Julia Roberts Realized She Was A Star In A Totally Unexpected Place

Julia Roberts has an impressive, varied resume. She's appeared in rom-coms like "Pretty Woman" and "Ticket to Paradise" as well as action adventures like "Ocean's Eleven" and "Money Monster."  Although Roberts received a shockingly low salary for 1990's "Pretty Woman," she became the first female actor to earn $20 million for her Oscar-winning performance in 2000's "Erin Brockovich." 

Given her decades of success in Hollywood, it's difficult to imagine a time before Roberts was a star. Roberts' parents were both actors and they owned an acting school in Georgia.  Like her two older siblings, Roberts decided to pursue acting after she graduated high school. A year after her first role in an episode of "Crime Story," Roberts' career took off in the 1988 film "Mystic Pizza." The movie premiered just one week before her 21st birthday, and she realized she had reached celebrity status after watching the film in Georgia with her mom and younger sister.

Even in more recent times, Roberts tries to live like a normal person, and she's admitted she sometimes feels unsure of herself when meeting fans. This initial fan encounter definitely didn't help those shy feelings, since it occurred in the theater's restroom. "There was a woman in the bathroom who said, 'Hey girl in stall No. 1, were you in Mystic Pizza?'" Roberts recalled in 2018 on The Hollywood Reporter's "Awards Chatter" podcast. When Roberts affirmed that she acted in the film, the surprising encounter got even weirder.

After an excited fan spotted Julia Roberts in a movie theater bathroom, she was eager for an autograph from the "Mystic Pizza" star. Rather than wait until Roberts was finished, the fan wanted the autograph immediately. "She put something under the stall," Roberts said on the podcast. "I said, 'um, not right now,'" Roberts concluded, laughing at the memory. Since she became famous before the internet, Roberts noticed her career achievements in small moments. "Success was incremental, strangeness was incremental, discovering that people were discovering you was incremental," she added.

However, by 1990, separate instances combined to boost Roberts' career in a big way. That year Roberts earned a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for her work in "Steel Magnolias." Then, "Pretty Woman" entered theaters and was a resounding success. However, Roberts was so busy working on "Sleeping with the Enemy," that she was outside of the media buzz. "Pretty Woman" wasn't even in theaters where Roberts was working on location, sparing her the chance of a star-struck fan looking for an autograph.

However, in 2018, the actor had a very public encounter with a fan named Kenny Santana who traveled from Indonesia to the Toronto Film Festival specifically to see her. Roberts learned this news while she was onstage at the event. She immediately met up with Santana offstage, hugged him, and invited him to accompany her back onstage. 

Before her success in "Mystic Pizza," Julia Roberts recalled that her older brother, Eric Roberts, was the more well-known actor in their family. After starting on the soap "Another World," Eric had garnered his first Golden Globe nomination for the 1978 movie "King of the Gypsies." Once Roberts began acting, she and Eric appeared onscreen together in her first film, a western called "Blood Red."

For Roberts it took a little luck to get her acting career started after she moved to New York. She was working at a shoe store called The Athlete's Foot when, through a series of serendipitous events, Roberts met with Bob McGowan, an agent/manager in New York. McGowan specialized in helping aspiring actors launch their careers.  McGowan helped Roberts land a role in "Satisfaction" by falsely claiming that she knew how to play an instrument.

After "Mystic Pizza," Roberts had another stroke of luck when she replaced Meg Ryan in "Steel Magnolias." The actor made the most of the opportunity. While she was purportedly one of the lower-paid stars in the film, her earning power escalated afterward. To break the salary barrier for female actors, Roberts candidly negotiated her "Erin Brockovich" contract. During an appearance at an event called History Talks, Roberts recalled how she highlighted her work ethic, saying (via Variety): "I'm ready. I'm on time. I'm prepared. I'm happy. I'm all-in. So, show me the money. It's OK to be authoritative about a situation."