(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Sun 28 September 2025 16:15, UK
Life is good when you’re Julia Roberts. Not only are you incredibly successful, respected, and beloved, but you can also work with pretty much anyone you want to.
At this point, it would be easier to list the seminal actors and directors that she hasn’t shared a bill with. She’s shared romances with Hugh Grant and Richard Gere, teamed up with Sally Field and Dolly Parton, and taken instructions from Robert Altman, Steven Spielberg, and more.
One director she hasn’t worked with, though, is Luca Guadagnino… until now, that is. Roberts has been announced as the lead for the Italian’s upcoming film After the Hunt. She’ll be playing a professor at Yale University who must choose what side to take when an accusation of sexual abuse is made against one of her colleagues. Roberts has described the film as “challenging” and the film will no doubt continue Guadagnino’s streak of hotly discussed releases.
The Notting Hill star is just one of a number of famous faces on board with the project. Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edibiri, Michael Stuhlbarg and more are also on the call sheet, but there was one name that got Roberts particularly excited. In a group interview with Variety, the Oscar winner told her colleagues that, despite being big fans of them all, she was really looking forward to getting to work with Chloë Sevigny.
“I was so excited and intimidated about meeting Chloë,” she revealed. “When we were at my house, we’re all sitting around the kitchen table, and Hazel [her daughter] was making herself some lunch, and we’re talking about the material and rehearsing. Allan [Mandelbaum], our producer, he came in, and he goes, ‘Chloë should just be here in a couple minutes.’ And I look up, and Ayo looks up, and we match eyes. Luca goes, ‘What?’ And I go, ‘I’m scared.’ And Ayo goes, ‘Me too.’ And Hazel goes, ‘I’m leaving.’ And then, like a minute later, the doorbell rang, and Hazel goes, ‘I’m leaving through the garage.’ And truly we were so excited and intimidated.”
Sevigny will play a fellow professor who is friends with Roberts’ character. She is also the institution’s student liaison, which will undoubtedly play into the plot. This will be the star’s second time working with Guadagnino, having appeared alongside Timothée Chalamet and Mark Rylance in his cannibal love drama, Bones and All.
Roberts has been one of the biggest stars in Hollywood for several decades, so you’d think there’d be nobody left that made her feel nervous. Sevigny’s CV is just as impressive as hers, however. Known for pushing boundaries and challenging good taste, her work is as varied as it is controversial. Her breakout role was playing Lana Tisedel, the lover of a murdered transgender man, in Boys Don’t Cry. In many ways, that performance still defines her legacy. Collaborations with prominent arthouse directors Lars von Trier and Harmony Korine followed, as did appearances in more mainstream hits like American Psycho and Zodiac. Now, she is a bona fide superstar.
It’s reassuring to know that even mega-celebrities like Julia Roberts can still get starstruck sometimes. We’d love to know how Sevigny felt about meeting her, but she was probably just really chill about it.
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