Julia Roberts ‘Never Felt Pressure’ to Perform After Becoming Highest-Paid Actress: ‘I’ll Be Part of the Party’

Calm and collective. Julia Roberts is one of the highest earning actresses in Hollywood, but the A-lister reveals that she “never felt pressure” to perform when she became the most paid star at the height of her career.

“All the salaries in those days where there was just a lot of money to be spent making films — in a comical way, I thought, OK, sure, this is ridiculous, but I’ll be part of this party,” the 51-year-old told fellow actress Patricia Arquette during Variety‘s Actors on Actors series.

The Runaway Bride star also added that she felt like she was not only following in the steps of icon Barbra Streisand, but also helping further close the gender gap.

“I’m just walking in a path that Barbra Streisand has hacked out with a machete, so to be the gardener that’s picking some weeds that have come up since these incredible women before me have made a path for all of us to be artists in our own right — it was nice to feel that I had a little puzzle piece to that,” the Oscar winner explained.

After being in the industry for over 20 years, the mega-star has seen and learned a lot — she became more picky about her films after seeing fellow actress in roles that didn’t fit them.

“I saw some really great actors that I admired what they were doing. And then there were a few movies that I thought, “Why is she in that movie? She’s better than that narrative,” Julia said. “I just had this instinct to stop doing anything if it didn’t feel that passionate.”

Julia has been very open about her career and her films in the past — earlier this year she revealed that one of her biggest movies, Pretty Woman, wouldn’t make it to the big screen today. “I don’t really think you could make that movie now, right?” the mother-of-three told The Guardian. “So many things you could poke a hole in, but I don’t think it takes away from people being able to enjoy it.”

We’re just glad Pretty Woman was made, and that Julia is still out and about doing fantastic movies!