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Eric Roberts has shared his brutal opinion of his sister Julia Roberts’s early role in Steel Magnolias arguing that her performance did not hold up in the movie.
The 1989 romcom adapted from Robert Harling’s stage play about a group of Southern women who come together following the loss of one of their own starred Julia alongside Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Olympia Dukakis, Shirley MacLaine and Daryl Hannah.
While Julia’s poignant portrayal of Fields’s diabetic daughter went on to land her, her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, it seems her performance didn’t impress her older brother.
“Julia was good in Mystic Pizza, great in Pretty Woman, but not so much in Steel Magnolias, in my opinion, even though it brought Julia her first Academy Award nomination,” Roberts, 68, wrote in his new memoir, Runaway Train.
“I don’t want to sound like an actor talking, or a jealous sibling, but I don’t think her performance held up in that movie,” The Dark Knight actor added. “When I saw her in Steel Magnolias, I thought, ‘Okay. Good. She’s almost a good actor, and one day she’s gonna be one.’”
Roberts went on to clarify: “In fact, I think all those brilliant women – Sally Fields [sic], Dolly Parton, Olympia Dukakis, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah – overacted their asses off in Steel Magnolias.
“Nobody’s great in that movie,” he asserted. “They all chewed a lot of scenery, and we know that if an actor cries on film, they go to the top of the class. They get the Oscar nod because crying gets a lot of credit. It’s the big joke in all acting classes.”
He argued another reason Julia, then 19, earned an Oscar nod for Steel Magnolias was “her authenticity as a sweet, small-town Southern girl.”
“That’s what she was, after all, or at least that’s how she started off,” he penned of his Georgia-born sister. “I don’t know if she had a dialect coach try to eradicate her Southern accent, but if so, luckily for her it didn’t take.”
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Elsewhere in Runaway Train, Roberts opened up about how his years-long drug addiction wrecked his relationship with his younger sisters, Julia, Maid in Manhattan actor Lisa Roberts Gillan and half-sister Nancy Motes, who died in 2014.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they suffered from PTSD from when it was dangerous to be around me,” Roberts wrote. “Lisa and Julia needed love and protection – instead they got fear and uncertainty.”
He also discussed how his substance abuse impacted his relationship with his daughter, American Horror Story star Emma Roberts, with whom he shares with his ex Kelly Cunningham. The pair separated when Emma was a baby.
“Of course, the biggest consequence of my drug use was losing Emma,” Roberts recalled.
Roberts lost custody of Emma due to his cocaine addiction at the time. He acknowledged that during the custody battle, Julia, who ultimately supported Cunningham, made the right call.
“I imagine I will remain as Julia’s brother and Emma Roberts’ dad for the rest of my life,” he wrote. “I’d like to make good on that, to move aside proudly and with grace. That’s part of the reason for writing the book.”
Runaway Train is out now.
If you or someone you know is suffering from drug addiction, you can seek confidential help and support 24-7 from Frank, by calling 0300 123 6600, texting 82111, sending an email or visiting their website here. In the US, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration can be reached at 1-800-662-HELP.
