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.
Taylor Swift has revealed the release date for her new album, The Life Of A Showgirl.
The pop megastar announced her 12th studio album earlier this week but didn’t give many details.
Now, in social media posts and an appearance on boyfriend Travis Kelce’s sports podcast, Swift revealed just what fans can expect from the new album.
Taylor Swift and boyfriend Travis Kelce on the New Heights podcast. Pic: New Heights
The Life of Showgirl, written during the European leg of her record-breaking Eras tour, will be released on 3 October.
It consists of 12 songs, including the title track that features pop star Sabrina Carpenter.
The full track list is:
1. The Fate Of Ophelia
2. Elizabeth Taylor
3. Opalite
4. Father Figure
5. Eldest Daughter
6. Ruin The Friendship
7. Actually Romantic
8. Wi$h Li$t
9. Wood
10. Cancelled!
11. Honey
12. The Life Of A Showgirl (featuring Sabrina Carpenter)
Long-time collaborators Max Martin and Shellback, two Swedish producers who worked with Swift on some of her biggest hits, joined the pop star for this album.
Within four hours of posting the full podcast episode on YouTube, it had already gathered 4.7m views.
The cover of Taylor Swift’s newly announced album. Pic: Republic Records
The back cover of Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album The Life Of A Showgirl. Pic: Republic Records
‘The hardest-working star in pop’
The album follows last year’s The Tortured Poets Department, which was released during the Eras tour.
That tour, with shows on five continents and in 51 cities, raked in more than $2.2bn (£1.62bn) and was the highest-grossing tour of all time.
Read more about Taylor Swift:
Swift’s final London show was the ‘best’
The impact of the ‘excruciating’ Era’s tour
Her new chart record
“This album is about what was going on behind the scenes in my inner life during this tour, which was so exuberant and electric and vibrant,” Swift said during her podcast appearance.
Sky News culture and entertainment reporter Gemma Peplow said after her globe-trotting tour and a swathe of re-releases over recent years, the new album cemented Swift’s reputation “as the hardest-working star in pop”.
Disgraced US film producer Harvey Weinstein is to be tried for a third time in a sexual assault case.
A jury in New York could not reach a verdict in June against the 73-year-old who was accused of raping actress Jessica Mann, and a mistrial was declared.
Judge Curtis Farber has said he wants the new trial to happen before the end of this year.
The same jury found Weinstein guilty in June of sexually assaulting former Project Runway production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006 and not guilty of assaulting Polish former runway model Kaja Sokola the same year.
Weinstein will be sentenced for the guilty verdict in Ms Haley’s case on 30 September.
He denied all of the charges. Throughout the retrial, his lawyers insisted the sexual encounters with his three accusers were “transactional” and “consensual,” and labelled the women as opportunists.
Weinstein was originally convicted of rape and criminal sexual act by the same court in 2020 and sentenced to 23 years in prison for the crimes.
Last year, however, New York’s highest court overturned the conviction, prompting Weinstein’s retrial this summer.
Weinstein was once one of the most powerful people in Hollywood – the co-founder of film and television production companies Miramax and The Weinstein Company, who produced films such as the Oscar-winning Shakespeare In Love, Pulp Fiction, and The Crying Game.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
In 2017, a series of sexual misconduct allegations against him propelled the #MeToo movement.
Some of those accusations later led to criminal charges and his convictions in New York and California.
Before the retrial, Weinstein was also serving a 16-year prison sentence after being found guilty of rape in California in December 2022. He has also denied this charge.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike