Julia Roberts Once Thought Notting Hill Was a Terrible Idea — Here’s What Changed Her Mind

Notting Hill feels like it has always existed, right? Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, the bookstore, the blue door. Turns out, Roberts almost passed on it because she thought the premise sounded ridiculous. She just explained why — and how it flipped — in a recent chat with Deadline.

The pitch that sounded... not great

When her agent first brought up Notting Hill, Roberts was immediately skeptical. The idea of playing the most famous actress on earth who falls for a London bookseller did not land for her.

'Well, that sounds like the dumbest idea of any movie I could ever do.'

Her initial reaction was basically: I play the world’s biggest movie star and then what? To her, it sounded, in her words, f---ing stupid.

What changed her mind

Then she actually read Richard Curtis’s script. That was the turning point. It was charming. It was funny. It worked. She went to lunch intending to pass and left thinking, oh, this is happening.

• Writer: Richard Curtis
• Producer: Duncan Kenworthy
• Director: Roger Michell (Roberts called him beloved; he has since passed away)
• Casting: Mary Selway, whose work Roberts says nailed every role, especially the friend group
• Memorable bit: Alec Baldwin’s cameo, which she singled out as brilliant casting

Roberts says the team’s warmth and enthusiasm sold her. Once she signed on, the shoot was a good time by her account, and she credits Michell for building the film so that each moment does what it’s supposed to do.

Playing Anna Scott felt weird — at first

Roberts admits she wasn’t exactly comfortable playing Anna Scott, a fictional version of, well, her. That meta angle took a minute. But the end result is the movie everyone knows — one of her most beloved, and a rom-com people keep going back to. And yes, it forever linked her with Hugh Grant in the genre’s hall of fame.