Julia Roberts: More Than a Pretty Woman

Tamara Jones is a former production operations supervisor in the
Entertainment Department of Paramount Canada’s Wonderland.

In this biography, seasoned entertainment journalist Colin MacLean
excels at deconstructing the “star.” The Julia Roberts he presents
us with is gifted but vulnerable and “deeply insecure.”

MacLean deftly takes the reader through Roberts’s rocky family
history and early years in Smyrna, Georgia. She first came to public
attention in Mystic Pizza. The director of that film described her as
“unpredictable, willing to take chances, fiery, spirited and yet very
real.” Roberts throws herself both physically and mentally into her
roles (she brought her personal experience with spinal meningitis to her
role as the dying diabetic Shelby in Steel Magnolias), a tendency that
has earned her a reputation for being a high-maintenance actress.

With Pretty Woman (1990), Roberts garnered worldwide attention and
became a valued box-office commodity. There have been missteps in her
personal life as well as box-office flops, but she has rebounded through
marriage and motherhood and strong performances in such films as The
Pelican Brief, My Best Friend’s Wedding, and Notting Hill. A career
highlight was her Oscar-winning turn in Erin Brokovich (2000).