Eric Roberts Apologizes For Taking Credit For Sister Julia Roberts’ Fame, But She’s Been Open About Denzel Washington Having The Major Impact

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Longtime actor and Julia Roberts’ brother Eric Roberts has a new book coming out, and he made headlines yesterday when he apologized to the Pretty Woman actress for viral comments he’d made about her career. Intriguingly, in the past Ms. Roberts has been candid about an actor that did have a major impact on her career, and it wasn’t her brother. It was Denzel Washington.

Eric Roberts’ ‘Asinine’ Comment And His Subsequent Apology

Back in 2018, the Runaway Train Oscar nominee spoke with Vanity Fair and made an oft repeated claim that if it wasn’t for him, the (more famous) women in his family might not have made it in the business. What he seemed to be getting at was that he was famous before Julia and, later, his daughter Emma made names for themselves, but I don't think the quote went viral in a bad way.

If it wasn’t for me, there would be no Julia Roberts and no Emma Roberts as celebrities, as actresses, and I’m very proud of that.

Roberts has been candid that his relationship with his sister was strained even prior to these comments. He’d dealt with drug addiction in the past, and Julia supported Kelly Cunningham when she wanted full custody of Emma after their split. Now, in his new book Runaway Train: Or The Story Of My Life So Far (via People), he reportedly writes that he is sorry for comments he’s made about fame in the past, referring to them as “asinine."

I hope Julia will accept this public apology. It was an asinine thing to have said.

Eric has also previously been open in the past that both Emma and Julia have asked him not to name drop them in interviews.

Julia Roberts Often Speaks About The Time Denzel Washington Impacted Her Career

While Eric may feel he deserves some of the credit, Julia Roberts has spoken out about working with her “beloved friend Denzel Washington” on numerous occasions and has credited him for really pushing her acting career in the right direction. The two brought the John Grisham story The Pelican Brief to life on the big screen back in 1993. At the time the movie was filming, she was still relatively new to Hollywood, though she’d made a name for herself in Mystic Pizza and Pretty Woman prior.

In The Pelican Brief, though, she was tasked with “this scene where I was very distraught and upset and kind of falling apart.” Washington was in the scene with her, and the two had been told it would be filmed at a distance, as if they might as well be “two mops;” ergo, the actress didn’t think she’d need to do any heavy lifting emotionally. Then, the shot was changed, and her co-star gave her one simple piece of advice that has stuck with her for years, as she revealed to Michael Strahan.

We get up there and the camera is like right there [points a few feet away]. I go, ‘Denzel, I thought we were mops. Like, what’s going on?’ The director goes, ‘Oh, we changed the shot.’ And I panicked, because now the camera is right here and I’m supposed to be falling apart. I said, ‘Denzel, what am I going to do?’ He goes, ‘You’re gonna act.’ I just thought, ‘OK!’ And I don’t know how but I think I did it. And in a way it sort of set this perspective for really my entire career. That one little moment where he was like, “Just act.'

Julia Roberts has gone on in other interviews to express being grateful for her acting career but she puts it all in perspective, noting it’s not her “only dream come true.”

As for Eric, he writes in the book that as he is embarking on a new portion of his career – a portion that includes this book release and a new gig on Dancing With The Stars (though he’s not a Season 33 frontrunner) – he is ready for a Hollywood act that puts the two other famous women in the spotlight.

I imagine I will remain as Julia’s brother and Emma Roberts’ dad for the rest of my life. I’d like to make good on that, to move aside proudly and with grace. That’s part of the reason for writing the book.

Next up, you can catch Julia Roberts in Luca Guadagnino’s After The Hunt (which is coming after his upcoming movie Queer). And Emma Roberts in the recently released Space Cadet with an Amazon Prime subscription. The latest season of Dancing with the Stars has already hit the 2024 TV schedule and airs Tuesday nights on ABC.