Julia Roberts means business.
The Oscar winner, 57, deeply got into her character while filming the 2009 romantic crime comedy “Duplicity,” according to her co-star, Carrie Preston.
“I’m on set doing a very intense scene where Julia Roberts is staring at me wanting me to die because I had slept with her boyfriend,” Preston, 58, recalled on Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s “Dinner’s On Me” podcast last week.
“I have to do that cry on cue thing,” Preston added, “which, as you know, is a lot of pressure, especially when I don’t know any of the crew. I was only on the movie a day already.”
Preston, who had already worked with Roberts over ten years earlier on “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” recalled that the famous red-head warned her she was going to mistreat her on the “Duplicity” set.
“I saw her earlier in the day. She gave me a big hug and then she said, ‘I’m gonna be mean to you for the rest of the day,’” Preston said. “She gave me a fair warning. She was just like, ‘I’m gonna be mean. I’m just not gonna talk to you for the rest of the day.’ And it was exactly what I needed.”
The “Elsbeth” star explained that you don’t want to be “chumming it up and then have to go and cry,” so she understood Roberts’ decision.
“They call me and they’re like, ‘We’re ready for you, we’re ready to go.’ The cameras are all set up. We hardly rehearsed. Then I just went and sat down and she’s just,” Preston said, mimicking Roberts silently ignoring her.
“And I just started thawing,” she shared. “It came. But it was the most high-pressure acting experience I had at that point.”
Preston, who only shot “Duplicity” for “two or three days,” credited Roberts for “graciously” helping her nail the scene.
“And then she had the whole crew clap,” Preston remembered of Roberts. “It was a cool moment.”
“It’s not like she and I are friends or anything. I didn’t see her since then,” Preston continued. “But at the premiere, [director] Tony Gilroy was introducing the film and he said, ‘Julia and Clive [Owen] are here, and also Carrie Preston, I can’t wait to see you in the film.’ And then Julia screamed from the back of the audience, ‘We love you Carrie!’ It was just like, ‘Wow. Okay.’ These little moments that make you go, ‘All the hard work is paying off.’”
In “Duplicity,” Roberts and Owen, 61, play rival spies who fall in love. The cast also includes Tom Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti and Denis O’Hare.
