Julia Roberts is one of the most iconic actresses alive. Throughout her nearly four-decade-long career, she’s done just about every type of film you can imagine, from romantic comedies to award-winning dramas to whimsical children’s movies. Some of these projects have earned a permanent place in pop culture history (looking at you, Pretty Woman), while others…haven't (remember Mirror Mirror?)—but no matter the genre, whether blockbuster or box-office flop, all feature consistently amazing performances from Roberts.
Since her late-'80s debut, Roberts has racked up dozens of film and TV credits, earning many award nominations, including four Oscar noms, with one win. As her star rose throughout the ‘90s and early 2000s, she set new records with her growing salaries, becoming the first actress to earn first $20 million for a role and then $25 million for Erin Brockovich and Mona Lisa Smile, respectively.
And America’s Sweetheart is still going. In recent years, she’s starred in the political thriller series Gaslit, the nostalgic rom-com Ticket to Paradise, and the psychological thriller Leave the World Behind; she also served as a producer on all. If the ‘90s and 2000s were Roberts’ rom-com era, the 2020s seem to be her thriller era, since her next two projects fit in the genre as well: Luca Guadagnino’s star-studded After the Hunt and the Sam Esmail-written Panic Carefully.
While you wait for her next sure-to-be-incredible performances to arrive, why not revisit some of her best so far? Below, find our official ranking of Julia Roberts’s top 20 roles.
20. 'Duplicity' (2009)
In this romantic crime comedy, Roberts plays a former spy who, in retirement, becomes a corporate spy and battles wits with another former spy-turned-corporate spy (Clive Owen). The plot may be a little too twisty for its own good, but it’s still worth a watch, if only for the sexy repartee between Roberts and Owen.
19. 'Flatliners' (1990)
This bizarre little cult classic horror movie stars Roberts as Dr. Rachel Manus, a medical student who, along with some of her classmates, decides to try “flatlining”—that is, becoming legally dead for just a little while and then being resuscitated. Their little experiment is all so they can figure out what happens after you die—which, you can bet, goes awry. Bonus points for being a bonkers concept that spawned a 2017 remake starring Elliot Page and one of the best jokes in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.
18. 'Hook' (1991)
Steven Spielberg put his own twist on the Peter Pan story with this iconic ‘90s film, in which Robin Williams played a grown-up Peter brought back to Never Neverland by Tinker Bell. A sassy, barefooted Roberts plays the fairy as hopelessly in love with Peter and aids him on his journey as he rescues his children from Captain Hook.
17. 'Runaway Bride' (1999)
This may be the less popular of the two Julia Roberts-Richard Gere rom-coms, but Runaway Bride still deserves your attention! Roberts takes on the titular role as a woman who becomes notorious for fearing commitment so much that she’s left three separate men at the altar. You’ll never guess what happens when a certain silver fox shows up to interview her about the habit.
16. 'Closer' (2004)
Forget love triangles—Closer centers around a truly convoluted love square, with the participants played by Roberts, Natalie Portman, Jude Law, and Clive Owen. Roberts is a photographer who Law’s character meets during a photoshoot for his girlfriend (Portland), pretends to be to catfish Owen’s character, and ultimately persuades into an affair—and that’s barely half the plot. It’s a complicated movie.
15. 'Eat Pray Love' (2010)
Probably the most-GIF’d of all of Roberts’ roles, this one saw her bring to life Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir of, yes, eating, praying, and loving on a yearlong journey of self-discovery across the globe. Who could forget the instantly iconic, always-relatable line, “I’m in love! I’m having a relationship with my pizza!”
14. 'Stepmom' (1998)
Keep the tissues close by for this tearjerker. Roberts embodies the titular stepmother, who butts heads with her new stepkids’ biological mom (Susan Sarandon), but has to learn how to be a true matriarch when the latter is diagnosed with cancer.
13. 'The Pelican Brief' (1993)
Before Erin Brockovich, Roberts starred in another gripping legal thriller about an environment-related cover-up. In this one, she’s a young law student who writes a legal brief detailing her theory of a conspiracy surrounding the assassinations of two Supreme Court justices. When she gets a little too close to the truth, she has to go out on the run and is helped by a reporter (Denzel Washington), who helps her dig for more evidence of her theory.
12. 'Ocean's Eleven' (2001) and 'Ocean's Twelve' (2004)
Roberts appears in the first two installments of the early-aughts heist trilogy as Tess, ex-wife to George Clooney’s Danny Ocean. It’s not until Ocean’s Twelve that she’s included in the titular squad, however, in a truly hilarious, very meta plot that sees Tess posing as famous actress Julia Roberts because they kind of, sort of share a passing resemblance. Who knew?
11. 'Mona Lisa Smile' (2003)
Basically the women’s college-set version of Dead Poets Society, Mona Lisa Smile stars Roberts as a young professor who begins teaching art history at Wellesley College in the ‘50s. During her short-lived stint there, she makes a major impact on her students (played by Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, and Maggie Gyllenhaal, among others) by encouraging them to dream bigger than the domestic lives and wifedom they’ve been groomed for until then.
10. 'Charlie Wilson's War' (2007)
This 2007 biopic stars Tom Hanks as Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson and, more importantly, Roberts as Houston socialite Joanne Herring, Wilson’s close friend and romantic interest. Throughout the film, which is set in the ‘80s, Herring works with Wilson to increase funding for Afghan freedom fighters, contributing to the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. NBD.
9. 'Notting Hill' (1999)
Another classic Roberts rom-com, this one sees her portraying a famous American actress who falls for a bumbling British bookshop owner (Hugh Grant). Or, as Anna Scott would prefer to put it, she's “just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”
8. 'The Normal Heart' (2014)
This powerful film portrays the first years of the HIV-AIDS crisis in N.Y.C. in the early 1980s, centering on the experiences of writer and activist Ned Weeks (Mark Ruffalo). Roberts plays Emma Brookner—based on real-life physician and researcher Linda Laubenstein)—one of the few doctors taking the crisis seriously and working relentlessly to battle its spread.
7. 'Steel Magnolias' (1989)
This movie, one of Roberts’ earliest roles, is a quintessential feels flick—the kind of movie that you go into expecting to have a good cry. Roberts earned her first Academy Award nomination—for Best Supporting Actress—and Golden Globes win for playing Shelby, the character who will probably make you cry most of all.
6. 'Ben Is Back' (2018)
We’re staying firmly in tearjerker territory here: This heart-wrenching drama cast Roberts as Holly, mother to Ben (Lucas Hedges), who’s visiting home from a rehab program for prescription drug addiction. The movie takes place over his 24-hour Christmastime visit, most of which is spent with Holly juggling her overwhelming love for her son and her all-consuming fear that he’ll relapse while away from rehab.
5. 'My Best Friend's Wedding' (1997)
The queen of ‘90s rom-coms perfectly subverted rom-com tropes with this all-time fave. Roberts plays Jules, a woman who inconveniently fails to realize she’s secretly in love with her best friend Michael (Dermot Mulroney) until he’s days away from getting married to the adorably perky, impossible-to-hate Kimberly (Cameron Diaz). This sends her into an increasingly unhinged series of hijinks to try to steal him for herself, letting Roberts's funny bone shine.
4. 'Mystic Pizza' (1988)
Roberts’ breakout role was in this late-‘80s indie coming-of-age film that focuses on two sisters and their friend who work as servers at the titular pizzeria. She stars as Daisy, the “fun” sister, determined to get out of her small town; other cast members include Annabeth Gish, Lili Taylor, Vincent D’Onofrio, and, in his film debut, one Matt Damon. In a prescient review, critic Roger Ebert (very correctly) predicted that the movie would “someday become known for the movie stars it showcased back before they became stars.”
3. 'August: Osage County' (2013)
It’s tough being an eldest daughter, and Roberts perfectly captured the struggles of the position in her Oscar-nominated portrayal of Barbara, daughter to Meryl Streep’s Violet, in this family drama. In it, a (very) dysfunctional family reunites in Oklahoma after their patriarch (Sam Shepard) goes missing. Roberts, Streep, and Shepard are just the tip of the star-studded iceberg: Filling out the rest of the Weston family are Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Margo Martindale, and Julianne Nicholson.
2. 'Pretty Woman' (1990)
This very ‘90s take on the Cinderella story sees Roberts as sex worker Vivian, hired by Richard Gere's Edward to serve as his date to several social functions throughout a week-long work trip in L.A. Their relationship quickly deepens, even as their stark class divide threatens to keep them apart. Pretty Woman remains one of the highest-grossing rom-coms of all time—for good reason!—and earned Roberts another Oscar nom, cementing her status as an enduring star.
1. 'Erin Brockovich' (2000)
Roberts took home the Oscar for Best (and several other awards) for her starring role in this drama, which tells the true story of a single mother who uncovered a devastating groundwater contamination crisis while working at a law firm. Roberts earned every bit of that Oscar in her inspiring portrayal of Brockovich as a fierce crusader for justice, tenacious and single-minded in her tireless work to hold a powerful corporation to account.
