The director who made Julia Roberts’ life miserable: “He went after her with a vengeance”
Julia Roberts is one of the ultimate movie stars and ‘It Girls’ of all time. She rose to global fame in the late 1980s and shortly became the most sought-after actor of her generation after her sharp and witty portrayal of Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman. The film is now considered one of the most influential rom-coms of all time, sparking a long and illustrious career for Roberts that eventually led to an Academy Award for ‘Best Actress’ in 2000.
Roberts has worked with great directors like Robert Altman, Steven Spielberg, Steven Soderbergh and Mike Nichols, creating a portfolio of vast and conflicting performances that highlight her natural screen charisma and creative multitudes. While she is now at the top of the industry, during her early career, she did not possess the same level of power, and one of her earliest acting experiences became one of the most troubling in her career due to the cruel behaviour of the director.
While the success of Pretty Woman catapulted Roberts towards new levels of fame, becoming a global star for the beloved rags to riches story, it was her performance in Steel Magnolias that put her on the map in the first place. Known for its staggering ensemble cast that stars Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Sam Shepard and Julia Roberts, the film is based on the play by Robert Harling that follows a group of women who form a close bond in small-town Louisiana.
It is one of those emotional rollercoaster films that explores the bonds of female friendship, grief, love and community, with equally heartbreaking and hilarious moments that pull the audience between many conflicting moods. It’s a tear-jerker for a reason, and made all the more convincing by the real-life friendship between the women at the heart of the film, forming a close relationship that was only strengthened after their challenging experience of working with the director, Herbert Ross.
“We hated him, and we would go after him.”
Sally Field
In the years since the film’s release, the Steel Magnolias cast have shared behind-the-scenes stories of working with Ross, who bullied them and often reduced them to tears through his cruel and demeaning comments. Some of them have discussed how he particularly targeted Roberts with this behaviour, who was a newcomer to the industry and had less experience than the others.
When describing this, MacLaine said, “Herb Ross was basically a choreographer. That means he could be sometimes very stern and sometimes very harsh. My deepest memories of the film were how we bonded together after he told one of us or all of us we couldn’t act.”
Field reiterated the same sentiment, saying Ross “did pick on one of us severely. He never told me I couldn’t act. He went after Julia with a vengeance. This was pretty much her first big film.”
Many of the actors would try to stand up for Roberts when this happened, with Field saying, “Our keenest memory was how hard it was to work with our director. We hated him, and we would go after him. The stronger ones of the group, who were just older and had been there longer, would go after him. That meant Shirley and Dolly.”
It is incredibly disappointing that the women had to endure this type of treatment, and perhaps their on-screen bond was made all the more convincing given the abusive behaviour they had to put up with during production, which meant they had to band together.
