“I’m going to play the world’s biggest movie star and I do what?” the “Pretty Woman” actress recalled thinking.

Julia Roberts thought Notting Hill sounded ‘so f---ing stupid’: ‘The dumbest idea of any movie I could ever do’

"I'm going to play the world's biggest movie star and I do what?" the "Pretty Woman" actress recalled thinking.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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January 6, 2026 2:04 p.m. ET

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Julia Roberts in 'Notting Hill'. Credit:

MCA/Courtesy Everett

- Julia Roberts said that she initially thought *Notting Hill* sounded like "the dumbest idea of any movie I could ever do."

- The *Pretty Woman* actress had reservations about playing "the world's biggest movie star" in the 1999 rom-com: "This sounds so f---ing stupid."

- However, Roberts changed her mind upon reading the screenplay for the film: "This is so charming. It's so funny."

Julia Roberts wasn't impressed by the idea of *Notting Hill*.

The *After the Hunt* star revealed her initial skepticism about the iconic 1999 romantic comedy during an interview with Deadline.

"Gosh, I just remember when my agent called me about* Notting Hill* and I thought, 'Well, that sounds like the dumbest idea of any movie I could ever do,'" Roberts remembered.

The film saw Roberts portray an A-list Hollywood star who falls in love with a shopkeeper (Hugh Grant) as she tries to lay low in London. The *Pretty Woman* actress was not particularly enthused by that premise. "'I'm going to play the world's biggest movie star and I do what?'" she recalled thinking. "'And then what happens? This sounds so f---ing stupid.'"

Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts in 'Notting Hill'.

Clive Coote/Universal

However, upon reading Richard Curtis' screenplay, Roberts changed her tune. "And then I read the script, and I was like, 'Oh. This is so charming. It's so funny. Oh, s---,'" she remembered. "And then I went to lunch with Richard [Curtis] and [producer] Duncan [Kenworthy] and beloved [director] Roger Michell, may he rest in peace."

Despite being charmed by the script, Roberts said that she initially took that lunch meeting to tell the filmmakers that she intended to pass on the film. "And they were just so charming and sweet and fun," she said. "And I thought, 'Wow, this is really going to happen.'"

Roberts remembers the *Notting Hill *experience with fondness. "We had a beautiful time doing it. It was cast to perfection [by Mary Selway], all the friends, everybody," she said. "It was so great. And we had a beautiful time. And I think Roger, he just created the film in a way that it just, at every turn, it succeeded. It accomplished its goals."

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The *My Best Friend's Wedding* actress previously said that she had reservations about portraying a fictional actress during a conversation with Curtis for *British Vogue* in 2024.

"Honestly, one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was your movie playing a movie actress," she said. "I was so uncomfortable! I mean, we’ve talked about this so many times, but I almost didn’t take the part because it just seemed — oh, it just seemed so awkward. I didn’t even know how to play that person."

Julia Roberts in Los Angeles on Oct. 4, 2025.

JC Olivera/Variety via Getty

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Roberts also reflected on her approach to acting in comedy films like *Notting Hill* in her conversation with Deadline. There is a math, but I think it changes depending on the kind of comedy that it is," she said, noting advice she received from the director of *Pretty Woman *and *Runaway Bride*. "Garry Marshall would always say that a joke is in three parts, like a drum beat. I mean, people have their different ways of looking at it."

She continued, "For me, I think it would just depend on what the goal is. But I mean, the joy of life is making people laugh for me. Especially my husband, if I can make my husband really laugh — because he makes me really laugh — then it just fills me up."**

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