Leave The World Behind: Julia Roberts is in a new disaster movie – how do her survival skills stack up?
Her new film is a disaster movie that sees characters struggling to cope when cut off from the technology they have come to rely on.
But Julia Roberts has told Sky News’ Backstage podcast that she reckons she would be just fine in that scenario.
“I’m 56 years old – I grew up with, like, Triple A Triptychs where you turn the page on the map, and you’re like, ‘Oh, Dad, now we’re going to get down here and… we’re going to go [here]…’
Ethan Hawke and Julia Roberts
“I mean, I can do it – I was a Girl Scout, come on! I am not just an actor,” she said.
“I can tie all kinds of knots.”
Leave The World Behind is a psychological thriller based on the 2020 novel of the same name about a family who are renting a house on Long Island when two strangers arrive amidst a mysterious blackout.
It’s a film that leaves audiences wondering how they would cope in a similar situation.
Roberts says her main takeaway from working on it is relief that it’s not something she really has to deal with.
“Just glad that it’s a movie, right?
“I mean the book scared the absolute bejesus out of me, it did, and the movie, I think, is very creepy and insidious,” she said.
“And so get out there, people, get your tickets, get your popcorn!”
Click to subscribe to Backstage wherever you get your podcasts
Writer-director Sam Esmail says after reading the book he immediately re-read it as he had long wanted to make a disaster movie and liked that the threat in Leave The World Behind is somewhat enigmatic.
“The thing about this movie, and it was prevalent in the book, but I really wanted to expand upon it in the film, was the idea of uncertainty being the monster,” he explained to Sky News’ Backstage Podcast.
“Because typically, especially in a disaster genre, you’re told what the disaster is pretty much upfront, and then the characters are going to have to wrestle with how they overcome it or navigate around it, etc… But I really wanted to keep that a mystery because I felt that was more true to life.
“You know, ambiguity is something that we have to kind of wrestle with every day and then we ultimately never really get answers or solutions to it, and I thought that that was more of a relevant anxiety that I wanted to explore.”
Myha’la Herrold, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke and Julia Roberts in Leave The World Behind. Pic: JoJo Whilden/Netflix
Roberts plays the cynical mother of the family who is trying to have a break from modern life when disaster strikes and they are presented with a much bigger break than they imagined.
The character is complex and layered and the star says those are the more fun people to play.
“Absolutely – just more interesting and more complicated,” she said.
“And then you add in [the other characters] and then to create all the circumstances that Sam has put us in, in this story, it’s like a sandbox.”
A still from Netflix film Leave The World Behind. Pic: Netflix
Industry star Myha’la Herrold plays one of the strangers who arrives at the holiday home – and who brings a sometimes obnoxious but often truthful Gen Z perspective to what’s happening in the movie.
The actress says there were plenty of pinch-me moments while on set with the cast which includes Mahershala Ali and Ethan Hawke as well as Roberts.
“The day I got the job, the day after that, all the days leading up until the first day and then the day after the first day,” she laughed.
Julia Roberts and Myha’la Herrold
“[It was] a huge, a huge opportunity in so many ways and I felt very honoured and grateful and I was very up for and ready for the challenge.
“On day one, I was very much like, ‘I’m ready for this masterclass, I’m ready to take this class’ and it was very much that, but in the same breath I felt so welcomed in and I was treated as a peer and challenged, so rising to that is my favourite thing.”
Leave The World Behind is out on Netflix. For more on the film listen to the latest episode of Backstage, the film and TV podcast from Sky News.
Angelina Jolie says although she appreciates being an artist, she would prefer for her legacy to be “a good mother” and to be known for her “belief in equality and human rights”.
The Oscar-winning actress stars as Maria Callas in the new Pablo Larrain film about the opera singer’s life.
Pic: StudioCanal
She has called Maria “the hardest” and “most challenging” role she has had in her career and put months of preparation into immersing herself into the world of opera.
Jolie, who recently reached a divorce settlement with actor Brad Pitt, told Sky News: “To be very candid, it was the therapy I didn’t realise I needed. I had no idea how much I was holding in and not letting out.
“So, the challenge wasn’t the technical [side of opera], it was an emotional experience to find my voice, to be in my body, to express. You have to give every single part of yourself.”
The biopic combines the voice of the Maleficent actress with recordings of Maria Callas.
Jolie believes it “would be a crime to not have [Callas’] voice through this because, in many ways, she is very present in this film”.
Who was Maria Callas?
Born in New York in 1923, Maria Callas was the daughter of Greek immigrants who moved back to Athens at the age of 13 with her mother and sister.
After enrolling at the Athens Conservatory, she made her professional debut at 17 and went on to become one of the most famous faces of opera, travelling around the world and performing at Covent Garden in London, The Met in New York and La Scala in Milan.
Callas’s final operatic performance took place at Covent Garden in 1965 when she was 41 but she continued to work conducting master classes at Juilliard School, doing concert tours and starring in the 1969 film Medea.
Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, Maria focuses on the artist’s final years in the 1970s when she moved to Paris and disappeared from public view.
She died on 16 September 1977 at the age of 53.
Pic: StudioCanal
Jolie on changing motivations as an actor
Maria follows the life of an artist fully consumed by the art she creates and even remarks that “happiness never developed a beautiful melody”.
Reflecting on her own life in the spotlight, Jolie said she noticed her own career motivations change over the years.
“There’s this kind of study of being human that we do when we create, and we communicate with an audience because our work is not in isolation – it’s a connection.
“I think when I was younger, I had different questions about being human and different feelings and now as I’ve gotten older, I understand some things and now I have different questions.
“It’s a matter of life, right? And so maybe that’s interesting that this now is a character really contemplating death and really contemplating the toll of certain things in life that I, of course, couldn’t have understood in my 20s”.
Jolie at the New York Film Festival in September with three of her children (L-R) Pax, Zahara and Maddox. Pic: AP
A family affair
Two of Jolie’s children, Maddox and Pax, took on production assistant roles during the filming of Maria and witnessed their mother perform opera for the first time in public.
She says the film allowed them to create new experiences together and for her children to see her approach to playing a difficult role.
“Everyone in my home, we all give each other space to be who we are and we’re all different.
“I’m the mom, but I’m also an artist and a person and so my family has been very kind and gives me their understanding. They make fun of me, and they support me and just as you’d hope it would be.”
She adds: “When you play somebody who is dealing with so much pain, it’s very important to come home to some kindness.”
Maria is in cinemas now.
Tom Holland’s dad has confirmed his son’s engagement to Zendaya – revealing how the 28-year-old meticulously planned the proposal.
Zendaya, also 28, sparked engagement rumours when she attended last Sunday’s Golden Globes wearing a sparkling diamond on her ring finger.
Neither star has publicly addressed the rumours but Tom’s comedian father, Dominic Holland, has now confirmed the pair are set to wed.
He wrote in a post on his Patreon account: “Tom, as you know by now was very incredibly well prepared. He had purchased a ring.
“He had spoken with her father and gained permission to propose to his daughter.”
“Tom had everything planned out… When, where, how, what to say, what to wear,” he added.
Zendaya arrived at the Golden Globes with a noticeable piece of new jewellery. Pic: Invision/AP
Dominic also noted that while most men worry about being able to afford an engagement ring, he suspects his actor son was “more concerned with the stone, its size and clarity, its housing, which jeweller”.
Tom and Zendaya met on the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016, when they played the titular hero and his love interest MJ, respectively. Their romance was confirmed in 2021.
In his post, Tom’s father admitted fears over whether being in the spotlight could put a strain on the couple’s relationship.
He wrote: “I do fret that their combined stardom will amplify their spotlight and the commensurate demands on them and yet they continually confound me by handling everything with aplomb.”
“And even though show business is a messy place for relationships and particularly so for famous couples as they crash and burn in public and are too numerous to mention […] yet somehow right at the same time, I am completely confident they will make a successful union.”
More entertainment news:
Paris Hilton’s home destroyed in fires
RuPaul pays tribute to The Vivienne
Zendaya rose to fame after landing a role in Disney sitcom Shake It Up, and became a household name after starring in Euphoria.
Holland – who has starred in three Spider-Man films opposite his now-fiancée – made his stage debut in Billy Elliot the Musical in 2008.
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