Hollywood superstar Julia Roberts faced some heavy questions at the press conference for her new #MeToo themed movie After the Hunt, defending the film as something designed to ‘create conversation’.
She also acknowledged that After the Hunt, helmed by Challengers and Queer director Luca Guadagnino, could ‘infuriate’ some fans as they examine it after viewing.
In the drama, Roberts plays popular Yale philosophy professor Alma, whose life and ambition for tenure start to crumble when her mentee (Ayo Edebiri) accuses her close friend and departmental colleague Hank (Andrew Garfield) of assault.
When asked if the film could be seen as undermining feminism at Venice Film Festival on Friday, Roberts instead said she hoped the film would ‘stir up’ difficult discussions.
‘Not to be disagreeable, because it’s not in my nature, but what you just said that I love is it revives old arguments. I don’t think it’s reviving just an argument of women being pitted against each other and not supporting each other, but there’s a lot of old arguments that get rejuvenated in a way that creates a conversation,’ the 57-year-old told journalists, including Metro.
‘The best part of your question is that you all came out of the theatre talking about it,’ she added. ‘That’s how we wanted it to feel, that everybody comes out with all these different feelings and emotions and points of view. You realise what you believe in strongly, what your convictions are, because we stir it all up for you – so, you’re welcome!’
The Oscar winner then jokingly referred to ‘softball questions’ when the topic was returned to, comparing After the Hunt to 1983 Western movie Tender Mercies and praising the way the ‘camera just landed in a place and happened to document what was going on’ without judgement.
‘We’re not making statements, we are portraying these people in this moment in time, and the camera has fallen from the sky in this particular moment and captured all this, and that’s what I think is incredible about it.’
She continued: ‘I don’t know about controversy per se, but we are challenging people to have a conversation and to be excited by that or to be infuriated by that. It’s up to you, and if you drink martinis or lemonade after the movie, that’s kind of how I saw it.’
Roberts explained that that was ‘the most exciting bit’ for her ‘because we’re kind of losing the art of conversation in humanity right now’.
‘And if making this movie does anything, getting everybody to talk to each other is the most exciting thing that I feel we could accomplish.’
The Pretty Woman actress also shared that ‘trouble’s where the juicy stuff is’ when asked what was appealing about playing a ‘troubled woman’ and complicated character.
‘All that great complexity that Nora [Garrett, screenwriter] wrote for all the characters is, I think, what assembled this kind of group because it’s like dominoes of conflict – once one falls then suddenly everywhere you turn, there’s some new piece of conflict and challenge. That’s what makes it worth getting up and going to work in the morning.’
The Bear star Edebiri praised the ‘rich complicatedness’ of After the Hunt’s characters as well, which also include Alma’s therapist husband Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg) and Chloë Sevigny’s counsellor.
‘That’s just the dream, to what Julia said, about being challenged – by the type of character, in the best way, [and] by each other. That’s how you grow, and that’s the type of movie that I really enjoy watching, something where you just are like, I have to go back because maybe the vantage point that I had at the beginning I realise by the end is completely different.’
We Live in Time actor Garfield spoke too about his interest in playing with the conscious and unconscious in After the Hunt, sharing that ‘if we don’t make the unconscious conscious, things will happen in our lives and we will call it fate’.
‘I feel like when our motivations are invisible, even to ourselves, all of us are unreliable narrators. And especially in a culture where survival is paramount, or a kind of perception of survival, is paramount,’ the 42-year-old added.
After the Hunt premieres at Venice Film Festival on Friday. It hits UK cinemas on October 17, 2025.
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