Eric Roberts is proud of his family, but he’s been advised not to talk about it. In a recent interview with Still Here Hollywood, host Steve Kmetko asked the actor about his sister, Julia Roberts. Eric’s response was brief: “You’ll have to ask her,” he said. “I love my sister, but I can’t talk about her. She doesn’t wanna talk about it.”
Eric Roberts didn’t delve further into the topic and mentioned another family member he’s not encouraged to discuss: his daughter, Emma Roberts. “My daughter told me also not to talk about her, but I stumble and do,” he admitted. “I’m not supposed to talk about either of them. But I do.”
Despite these restrictions, Eric couldn’t help but express his admiration for his daughter’s work. “I am in love with my daughter’s work these days like I can’t, I can’t believe how great she’s become,” he said. “I’m so proud of her I can’t see straight. Since her performance in Maybe I Do until right now, she overwhelms me with pride and just, ‘Oh my God. Here she goes again.’ And I’m just so happy to be her dad because she’s kicking ass, and I’m so proud.”
When asked if he had anything to do with his daughter’s success, Eric responded, “Absolutely nothing. Except I gave her that name.”
Eric also shared his experiences working on The Dark Knight, where he played mobster Sal Maroni. “It was just fun to be associated with that movie,” he said. “[Christopher Nolan] is a real director, and he knows what he wants. And he tells you what he wants, and he gave me my favorite direction I ever got… ‘Eric Roberts, don’t be funny!’… It was just hysterical that God’s voice from the speakers told me not to be funny, and I’m not known for being funny at all. So it was a real pleasure for me to be told that.”
He also spoke fondly of his co-star Heath Ledger. “What a lovely person he was,” Eric said. “I’d been told, ‘Stay away from Heath. He’s into the character. Oh, my God. He’s gone.’ He wasn’t like that at all. He was perfectly fine.” Eric recalled a moment when Ledger asked his co-stars for feedback on his performance as the Joker. “He’s going through the monologue, blah blah blah, and he gets to the monologue. And he’s done with the monologue, and he’s done. And he turns to us and he goes, ‘How am I doing?’ He’s just so charming, so likable, so sweet, so normal. And all the stuff that I heard about him was not true. And he was a lovely person. He was a real loss.”
Eric Roberts is clearly a proud brother and father, even if he’s been told to keep quiet about it. During the podcast, when asked about who he admires in the industry, he couldn’t help but praise Emma for her work on Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s American Horror Story. “I’m in love with my daughter’s work these days,” he said. “I can’t believe how great she’s become. … I’m so proud of her I can’t see straight.”
“Since her performance in Maybe I Do until right now, she overwhelms me with pride and just, ‘Oh my God, here she goes again,’” he continued. “And I’m just so happy to be her dad because she’s kicking ass. And I’m so proud.”
When Kmetko asked Eric if he contributed to his daughter’s success in Hollywood, he replied, “Absolutely nothing. Except I gave her that name.”
Emma Roberts has also weighed in on the “nepo babies” debate, noting that many are bound to “have preconceived notions of you.” “People like to say, ‘Oh, you know, you have a leg up because you’re a family in the industry,’” she said on the Table for Two With Bruce Bozzi podcast. “But then the other side to that is, you know, you have to prove yourself more. Also, if people don’t have good experience being with other people in your family, then you’ll never get a chance.”
Emma pointed out that an underdog story is more likable. “And also I think there’s something to be said where everybody loves the kind of overnight success story,” she noted. “And so if you’re kind of not the girl from the middle of nowhere that broke into Hollywood there’s kind of an eye roll of like, ‘Well, your dad was this.’”
She also explained why she thinks there is a difference in how men with relatives in Hollywood are treated compared to women. “I always joke, I’m like, ‘Why is no one calling out George Clooney for being a nepo baby?’ Rosemary Clooney was an icon,” she said, referencing his famous aunt. “I’m just kidding. But also I feel like young girls get it harder with the nepo baby thing. I don’t really see people calling out sons of famous actors. Not that they should be called that. I don’t think anyone should be called out for wanting to follow their dream.”
Emma revealed that she has not booked jobs in some cases when she has asked someone to put in a good word for her. “People kind of only see your wins because they only see when you’re on the poster of a movie. They don’t see all the, like, rejection along the way. That’s why I’m always very open about things I’ve auditioned for and haven’t gotten the part for. I think it’s important to talk about because otherwise people just think, ‘Oh, everything’s been so great and linear and easy, and it’s like, no. It’s been not at all. But of course it looks like that to the outside perspective or to the naked eye.”
After years in the industry, Emma Roberts said she now just tries to focus on being grateful. “I feel so lucky that I get to be 33 and still get to be doing things that I love. Also now, I’m much more thoughtful about it,” she said.
Eric Roberts has had a complicated relationship with certain family members, including Julia, over the years. In a 2018 interview with Vanity Fair, Eric commented on his previous drug use leading to an estrangement from Julia and their sister, Lisa Roberts Gillan. “I wouldn’t characterize it as a falling out. I was crazy about my sisters. Loved them, adored them,” he told the outlet at the time. “They were precious to me, and we had times of great closeness. We all felt very protective of each other, but the hardest person to protect yourself from is yourself.”
“I was exhausting to be around: complainy, blamey, unable to enjoy enjoyment,” Eric admitted. “Everyone in my world needed a break sometimes, and that must have included Julia.”
The siblings reunited after Julia gave birth to twins Phinnaeus and Hazel, whom she shares with her husband, Danny Moder. Julia and Danny are also parents to Henry Daniel, whom they welcomed on June 18, 2007.
Source: Still Here Hollywood, Vanity Fair, Table for Two With Bruce Bozzi
