Julia Roberts’ Belle Vie

Special thanks to Lancôme

By Hend Seif El Din

You’ve been a Lancôme spokesperson since 2009. What kind of relationship do you have with the brand today?

I think they’re an awesome company, for one thing. And they all seem to really love what they make, and take a lot of pride in what they are presenting and how they present it and they include me in a way that I didn’t expect. They ask for my opinion about things. I just kind of feel part of the creative team a little bit more than I had anticipated. So in that regard it’s been really nice to be building relationships with people instead of just working for them.

Would you say that being part of the creative process is one of your favorite aspects of being a Lancôme spokesperson?

Yes! And I love being a supermodel at 44-years-old. And make no mistake, I am a supermodel!

Who is the Lancôme woman?

When they hired me—because to me it’s always seemed a little bit beyond me, like I wasn’t quite as poised or as sophisticated or elegant as I think of the Lancôme idea. For that, I think about Isabella Rossellini and how elegant and beautiful she is. To me, she’s the eternal face of Lancôme. So when they came to me I realized, Oh it is more about the every day person who wants to make an investment in their products and have them work for them. But it’s not the thing that kind of rules their morning– trying to get out the door with kids and drive the carpool. It’s a lot more accessible than I realized.

You are the ambassadress for Lancôme’s new woman’s fragrance, which is a composition that incites women to freedom and to choose happiness. How do these values resonate with you?

I just believe in being happy. 100%. And following your internal compass and

there is patchouli in there.

Did you take part in developing the fragrance?

I did, which is what made it so fun because all along I was saying, if they wanted to start from scratch and make a new fragrance that I was going to represent, I would want to wear it. I would want it to be something that if someone says, Oh, this is the perfume that she wears, hmm, that it wasn’t going to be something that would repel me. And I talked about the kind of scents that I liked. And patchouli was one of them, and any kind of woodsy scent and nothing too powdery. We went back and forth– they would bring a lot of samples for me to smell and if I really didn’t like something I would nix it. I was surprised by how much input they took from me. It made it really fun.

The fragrance is described as being made up of luminous floral notes as well as earthier more sensual touches like iris and patchouli. What do these scents bring to mind and why do you like the patchouli?

There’s just something about patchouli. Well, here’s what I think is funny about patchouli. People have a very dramatic response, even to the word. They’ll go, oh, no no. It’s like telling someone you’re a Scorpio. They go, Oh, okay. Like you think you have it all figured out. And there’s so many different types of patchouli and I think it is really just evocative for people and transporting and for me, I think it’s really individual people. I mean I remember Marcia Gay Harden, a few years ago, I hadn’t seen her for a few years and we ran into each other and she gave me a big hug and she goes, Oh, you still smell the same! And you know, it just made her so happy and kind of brought our friendship right back to the last day we saw each other. So that’s the thing about smells and for me, patchouli and always having that as part of my fragrance is, I don’t know, is kind of like the though line of my life. When people kind of knowing that I’m somewhere nearby. Or my kids like to sleep with a scarf I’ve worn around my neck all day and it just makes you feel cozy.

When did you first discover it?

I guess, well, it’s always kind of been a back and forth between sandalwood and patchouli, but it’s always been something that’s, as they describe there, something that’s earthy, you know? Woodsy, sort of hippie notes. My twenties, I guess.

What do you think of the perfume bottle?

It’s so beautiful. You know what I love that they did which I think is amazing in this day and age where everything’s about brand and everything’s got the name of the company and the person and the place stamped all over it. There’s nothing written on the bottle. Not even the name of the perfume, which is so bold because it just looks clean and beautiful. And I think it’s such a strong statement in this kind of marketplace to just have this stunning bottle. The color of the perfume is so sweet and delicate and, yeah. It’s really beautiful.

Do you have a beauty secret?

Yes.

Do you want to share that?

Well, it’s a secret. (laughing)

Do you have a secret that you’d like to not make a secret?

I honestly think the key to anyone looking beautiful in a room is being happy in their life. I mean that’s really the biggest part of what anybody looks like because whether you’re meaning to or not, you’re wearing your life on your face and in your posture and in your attitude. So I think that is the number one key to coming across as a beautiful individual.

And aside from that…

Lancôme eye cream.

Is there something that you habitually do to keep your body healthy and your face beautiful?

Well, I do try to eat well but I’m not crazed. I just try to have a good balanced amount of the good stuff. I guess it is about water and things that are green. I consume a lot of green stuff. Oh and I stopped eating gluten.

How difficult was that?

Here’s the thing about today’s world. Everything, the key to it, is preparation. My girlfriend advised it as an experiment. She said, if I go through your pantry and I replace everything that you have with a gluten-free version, will you just try it? And I said yes.

Wow. And how do you feel?

I feel good – I’m getting there.

What about pizza? Cookies?

I just make gluten-free pizza. It’s delicious. Believe me I’m not going without anything. That’s the key. I made gluten-free cookies and yesterday I made four loaves of gluten-free banana bread. And I just put them in the freezer. It’s all the same.

Would that be your beauty secret? Going gluten free?

Staying healthy and well, making out. Kissing…that’s a good one.

And do you wear makeup during the day-time?

I wear Lancôme sunscreen every day and then, if I really want to blow the doors off of a PTA meeting I’ll put on some mascara and curl my eyelashes. And put on some Juicy Tubes.

If you are going to an event or party, do you have a different makeup that you wear in the evening?

Yes, more eyeliner and more Juicy Tubes. And then there’s the trained hair and make up professionals that really know what they are doing.

What is your fragrance?

Don’t I smell good?

Yes, is it a patchouli derivative?

Yes, everything is, to me. I like to smell nice and it is best when it’s kind of there, but still draws people in. You have to get close to figure out what you’re dealing with.

Is it something you put on every day?

I have a choice of a few things and they’re all made by different friends, which is nice, so that it’s not something that everybody has.

How do you manage to always be so passionate and full of life, and you have all this energy?

I think we just have to appreciate every day. It can just all be gone so quickly and—the older you get, the more fragile you understand life to be. I think that’s a good motivation for getting out of bed joyfully every day.

What makes a woman beautiful and unique?

So many things. But women have that – I think it’s that internal, feminine compass that you can walk in any room and a great woman can assess within 90 seconds who is full of shit and who she wants to sit next to at dinner.

How has your relationship with your body and your self-image changed in recent years?

I think I have more comfort and Elizabeth, my stylist, forces me to wear tighter clothes so that people can see my waist, though we disagree on where my waist is. I think I have more comfort, more pride in everything still being relatively where it started.

Do you have a fitness routine?

I do. It is this type of yoga hybrid that’s called Buti.

Buti yoga or just Buti?

It’s called Buti. I do it with a yoga teacher and some friends. We all go to this class together.

Can you tell us the story behind the advertising film? What does it conjure up for you?

I like what they came up with and I love that they brought in Tarsem who is such a visual person and who I have such a strong relationship with that—because I’ve never really made a commercial and I felt I didn’t—I get kind of caught between the logic of being an actor and that doesn’t really apply to commercials. It’s not about logic or motivation. So to have Tarsem there was a great thrill and comfort to me. And this concept that they came up with – just the idea of freeing yourself and stepping away from, you know, the crowd as it were. I think it’s very timely.

What emotions does the name inspire in you?

La Vie a Belle, the beautiful life. Again, it’s like the bottle, the fragrance, and the name, obviously these people work really hard to create a harmony of what they’re trying to present and to me they’ve really done it. This name is so sweet and light and just kind of a sunny day to me.

What’s the woman like that you’re playing in the commercial? Does she have secret desires?

I’m not sure of her secret life. I think it’s just that idea of suddenly getting to a moment where you realize you don’t want to be part of a group or participate in a life where you feel tethered or coveted or just going along.

How important were the hairstyles and the clothes to help in helping to create this other life?

Well, it’s kind of everything, really, because it’s not like acting. It’s just sort of inhabiting that space and that look and everything else. So really that is everything. What the set looks like, the dress, the makeup and the hair—all of that is, that needs to be precise. And then I just have to make my decisions in how to inhabit that space to best portray this concept. It’s wacky, really, making commercials. I don’t think I’d be really good at it to do all the time.

What emotions did you want to communicate?

Confidence and courage to just forge your own path.

In Snow White, there is an obsession with appearance as opposed to what we call inner beauty. How would you define inner beauty versus superficial beauty?

Snow White is a very old fairy tale so obviously the idea of vanity and obsession with youth and beauty is long standing. So I think to say, of this time or of my business is funny because you realize this has been forever. People have felt this way forever and it is nice to update those ideas and make it modern. I mean, today, unfortunately with science, people have gotten so crazy with trying to move their face round and you end up with your chin on your forehead. It’s bizarre. But if that is truly going to make a person happy then that is what they should do. I don’t know that that’s the result people get. I think I would start with therapy.

Do you like fairytales?

I do. But real fairytales are pretty intense, you know? People’s eyes get gouged out and they fall out of towers and get stabbed and they starve in the dark forest and it’s not bedtime reading, for sure.

Do you have a fairytale or book or character when you were growing up that you identified with?

I identified with Dr. Doolittle as a child, which is not really a fairytale but that was the story that I—I thought he was amazing and had the coolest skill imaginable.

Did you have fun playing the villain in this part?

I did. It was a great time. It really was fun because Lily was a good sport about it and she was a trooper and I would pinch her and slap her and pull her hair and tell her I hate her and she would still give me a hug at the end of the day, so that’s, you know, it only works when both people are up for it.

What about Tarsem? What was that like delving into his creative realm as a director and letting yourself go, as a villain?

Well, in the very beginning when we all got to Montreal, I’d spent enough time with him that I felt we had a good communication and a good understanding of one another and you know, you have to just pack up and move to planet Tarsem and know that that’s where you’re gonna live and it’s going to be this kind of wacky, wild, period of time and you just, you’ve gotta go with it. You have to give yourself over to all of this visual stimulation, these colorful, enormous sets and these huge costumes. He’s an amazing person. I really admire him so deeply. And we had fun! I find that when a director really knows what they want and they know when they have it, it doesn’t have to be this kind of labored over, 18-hour day. You can really kind of get it done and be energized and happy. I think he’s great. I loved working with him.

Do you have anything that you’re working on?

I’m supposed to be doing a movie with Meryl Streep in the fall.

And you guys have never worked together before?

No.Well we did a charity play, a one-night play at Lincoln Center once, but that was it. I worship her, of course.

Do you know whether its comedy or drama?

Oh, it’s a drama. I know—I wish we could be girlfriends and she could be sweet to me but she’s just wicked to me, mean and cruel. It’s worse than that. It’s so much worse.

You come across very down to earth and very happy and are always quick to smile. Do you make a point of projecting that even when you’re not feeling great?

No. I pretty much put it out there, the true feelings I’m experiencing.

You do?

Good, bad or otherwise. But I think that’s also, to feel comfortable enough with who you are and the people that you’re putting yourself with that you can say you’re having a bad day or a hard time and get that support from your friends or your co-workers. I think within that is a sense of place and happiness as well.

Do you think we’ve moved on from the times of superficial values?

I think so. You know everybody kind of makes fun of the 80s and 90s that we all became suddenly consumed with ourselves, and getting ahead in the work place, and it was a very career driven idea. And here we are, it’s the 21^st century and I think like anything, life moves in these big sweeping circles and we have to come back to simpler times, whether it be because economically people are struggling and are forced into simpler times and forced to scale back material aspects of their life and really just end up having the people in their lives to entertain them and support them and participate in life. And you realize the beauty of that and how great it is to really strip out all that external noise and you find the joy in being together.

Does a woman need to have it all to be happy?

Well, the answer to that is, define “all.” Because somebody can have very little from an outsider’s point of view and feel deeply fulfilled, so I think as long as you have that sense of completion and fulfillment in your life then you do have it all.

It’s really about your attitude. What do you think about the quote, “Happiness is something we only recognize when it has left the room.”

Well, I think that’s interesting. The illusive quality of happiness is that people don’t appreciate it until it’s left the room. Or recognize it. Or, you know, it’s like, any of us when we look back at pictures of us five years ago, ten years ago, twenty years ago and go, why didn’t I appreciate how great I looked? Or how not great you looked.

You’ve been famous half your life—I’m sure you’ve had experiences where were a lot happier or not at all happy. Have you learned to appreciate everything along the way as you’ve matured through the business?

Well, I think as a young person I recognized the gift of being happy. And that it was a gift. And that you cultivate it like anything and don’t take it for granted and I think I’ve always had a really keen sense of that in myself. I’ve always been just a really optimistic person. And I have a lot of gratitude for that, for sure, because optimism and a sense of humor does come in handy with three kids.

Over your two-decade career, do you find that you take a little bit of every experience with you?

Of course. And I think the greatest souvenir of any movie experience is going to be if you create a lasting relationship with one or more people that you’ve worked with. And I do have quite a beautiful collection of friends over the last twenty years – people I’ve met on movies and certainly Tarsem is my greatest souvenir of making that movie.

What do you still want to achieve in your professional career?

You know, just continue to look for things that are exciting. I mean, I love my job. I love doing my job and being creative and participating in that team effort of trying to make a really great movie and I love that I still feel that way. I get nervous when I go to work. It’s exciting. So to keep finding things that can make you feel that way and give me good reason to be away from my family all day—it’s, I just want to keep doing that.

Is there a director or an actor that you have your sights on that you’d like to work with?

I mean, there are tons. I can’t really start naming names.

What about any of the younger actors, or young directors? Is there any performance that’s caught your eye?

Well I do think that that Rachel McAdams is great. Always consistently is interesting. Who else is great? You know everybody, name some names and I’ll say who’s great.

Who’s the girl? Now I’m getting obsessed. Who was the girl?

Jessica Chastain…

Oh! She’s so good. She’s so good. I mean, it’s like stupid good. We just watched The Debt, which I hadn’t seen. I mean that girl is…it’s just ridiculous. She’s fabulous.

Is there any character in history you’d love to play?

Who would I love to play? That’s a good question. Albert Einstein.

Once you famously said you had a crush on Abraham Lincoln. Is there anybody that you have a crush on these days?

Boy, I live to regret having said that, in about ten different ways I regret having said that. Yeah, President Obama. Staying with the political crush. But I mean, in a very appropriate way, people!

What do you dream of doing that involves nothing related to Hollywood?

Well, like a thousand things. Being able to spend more time at my domestic arts.

Knitting. And I’ve been going to sewing school so I’d really like to be able to hone my sewing skills even more because I feel like I have time to do it and then I don’t have time to do it and I forget the things I’ve learned.

What’s the last thing you’ve made?

The last thing I made was a dress out of a massive scarf that somebody gave me for my birthday a few years ago. It was a black and white scarf that had all these cool pictures and newspaper article prints of The Rolling Stones, and I turned it into this really cool dress.

You made a dress?

Yes!

How do you define luxury today?

Being able to do what I want to do

And what is your definition of French elegance?

The French—it’s like a little magic trick, those people, isn’t it? Those gals and their heels and their baguettes and their bicycle basket and their child in a little school uniform. I think Juliette Binoche is elegant and French and fabulous.

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Fifty-four f****** years old. And a supermodel!

Do you have a favorite memory?

Marrying my husband, having my kids.

What would you say is your greatest strength?

You’d have to ask a friend. I don’t know. What is my greatest strength? Loyalty? Compassion?

What do you have the most pride in or what makes you the most personally satisfied?

My family. I think meeting my husband and the relationship that we’ve cultivated over a dozen years is my greatest source of pride.

And what are you most proud of?

My family and how much we all like each other.

Do you have a favorite moment as an actress?

Well, I think probably the first time I met Mike Nichols and having breakfast with him and that relationship beginning and making Closer together. That’s a pretty remarkable moment in my career for me.

What is your favorite quality in a person?

A sense of humor, and a sense of cultural awareness.

Do you have a favorite musical artist at the moment?

Yes. My son is obsessed with a song by a guy called Flo Rida, because he’s from Florida. But for me, same old people—Dave Matthews, Damien Rice, the classic rotation in my car.

Do you have a favorite designer at the moment?

Diane Von Furstenberg is—just saw her the other night. She’s elegant. There’s an elegant person! Umm lets see, Balenciaga. I do love my vintage Ossie Clark. And I love Stella [McCartney].

Do you have a mantra to get your hopes up when you’re down or when you’re having a bad day? Is there something that you tell yourself?

Well, you know there is…and I say this with a sense of humor, I don’t take it too seriously, but I do think it’s always a good thing to think of in my head: No way out but through.You have to do it, you have to commit to it and that’s the only way you’re ever going to be on the other side of it.

Is there any other profession you might have wanted to do if could live in an alternate universe?

I think I would have liked to have been a school teacher.

Do you think you would have been good at it?

I do. I do. I appreciated the teachers who were trying to actually inspire us to learn things as opposed to force us to learn things. There’s such a big difference. And I know it’s hard to be a teacher. You have to lose your enthusiasm and inspiration from time to time. But the ones that didn’t seemed like gods and goddesses to me.

Is there a trip you’d really like to take?

I would like to go to Africa with my kids when they’re a little bit older and can remember everything we do. You know, I just think to travel that whole continent would be pretty amazing.

Are you still an avid reader?

Well, right now it books with pictures, with my kids. But I actually did just buy a book—a hard-back to take on vacation that doesn’t have any pictures in it. And I am so excited to read it. The Orphan Master’s Son.

And what’s your biggest indulgence?

My Birkin bag. That’s a luxury item, for sure. My husband calls it the Honda because it costs as much as a Honda.

What would be your advice for the every day woman on taking time out of the day to make sure that they appreciate the moments even when life can seem at its most challenging.

When I was pregnant the first time with my twins, I remember reading a book and it said somewhere to invest in a crockpot because you will only ever have time and energy in the morning to make dinner for the next four years, which is true. And I got a crock pot. But it also said when you have a new baby and you’re exhausted and the baby goes down for a nap, go to sleep. Or take a bath. Or call your sister or do whatever it is that you want to do before you do the laundry and wash the dishes and clean up the x, y and z and all the things that need to get done because you will always run out of time and then you will have never gotten to what is important for you. And I think that’s true, new baby or not, it’s just true in life. When you have that moment of quiet to not, you know, and I often times will say to myself, that can wait. Just sit down and drink a cup of tea, or whatever it is, because it’s essential and it helps you have just more to give the next moment that other people occupy with you. I think.

It’s incredible that you have a fully realized domestic life and you joke about doing the dishes, but I know you do do the dishes. And then on the other side, this movie star life.

But that’s the thing, it takes a village to put this (movie star) on. It’s not just me having some sense of fabulosity that I wake up like this. I’m perfectly aware of who I am when I get up, and how many people it takes to put this on. You know? For that public element of my life. But they are just two completely different things. It sounds so corny but I think it’s the truest statement of my work, which is that my job doesn’t make me an extraordinary person. I’m a regular person with an extraordinary job. And the circumstances of it are pretty remarkable. But it doesn’t make me remarkable. And you know, I have plenty of people to remind me of that if I forget.