Julia Roberts and Husband Danny Moder Sneak a Rare Date Night as She Gets Emotional at Venice Film Festival Debut

Julia Roberts got support from husband Danny Moder at her first-ever Venice International Film Festival appearance.

The actress, 57, and Moder, 56, snuck in a rare date night as they both walked the red carpet in Venice on Friday, Aug. 29, ahead of the world premiere of Roberts’ movie After the Hunt.

Moder, a cinematographer who has been married to the Oscar-winning actress since 2002, was photographed using his cell phone to capture his experience on the red carpet as he took in the scene at Venice.

At the premiere screening, the audience began clapping while the theater was still dark. Director Luca Guadagnino stood up and rallied for his cast and crew to stand and greet the audience during a standing ovation that ran for about six minutes.

Roberts blew kisses to the crowd as she took in the ovation with costars Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri, Michael Stuhlbarg, Nora Garrett and Chloë Sevigny. At one point, Roberts appeared to wipe a tear from her eye during the emotional moment.

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Roberts and Moder tend to keep their personal lives private; the couple share three children: 20-year-old twins Hazel and Phinnaeus, and son Henry, 18. 

When the couple celebrated their 23rd wedding anniversary July 4, Moder posted a selfie of himself and Roberts posing in the reflection of a spoon on Instagram. “23 years is SILVER,” he wrote in a caption. “Here we are in my engraved SPOON! the fun continues… and a happy 4th to all.”

Roberts stars in After the Hunt as an Ivy League professor who “finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star student (Edebiri) makes an accusation against one of her colleagues (Garfield), and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come to light,” according to a synopsis.

At the press conference earlier on Friday, when Roberts fielded questions about the subject matter and the #MeToo movement, the actress quipped to reporters, “I love the softball questions so early in the morning,” before saying she is glad the movie is provoking debate and discussion.

“That’s how I feel about this movie, is that we’re not making statements,” Roberts said. “We are portraying these people in this moment in time, and the camera has fallen from the sky in this particular moment and captures all this. … I think in that regard, I don’t know about controversy, per se, but we are challenging people to have conversation, and to be excited or or infuriated about it is up to you.”

After the Hunt is in select theaters Oct. 10, then everywhere Oct. 17.