Venice 2025: Julia Roberts wants ‘After The Hunt’ to be “challenging” for viewers
Speaking at the Venice Film Festival, Julia Roberts has revealed that her upcoming MeToo-themed movie, After The Hunt, is meant to be “challenging” for viewers.
The upcoming movie is a psychological drama. It follows a college professor, played by Roberts, who finds herself at a crossroads when a star student, played by The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri, accuses another professor, played by Andrew Garfield, of breaking professional boundaries. Roberts is forced to deal with this whilst guarding her own dark secret.
At the press conference for Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming project, Roberts was asked whether the film might cause controversy as a result of the “complex dynamics” between characters. “I love the softball questions early in the morning,” she laughed.
“I don’t know about controversy, but we are challenging people to have conversations and be excited by that or infuriated by that. It’s up to you if you drink martinis or lemonade after the movie,” the Pretty Woman actor added.
She also added that the project has not set out to make “a comment” of sorts. Rather, “We’re just sharing these lives for this moment, then want everyone to go away and talk to each other. If making this movie does anything, getting everybody to talk to each other is the most exciting thing we can accomplish.”
She also disagreed that it was only attempting to revive “old arguments”, such as the argument of women being pitted against one another or failing to support each other. On the contrary, conversation is at the heart of their pursuit.
Roberts added, “That’s how we wanted it to feel. You realise what you believe in strongly because we stir it all up for you. So, you’re welcome.”
The movie will have a limited rollout on October 10th, 2025, before expanding nationwide a week later on October 17th, 2025.
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