Why did Julia Roberts turn down the $300m ‘Ocean’s Thirteen’
Being a big name in the world of Hollywood can afford you many things. A big house, a fancy car, an assistant to do your donkey work are all perks. But the greatest luxury it can give you is the power of choice.
When you become an icon, a famed face so memorable that your visage is emblazoned on the cerebellum of every adult in the Western world, you have the opportunity to decide a lot of things. You can decide when you wake up, when you have your chef make your food, what size pool to have dug into ancient rock and what cast of a Broadway musical you’d like to sing your happy birthday. It also gives you the chance to turn down anything you like.
Julia Roberts is one such icon. A career absolutely dripping in legendary on-screen moments that leave her as both a pretty woman and just a girl standing in front of a boy, Roberts’ position as one of the most potent film stars of her generation has long confirmed her ability to make such choices. And she has enjoyed flexing those particular muscles.
However, there is one such squeeze of a metaphorical bicep in which Roberts not only turned down a role, but a $300million movie that would have completed the set. Let us trawl back to 2001 and the moment Brad Pitt saddled up next to George Clooney to deliver one of the comedy capers of the age in Ocean’s Eleven.
A heist film with enough pizzazz to make a Las Vegas showgirl squirm, the film is slapped with style and wit, only enhanced by the sheer volume of big names attached to the project. As well as Pitt and Clooney, Bernie Mac, Andy Garcia and Julia Roberts joined the cast to make it an all-satr ensemble to make ‘Old Hollywood’ blush.
The movie was a huge hit and garnered a sequel, Ocean’s Twelve where Roberts once again picked up her role as Clooney’s on-screen wife Tess Ocean. Things went swimmingly once more for the Oceans as they picked up yet more box office receipts and seemed to start a franchise which had a lot more legs. By the time 2007 arrived an Ocean’s Thirteen landed, the series included Al Pacino to add even more heavyweight actors to the bunch.
However, while Pacino arrived, Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta Jones slipped out the back door. The reason for her decision, according to Clooney, was that the script simply couldn’t support a star of her calibre, as he explained: “It was a script issue. We didn’t have a place to really use talent like theirs, two big stars like that.”
The truth might be closer to the fact that Roberts had a choice to make. She could change her plans, create new schedules and ample workload (even if it is a small part, the travel time for such a shoot alone would be a drag), or she could simply choose to turn down a third reprisal and a huge paycheque. When you’re a legend like Julia Roberts, there is only one choice to be made.
