The 2010 co-star Julia Roberts admitted she was scared of: “I was a little terrified to be around him”
Thanks to their previous work, most high-profile actors have a reputation they carry onto their next set, whether they like it or not, which left Julia Roberts feeling more than a little trepidatious.
The star has had some uneasy experiences before, parting as enemies with Nick Nolte when they made I Love Trouble, with the two leads sharing the screen in a romantic comedy while gradually growing to despise each other when the cameras weren’t rolling.
The Academy Award winner also had her issues with Steven Spielberg on Hook, issuing a furious rebuttal when the director suggested that she hadn’t been the easiest person to work with, which was to be expected when Roberts spent most of her time alone so that her Tinkerbell could be added later.
However, the colleague she admitted made her uneasy didn’t even do anything; he just turned up. Once again, it happened on a romantic film, but the difference this time was that there wasn’t a feud. In fact, it was quite the opposite, with Roberts admitting that her preconceived notions had gotten the better of her.
As far as nailed-on hits go, adapting the bestselling book Eat Pray Love into a glossy, studio-backed production with Roberts in the lead was guaranteed to make money. It did, clearing $200 million at the box office with the greatest of ease, despite the fact it was as shallow and superficial as these things get.
Taking second billing behind the A-lister was Javier Bardem in one of his first onscreen appearances since he’d struck fear into the hearts of moviegoers everywhere and struck adulation into the hearts of critics everywhere with his iconic, Academy Award-winning performance as Anton Chigurh.
You’d think a professional actor, especially one who’d been sitting at the top of the ladder for as long as Roberts, would be able to separate the artist from the art. She did eventually, in fairness, but for a while, all she could see when she looked at her love interest was the guy who murdered folks with a bolt gun.
“It’s been well reported that I was a little terrified to be around him after No Country for Old Men,” she confessed. “I’d just gotten a grip on the way he really looks, and then he gets me back,” with Roberts revealing that he’d occasionally slip back into Chigurh for shits and giggles to get under her skin.
Roberts got over it eventually, but for the beginning of the Eat Pray Love shoot, she was living in fear that No Country for Old Men‘s fearsome antagonist was ready to pop out on a moment’s notice and put the shitters right up her. Handily, Bardem was too much of a pro for that.
