Julia Roberts Reunites With Notting Hill Director Richard Curtis Over 25 Years Later for This Sweet Reason

Julia Roberts’ star turn in 1999’s Notting Hill gave her a lifelong friend: writer and director Richard Curtis.

Curtis’ daughter Scarlett, herself a writer, shared videos and photos on June 15 on her Instagram story from her 30th birthday party. In one clip, her family and friends sang Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend,” and Roberts, 57, and Curtis, 68, were seen close together as they sang. 

In Notting Hill, Roberts plays A-list actress Anna Scott, who ends up falling in love with a London travel bookstore owner, William Thacker, played by Hugh Grant. The titular neighborhood (where Curtis lived) lent its bright doors and small parks as the movie’s backdrop. The movie made over $360 million and was nominated for three Golden Globe awards.

Despite that success, Curtis shared back in November that Roberts turned down a return to the world of Notting Hill for a sequel. “I tried doing one with Notting Hill where they were going to get divorced, and Julia [Roberts] thought that was a very poor idea,” he told IndieWire.

Roberts reflected on the movie in January 2024 in a conversation with Curtis for British Vogue and explained that she almost turned the original role down. The actress explained that people who watch her movies “see something familiar” in her. “They feel they know me,” she said.

“And honestly, one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was your movie, playing a movie actress,” she told Curtis of Notting Hill. “I was so uncomfortable! I mean, we’ve talked about this so many times, but I almost didn’t take the part because it just seemed – oh, it just seemed so awkward. I didn’t even know how to play that person.”

She also “loathed” the “movie star” wardrobe they put together for her, and in the movie’s iconic love confession scene — “I’m just a girl…” — she ended up wearing her own clothes. 

In the Vogue article, Curtis also revealed a little of Roberts’ connection to his daughter Scarlett, who has published two books and written episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty and We Were Liars.

“On the day of the film’s premiere, she rocked up at our house in Notting Hill with a little blanket she’d knitted on set with my daughter Scarlett’s name on it,” Curtis wrote of Roberts. “When we said Scarlett was at nursery school over the road, Julia just left us and went to the school, rang on the bell and asked to see Scarlett so she could give it to her in person. She’s naughty too.”

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Before Notting Hill, the director had previously worked with Grant on 1994’s Four Weddings and a Funeral, and they went on to work together on Curtis’ 2003 Christmas classic Love Actually and 2004’s Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Curtis has also helmed 2013’s About Time and 2019’s Yesterday. 

While in the U.K. this weekend, Roberts also attended Soccer Aid for UNICEF, as seen in photos shared by English soccer player Harry Maguire.