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\nJulia Roberts said in a new interview that she found it difficult playing a woman who has “just the opposite of every instinct I\u2019ve ever had in my life” in her new movie After the Hunt”I have a very hen-like personality; I want to gather, and I want to feed and care,” Roberts said of her attitude off-cameraIn After the Hunt, Roberts plays a college professor who navigates an assault accusation made against one of her colleagues; the movie is in theaters Oct. 10<\/p>\n
Julia Roberts<\/a> found it difficult playing a woman who does not have a nurturing personality in her new movie After the Hunt<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n When Roberts, 57, her costars Ayo Edebiri<\/a>,\u00a0Andrew Garfield<\/a> and director Luca Guadagnino<\/a> spoke with Variety<\/a> about their new academia-themed drama in an interview published Thursday, Sept. 18, the Academy Award<\/a> winner said the “hardest part for me was not being sympathetic and empathetic.”\n<\/p>\n “For me as a person, it\u2019s like, ‘Oh, how can I hold her?’ And she was not to be held. This was not the time,” Roberts said of playing a steely university professor named Alma, who navigates a sexual assault accusation levied by a student named Maggie (Edebiri, 29) against Alma’s colleague Hank (Garfield, 42).\n<\/p>\n “I have a very hen-like personality; I want to gather, and I want to feed and care. And she\u2019s just the opposite of every instinct I\u2019ve ever had in my life,” Roberts said of the role. “And I think there were times where I just found it really exhausting; the mental gymnastics of the way she lives her life is very unfamiliar to me.”\n<\/p>\n Julia Roberts in ‘After the Hunt’.<\/p>\n Amazon MGM Studios\/Youtube<\/p>\n Roberts added in the interview that working with director Guadagnino, 54, allowed her to stay “on the right rails at all times” and complimented her scenes with costar Michael Stuhlbarg<\/a>, who portrays her husband\u00a0in the film.\n<\/p>\n “I don\u2019t mean to single you out, Michael, but I go into these scenes with Michael, and I just turn to Luca and I\u2019m like, ‘Are you f—— kidding me?’ ” she said of those scenes. “What he\u2019s doing is so unexpected and original, and I\u2019m just watching him. I\u2019m not even in the scene anymore, because it\u2019s so fucking unreal what you\u2019re doing right now.”<\/p>\n Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter<\/a> to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.\n<\/p>\n Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield in ‘After the Hunt’.<\/p>\n Amazon MGM Studios<\/p>\n After the Hunt made its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival<\/a> on Aug. 29, where Roberts notably fielded questions from reporters about whether the film’s tackling of sexual misconduct on a college campus “undermines feminist principles and undermines the feminist struggle” in a post-#MeToo<\/a>\u00a0world.\n<\/p>\n “I made a meal of it,” Roberts told Variety, when asked about her impression of the reaction to the movie in Venice. During the film’s press conference, Roberts said that the movie’s cast and crew want audiences to leave the movie “with all these different feelings and emotions and points of views and things that you realize what you believe in strongly.”\n<\/p>\n “I mean, everybody\u2019s going to have their own opinion,” Roberts added to Variety. “That\u2019s what\u2019s so great about it.”\u00a0<\/p>\n