We Go to Wine Country with Julia Roberts!

In her new romantic, world-wide self-discovery flick Eat Pray Love, based on the popular memoir, Julia Roberts plays Liz Gilbert, a troubled, recent divorcee who takes a year off from her job to travel and figure out where she stands in life and what's next.  Liz pigs out in Italy until she needs bigger jeans, gets spiritual in India and finds the perfect guy (Javier Bardem) in Bali. Not bad!

To conjure up a feeling of the Italian countryside and that great pasta that forced Liz to up her jeans size, Sony studios sent us up to the Napa, California wine country area where reporters shared great wines and food and sat down with Julia in a posh hotel nestled midst the vineyards to find out why this popular actress chose this particular project after lying low lately to raise her family with hubby Danny Moder.

At one point in the film, Liz Gilbert tells a friend that she has either been with a guy since age fifteen or moving on to the next one and finally wants to go find out who she is.. by herself. 

Teens certainly "get" a need for self-discovery. If you're soul-searching at age 15, then you'll relate to this movie.

We were really impressed with the famous icon's "look" for our interview; a great tailored black pantsuit over a fluffy, soft ruffled white blouse, with cuffs peeking out of her sleeves and more "fluffies" on a great neckline. Ms. Roberts is back to long, dark hair and looked romantic and totally modern at the same time. Let's talk clothes, food, love and laughter with Julia....

TeenHollywood: Your character Liz is ready to change her life big time. You've made some big changes and now have a wonderful family. Did you feel a strong need for a life change as Liz did?  

Julia: Well, not in the urgent pursuit way that she's experiencing it. But I definitely knew that my life would continue to evolve until I found that place I could fully occupy and live in which is the home that I have now. But I relate to her search and her pursuit and it was definitely great to have a fulfilled sense of my own life and be playing some of these scenes and then come home at the end of the day and 'Okay. Everybody is here. We're good.'

TeenHollywood: All the various clothes Liz wears were very appropriate to the country and the way she was feeling. Did you have any input into the wardrobe? Which outfit was your favorite? And, did you get to keep anything?

Julia: Well, I want to keep everything. Though, so far it's in a warehouse and we're looking for it [we laugh]. I think maybe the most costume changes that I've ever had in a movie that was forty or fifty if you're in a lot of a movie. This, I think by the time that we were done with it, was about a hundred and three. the costume designer Michael Dennison worked tirelessly over really making it authentic and really making it great.

It was like wardrobe Olympics in this movie. I loved everything. It was definitely a joy from one country to the next and one scene to the next. I like the 'it's time' scene. You know what I'm talking about [when Liz finally decides to hook up with her new man played by Javier, yep, we know]. I liked that outfit because it needed to be something that was simple because we were just hanging out and this was just how we are but it also had to be pretty and I thought that he found the perfect little thing.

TeenHollywood: Didya keep it?

Julia: [her famous big grin]  That is in my closet actually.

TeenHollywood: Did you meet the real Liz Gilbert early on or ever?

Julia: I met her in Rome. I didn't want to meet her before that because I knew that she and [director] Ryan [Murphy] were in close communication. The first step that I took was putting my complete and total trust in Ryan so I knew that his paper interpretation of her that he gave me as my reference was all that I would need. I was also worried about actually falling too in love with her, that I would then try to be her as opposed to just interpret her as an actor. So that's why I didn't want to meet her until we had done so much that I couldn't change it. So she came to Rome and she was a delight. She's like a warm hug the second that you lay eyes on her. So that's my answer.

TeenHollywood: Did you read the book long before it was going to be a movie or...?

Julia: I read the book before it became hugely popular and I was glad about that because I'm very suggestible. I'll be swayed. I'll be determined to not like something or I'll be determined to like it better than four million other people. So I'd read it before it became so wildly popular and thought it was so terrific that thirty pages into I got on Amazon.com and sent one to my best friend in Chicago. I said, 'Let's read this in tandem because I think it's going to get real good real fast.

TeenHollywood: Did you have to think a lot before accepting the role or not much at all?

Julia: It was weeks because it's not just committing to a job. You're committing to so much travel and so much time away from home. It is working everyday. It's a lot of stuff. A lot more math goes into a decision like this than just, 'Do I want to drive to Sony [Studios] for three days a week for a couple of months?'

TeenHollywood: We asked about favorite clothes so what was your favorite of the various foods and amazing locations you experienced making this movie? Fave Bite and Site?

Julia: Okay. There was this one plate of pasta in Italy that we remember that was actually, all other circumstances removed, delicious pasta. It was super simple spaghetti with a little tomato sauce. So that would've been my favorite bite. My favorite site; I think about Rome and the lunch scene with all of my friends there where I order for everyone and sitting at the head of that table looking at all these really lovely people, it was a beautiful site. That's what I picture when I think of Rome.

That was only the first country! India. Favorite bite? Well, lets just say this, I as a mother pack like a ten pound box of snacks. So that might've been my favorite bite and favorite site, there are these extraordinary women in this village. They wear the bright colors and all the jewelry and embroidery. They are elaborate and elegant and profoundly stunning.

I had one of our translators ask what the story was behind the bright colors and the embroidery and all this stuff. She said that it shows that the woman is married and that if her husband passes away she takes it all off. I thought that was pretty amazing. Bali. Favorite site, there's no bad site in Bali. Favorite bite would be their fruits. Fresh mango after granola bars at midnight. That was refreshing.

TeenHollywood: Were you really eating all that spaghetti you mentioned? Did you gain weight in Italy while making the film?

Julia: [to Javier, near-by] How many bowls of pasta did I eat? [He says 'six]. It's a big full bowl of spaghetti. It was all delicious. The pizza, we went to Naples to where she had eaten that pizza and got there at eight in the morning and sat down to shoot. I proceeded to start my day with eight entire slices of pizza in forty-five minutes. So the deliciousness of something wears a tiny bit after piece seven just because you're speed eating. But that scene in particular I sort of relished, just wolfing it down because I felt like she was so excited to be there, so excited to be eating this pizza.

TeenHollywood: That's a lot of pizza!

Julia: I would eat an entire slice in a take. I don't know why I thought that was a great idea. [The director] Ryan keeps telling people that I put on ten pounds. It was a little less than that but I loved every pound and everyone said, 'Oh, it's going to drop right off in India,' and I didn't get that memo. That didn't happen.

TeenHollywood: I think most girls can relate to the 'muffin top' scene [in which Liz's eating has caused her to develop a fat roll].

Julia: I thought that she [a fellow actress playing Liz's new friend] was going to hurt herself trying to button my pants! It was very hilarious.

TeenHollywood: I also like what you say to her 'Guys don't care what you look like naked'.

Julia: They don't, do they guys? That's what dimmer switches are for
people.

End Part 1 - Come back later this week as Julia dishes on her hot guy co-stars and her advice to teens on love.