Julia Roberts Says She Was a 'Selfish Little Brat' as a Young Actress

Julia Roberts is the first to admit she’s changed since her early days in Hollywood — and she says it’s for the better.

Roberts, 49, told Harper’s Bazaar U.K. she was singularly focused during the early stages of her career.

“I was my priority, a selfish little brat running around making films,” she said.

The Oscar-winning actress said she experienced a positive shift in her life after meeting her husband, cinematographer Danny Moder, and becoming a mother.

“It was meeting Danny…finding my person,” she said. “When I think about what makes my life my life, and makes sense and just shine inside of me, it’s him. Everything has come from that for me.”

Roberts and Moder have been married for nearly 15 years and have worked together on several films, including The Mexican, The Normal Heart and Secret in Their Eyes.

Julia Roberts and Danny Moder

“There’s comfort there, but also terror, which is a good combination,” she said of working with her husband. “Terror because the person I want to impress most is looking right at me.”

And when she’s not working, the Pretty Woman star is at home doting on her 12-year-old twins, Hazel and Finn, and 10-year-old son, Henry.

“If I wasn’t here today, I’d be in the carpool lane ferrying my kids to school,” she said.

Over the last few years, Roberts’ dedication to her family has caused her to take a step back from acting.

“If I did much less, I wouldn’t be in the business at all,” she said. “I was saying to my husband the other day that I haven’t worked in almost a year.”

So how does she decide which projects to work on? The actress said she sets a high bar in her professional life.

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“I just wait to see what comes along, as opposed to looking for it. It makes it fun and organic,” she said of her outlook on taking new roles. “There’s an almost unfair bar that a script has to attain for me to say, ‘I’m going to drop everything for this.’ Sometimes I think, ‘I’m pretending my name is Jane and I work in a bank.’ That’s kinda silly—I’m a grown-up woman!”

While she’s open to taking on a new role if the right project comes along, Roberts said she’s happy with what she’s achieved in her career.

“Deep down, we all know you can’t stand on the top point of a pinnacle on your tiptoes, and not at some point lose your balance, or get tired, or say, ‘OK somebody else take over, I have to go to the bathroom.’ ”

“There are great things I’ve accomplished and I’d be happy to accomplish more, of course, to impress my children and my husband,” she continued. “But you know what? I’ve been spoilt already.”

The full interview appears in the November issue of Harper’s Bazaar, on sale 6th October.