBU, California - Tom Hanks is on the line. “What am I,” he joked, “just another in your long line of I Love Julia calls?”

Well, yes, as it happens. Call around to movie industry associates about Julia Roberts and the love gushes forth. Mr. Hanks, who starred with her in “Charlie Wilson’s War” (2007), said flat out: “There’s no professional I admire more than Julia. Working with her is like having a fabulous dinner conversation with somebody you really like and who really likes you and is loaded with energy and intelligence.”

Mike Nichols, who directed her in “Closer” (2004) and “Charlie Wilson,” said, “Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep and my wife” - Diane Sawyer - “those are the three women I love.”

Her newest admirer is Ryan Murphy, who directed her in “Eat Pray Love,” which opens August 13 in the United States and in many other countries this fall. “We laughed within 30 seconds of meeting each other and haven’t stopped since,” said Mr. Murphy, who is best known as one of the creators of the television show “Glee.” “She was a real collaborator on making the movie and a real leader on the set.”

Also a fan is Elizabeth Gilbert, author of “Eat, Pray, Love,” the best-selling 2006 memoir on which the movie is based. “There’s this luminousness to Julia,” Ms. Gilbert said. “It’s almost as if she was always lit from behind. If she wasn’t a movie star, the only other job she could have would be professional fairy.”

The object of all this affection sits curled up in a comfortable chair in her sewing room, upstairs in her sprawling but unpretentious, family-friendly house in Malibu. Her latest sewing project is making personalized, oversize pillows for her three young children to sit on while reading.

At 8:59 a.m., Ms. Roberts was securing her 5-year-old twins, Phinnaeus and Hazel, into a car so that her husband, the cinematographer Daniel Moder, could drive them to school. “Have fun,” she told the kids, waving goodbye .

Fun is something Ms. Roberts is having a lot of these days. She is relishing marriage and motherhood - “We are happy as clams,” she said - and works only when she wants to. “I am fulfilled by my own life on an hourly basis.

Every little moment is amazing if you let yourself access it. I learn that all the time from my kids; children are so filled with wonder. My youngest son” ? Henry, almost 3 ? “woke up at 5 a.m. the other morning and said to me, ‘It’s a beautiful day, Mama!’ What’s more precious than that?”

Ms. Roberts has been a major movie star - the biggest female box office draw - for 20 years, ever since she fetchingly laughed her way through the romantic comedy “Pretty Woman” in 1990. She was 22 at the time .

“She was young, but just fearless, and she was obviously popping off the screen,” recalled Garry Marshall, who directed her in “Pretty Woman,” “Runaway Bride” (1999) and this year’s “Valentine’s Day.” “Watching her grow up has been one of my pleasures.”

Now 42, Ms. Roberts still has a smile as wide and a laugh as infectious, but a lot has happened since “Pretty Woman”: two marriages (the first to the singer Lyle Lovett, the second to Mr. Moder in 2002); motherhood to her brood of three; winning an Oscar as best actress for “Erin Brockovich” (2000); and roles in more than 30 movies .

In “Eat Pray Love,” which also stars Javier Bardem, James Franco and Viola Davis , Ms. Roberts gets to display bushels of emotion as a woman seeking answers to life’s big questions. The role was the most difficult she has taken on - she’s in every scene and traveled the globe during the nearly four-month shoot - since she had her children.

Ms. Roberts said the emotional and spiritual journey depicted in the book - and now, she hopes, in the movie - resonated with her. “We all kind of have that moment in our lives,” she said, “sometimes it’s just for a weekend, or a month, or even a year, when you think, ‘There’s no way out.’ You have to learn to find peace within yourself, to exorcise that restlessness and judgment. You have to learn, ‘Why can’t I just be happy with my life?’ ”

Among the things that make Ms. Roberts happy now is having her family with her when she’s working. Ms. Roberts confirmed that she is indeed choosy about roles these days, weighing the juiciness or challenge of a part against family considerations. “I say you can call me, but I don’t necessarily call everybody back now,” she said, laughing. “I’m not off the market, but my decision-making has more components than it used to.”

By LEAH ROZEN