“My eyes popped out of my head”: Julia Roberts Couldn’t Believe That One Director Had Vowed Never to Work With Her Despite Being Hollywood’s Gentlest Filmmaker

The tragedy of being the most successful person on a job is that all eyes are trained on the star. For celebrities and filmmakers, that attention and scrutiny increases tenfold due to the nature of their profession. When it comes to Hollywood in the 1990s, Julia Roberts happened to be the most in-demand A-lister after the actress’s interminable acclaim after Pretty Woman.

Soon after, Roberts’ magical reputation spread like wildfire across Hollywood with filmmakers wanting to work with her in every upcoming project. Fortunately for her, the release of Pretty Woman in 1990 was immediately followed by a role opening up in Steven Spielberg’s Disney fantasy adventure film, Hook. What happened soon after would go on to be the stuff of legends.

Julia Roberts and Steven Spielberg Declare War

Apart from the renowned power couples of the 1990s namely Tom Cruise-Nicole Kidman, Brad Pitt-Jennifer Aniston, and Johnny Depp-Winona Ryder, there was one that quietly slipped under the radar aka Julia Roberts and Kiefer Sutherland. The pair who were engaged to be married ended in a tragic breakup days before their wedding after Sutherland was photographed with a young dancer by the ever-intrusive paparazzi.

Soon after, Julia Roberts’ work began to be affected by her disruptive on-set behavior while the actress was filming Steven Spielberg‘s Disney film Hook. The director already had a lot riding on the $70 million movie due to studio pressure; as such, the added drama on the sets did not contribute to a healthy actor-director working relationship.

Spielberg later confirmed the feud, refused to ever work with the actress again, and commented during a 60 Minutes interview, “It was an unfortunate time for us to work together. But I think Julia is a really, really good actress.” Meanwhile, the crew began to address Roberts as Tinkerhell due to her “difficult” attitude on the set of Hook.

Years later, in a 1999 Vanity Fair interview, Roberts addressed her feelings regarding Spielberg’s harsh criticism, his refusal to work with her in the future, and the disparaging nickname she earned from the crew members:

Hand to God: not a thing I read about that was truthful, and it really hurt my feelings. Because not only did it make me sound mean, but it was a situation where people who knew the truth talked about it in a way that wasn’t untruthful […] I saw that and my eyes popped out of my head.

I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that this person that I knew and trusted was actually hesitating to come to my defense […] It was a hard lesson to learn. It was the first time that I felt I had a turncoat in my midst.

Thankfully, Steven Spielberg came around almost 3 decades later and was prepared to accept the misfortune of the situation in hindsight, asserting:

Julia probably went through the most trying times of her life [during filming]. And it was simply bad timing for all of us that she happened to start on Hook at that low point.

By the end of the 1990s, Julia Roberts had turned her career around, landed three major rom-coms namely Notting Hill, My Best Friend’s Wedding, and Runaway Bride, and earned the Best Actress Oscar the following year for her lead role in Steven Soderbergh’s biographical drama, Erin Brockovich.

The Magic of the 1990s Began With a Bust

The 1990s were a great time to be in the moviemaking business. Apart from great scripts coming into production, the industry was thriving with critical and commercial successes, new genres were beginning to take the lead, actors were ready to be far more experimental, and directors didn’t shrink away from taking creative risks.

As such, the decade witnessed the violent brilliance of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, the wholesome beauty of Tom Hanks’s Forrest Gump, Brad Pitt’s rise with Thelma & Louise, Interview With the Vampire, Seven, and Fight Club, and the epic tragedy of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Titanic.

From psychological thrillers like Primal Fear and Basic Instinct to profound works like The Shawshank Redemption and Good Will Hunting, action adventures like Speed and Mission: Impossible to feel-good comedies like The Big Lebowski and Jerry Maguire, sci-fi epics like Men in Black and The Matrix to mind-bending movies like The Usual Suspects and The Sixth Sense, rom-coms like Notting Hill and Sleepless in Seattle to the simplistic genius of The Truman Show – the last decade of the 21st century was a certified critical and commercial success for audiences of every unique and singular taste.

Meanwhile, the 90s were also home to some of Steven Spielberg’s best works, including the Jurassic Park franchise, Schindler’s List, and Saving Private Ryan. Among these era-defining Spielberg films was included one understated 1991 Disney movie based on the Peter Pan legend titled Hook, starring the late Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, and Julia Roberts. But unlike the rest of the Spielbergian epics, Hook failed to be an enduring success during the reign of the brilliant 90s.

Hook is available to buy/rent on Prime Video and Apple TV.