When Exactly?

Nikki Finke posted a story yesterday afternoon about Eat Pray Love, an adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert‘s spiritual-seeker book (a kind of lah-lah travelling pants Siddhartha) that’ll be produced by Sony after getting jettisoned by Paramount. The thing that caught my eye was Finke calling Julia Roberts, who’s set to star under director Ryan Murphy, a “has-been actress.”

Roberts has been low-flaming it over the last two or three years (certainly since the middling response to Closer), but until just now I hadn’t applied the word “over” to Roberts’ career. But maybe it is. No one had specifically said so before yesterday. It’s up to the HE crowd now. How done is Roberts? And is it necessarily a tragedy that she had her 13 or 14 years in the sun — late ’80s to early 21st Century — and then decided to downshift for whatever personal reason?

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43 thoughts on “When Exactly?”

  1. I’m guessing the decision not to work so much and take care of her family is hers and that if she wanted to get a project off the ground, all she has to do is attach her name to something.

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  2. Duplicity is on its way. She has little ones. Seems many actresses do this – Pfeiffer, Close, even Streep was only doing a film or so a year when her younguns were REALLY young. Charlie Wilson’s War didn’t do too shabby…she’s not over yet.

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  4. Finke did not say she was a has-been actress, she said that some studios bitchslapping each other about the film say that. This post is crappy reporting, JW.

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  5. When was the last time she carried a movie? Mona Lisa Smile, almost six years ago? And before that, 2001′s America’s Sweethearts?

    I don’t think you can even begin to make that statement until Duplicity is released.

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  7. Far from over. I’m not a fan and never have been or will be, but the ladiy has children and she realized, obviously, that you can’t be real good parent when you’re out whoring yourself for 20 movies a year. Good call, ma’am.

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  9. I love her, personally. Probably my favorite movie star and I’ll watch any movie she’s in. No way is she close to being washed up. She continues to grow and improve as an actor, ‘Charlie Wilson’ aside. That was a bit out of her comfort zone. She also appears to be getting more gorgeous. Is there another human being on Earth the camera loves more? ‘Duplicity’ looks like a perfect vehicle for her and I can’t wait to see it. She and Clive Owen were electric in their scenes together in ‘Closer.’

    This is the one actress I have an unabashed schoolboy crush on. She is just ridiculously friggin’ charming.

    And of course, any career slow-down was largely by choice. She’s got a zillion dollars and little kids.

    One of the all-time movie stars.

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  10. Actually, I think it is a good thing, that some people consider her a has been. Takes the pressure off to deliver a blockbuster each and every time. Instead she can focus on picking the good screenplays which will help her achieve a long living career like Meryl Streep’s (who had her down times as well in between)…

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  11. Has-been or no has-been, this movie looks like it might go for the title of Worst Movie in the History of Western Civilization. After this she can join Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon in The Banger Sisters 2

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  12. Charlie Wilson’s War seemed like sort of a turning point for me. Everyone expected her to be feted for her performance there, maybe get a supporting actress nod and a career resurgance, but it all just fizzled. Now she’s back to the knitting circle/steel magnolia type of stuff and likely to stay there unless she gets bold again and does, I don’t know, Flatliners 2?

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  13. Roberts could probably be quite successful, commercially at least, in this role. It is the kind of empowered female romantic film based on a well-known property that women audiences like to see in general and to see Roberts starring in. Although I personally as a women didn’t like the book.

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  14. Wish I could think of a single Julia Roberts performance that didn’t set my nerves on edge. The meta-movie in Full Frontal probably comes closest, but every time the Klute wig came off I got that cold, clammy feeling again. I don’t know what it is about her, but — like bridgeman’s Ashley Judd phobia — Julia Roberts scares the living fuck out of me. She is the anti-Viagra.

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  15. Wow, having read the book, she seems like odd casting for a film about a woman in her early 30s without kids. But presumably Julia can pick or choose her own projects. I certainly wouldn’t categorize her as a has-been – and if she is, who’s taken her crown?

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  16. “I love her, personally. Probably my favorite movie star and I’ll watch any movie she’s in. No way is she close to being washed up. She continues to grow and improve as an actor, ‘Charlie Wilson’ aside. That was a bit out of her comfort zone. She also appears to be getting more gorgeous. Is there another human being on Earth the camera loves more? ‘Duplicity’ looks like a perfect vehicle for her and I can’t wait to see it. She and Clive Owen were electric in their scenes together in ‘Closer.’

    This is the one actress I have an unabashed schoolboy crush on. She is just ridiculously friggin’ charming.

    And of course, any career slow-down was largely by choice. She’s got a zillion dollars and little kids.

    One of the all-time movie stars.”

    I’m not accusing you of being a plant by her agent or publicist, but man does that statement reek of it. Do you think her toe jam tastes good too?

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  18. It’s not over until your last three movies debuted at Blockbuster….or you appear on a ‘celebrity’ edition of a reality show.

    “She’s a piece of shit.” Niki or Julia?

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  19. It really is annoying and frustrating to have people constantly questioning actresses’ bankability. I don’t know if you’d call it a kind of sexism, but from what I see the has-been title seems to be openly and frequently applied to actresses mostly.

    I’ve never cared for Julia. Not sure what it is. I personally prefer my middle-aged female actors to be of the Jodie Foster/Laura Linney/Julianne Moore variety. But Julia is not a has- been currently. If Duplicity doesn’t do well, it’ll probably be time for Roberts to start worrying. The thing is when you build your career and count your success on mostly crappy romantic comedies you give yourself an expiration date. It’s not like studios are lining up to give a greenlight to romcoms featuring older women. We’ll see after her next couple of movies if she’s able to transition successfully into the second part of her career whatever that may be although probably not “serious actor”. She’s a solid actress I guess, but definitely not even in the Top 20 of her own generation. So, she probably is heading to has-beenism she’s just not quite there yet.

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  20. “It’s not over until your last three movies debuted at Blockbuster….or you appear on a ‘celebrity’ edition of a reality show.”

    Or I see you on an informercial, through a haze of cold medicines and mucus, playing second fiddle to Chuck Norris & wife, on some kind of exercise machine, doing a sudden Bruce Lee move and saying “WOOOOO-OOOO! Look out!”. And your name is Wesley Snipes. How far did THAT guy’s promise fall?

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  22. I don’t like Julia Roberts but I do admire her success. She has the best kind of movie star career. If she’s a has-been then a lot of male movie stars should be seen as the same.

    Directors who’ve worked with her more than once. Spielberg hates her. I wonder what he’s really like on a set?

    Robert Altman (casting Lindsay Lohan killed you)

    Mike Nichols

    Steven Soderbergh

    Joel Schumacher (you’re the Devil)

    Garry Marshall (you’re a shitty filmmaker and Penny’s directorial filmography is better than yours)

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  24. I admit, for several years I couldn’t stand her (though I admitted she occasionally did some good stuff like “Erin Brockovich”)…but now that Jennifer Aniston has succeeded her as the Most Obnoxiously Overexposed Star On Supermarket Checkouts, Julia’s actually kind of tolerable.

    Still sounds like a dreadful film concept, though.

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  25. Does anyone else think that the trailer for Duplicity looks awful? The shot of Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson clawing at each other? Ughh. I’m as big a fan of Michael Clayton as they come, but this looks LAME. Holding out hope that the trailer was cut for retards and the movie is something that feels entirely different. Also, judging from the trailer Julia Roberts character apparently is meant to have some powers of seduction, but those moments caused unintended laughter among the people I saw the preview with.

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  26. Even stars realize sooner or later that movies, acting, the whole showbiz thing is ultimately empty, wasted life and that in the end family, spirituality, helping others, leading a productive life away from the vapid showbiz bullshit (onscreen billing, restaurant tables, magazine covers etc)

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  27. Does anybody have anything to backup this earlier claim that Speilberg hates her? I’ve never heard him say a cross word in public about an actor/actress. Tom Cruise singlehandedly killed one his movies and he didn’t say a word really.

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