Whether you love her, hate her, or are generally apathetic towards her, Julia Roberts has been one of the biggest and highest paid actresses over her past 25 years in the industry. This list praises Julia’s 5 best roles (in no particular order) before she stars as the iconic Evil Queen in Tarsem Singh’s take on the Snow White fairy tale, Mirror, Mirror.

Steel Magnolias — Julia Roberts scored critical acclaim as Shelby Latcherie, a diabetic newlywed amongst a cast of strong female characters. She stood out enough to get an Oscar nod, not to mention a jump-start to her successful career.

Notting Hill — “I’m also just a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to love her.” Of course, this quote has to be one of Roberts’ most standout moments on film. Her role as Anna Scott, a famous American actress might not exactly be a stretch in characterization from real life, but the spark of chemistry she found with Hugh Grant still manages to earn a spot on this list

Erin Brockovich — It wouldn’t be right to mention Roberts’ best roles without the one that earned her the coveted Oscar after two prior nominations. She stretched from her usual rom-com-dram movie in this biopic, playing a woman who took on a huge corporation guilty of causing horrible medical issues in a small California town.

My Best Friend’s Wedding — A personal favorite of mine, Roberts’ role as the best friend with bad romantic timing and conniving intentions is particularly memorable out of her long line of 90’s romantic comedies. Maybe the movie is just a highlight of the genre, but she shines and shows why she’s made for it in this funny film.

Pretty Woman — This is the role that proved her blockbuster potential, raking in over $400 million and ranking #21 on AFI’s 100 Years…100 Passions. Richard Gere and Roberts share an iconic on-screen romance that still holds up today. Even if you’re not a fan, it’s hard to not find her performance as the prostitute Vivian Ward kind of adorable.

 

What do you think about Julia Roberts? What roles do you think are her best?

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3 Responses

  1. Dylan

    Roberts has just never really been my cup o’ tea. When I first saw the title of this post, my mind pretty much went blank, with the two obvious ones (Erin, Pretty Woman) coming to mind first. She just has so many forgettable flicks on her resume (with varying degress of success to them): The Mexican, America’s Sweethearts, that Gere follow-up one, etc.

    Though, to be honest, I never caught about half her flicks – Sleeping with the Enemy, Flatliners, Mary Reilly, Michael Collins, etc., etc.

    • Jess

      None of us are huge fans admittedly, but she has been in so many films that the release of Mirror, Mirror seemed like a good time to get into them. She’s definitely one of the biggest actresses over the past 2 decades even though she is waning out of the picture.

  2. Mettel Ray

    She was big. Now she is just a big name. Although I enjoyed her in the Ocean’s trilogy and that especially in the one were she played herself. But that was purely awesome because Bruce was there. I love Bruce.