Eric Roberts addresses reported rift with 'wonderful actress' and sister Julia Roberts: 'We're not in a contest'
Eric Roberts addresses reported rift with 'wonderful actress' and sister Julia Roberts: 'We're not in a contest'
Raechal ShewfeltFri, April 17, 2026 at 6:39 PM UTC
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Siblings Eric and Julia Roberts in 1986Credit: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via GettyKey Points -
Eric Roberts objected to an interviewer's suggestion that he and his Oscar-winning sister Julia have had "bumps" in their relationships.
The "Expendables" actor complimented Julia as an actress and a person, and he insisted that the media makes it a "contest" between them.
He said that they would have to play brother and sister if they ever worked together.
Eric Roberts says his relationship with younger sister Julia Roberts is just fine, thank you very much.
When he was asked about his relationship with her in a recent interview, he didn't care for how the question was asked, with a tag of "I know you've had bumps over the years."
"No, you don’t know that," the actor told host Seth Abramovitch on The Hollywood Reporter's It Happened in Hollywood podcast. "You might have read that somewhere, but you don’t know that, because it’s not true. It never was true. We're fine. We have disagreements, as people do, but we like and respect each other very much."
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Eric, who turns 70 on April 18, has said things about his very private sister, 58, that have raised eyebrows.
In September 2024, for instance, the Dark Knight actor infamously slammed Julia's 1989 film Steel Magnolias, for which she gained a lot attention and her first of four Oscar nominations. (She won once, for the 2000 drama Erin Brockovich.)
"Julia was good in Mystic Pizza, great in Pretty Woman, but not so much in Steel Magnolias, in my opinion, even though it brought Julia her first Academy Award nomination," he wrote in his 2024 memoir Runaway Train. "I don't want to sound like an actor talking, or a jealous sibling, but I don’t think her performance held up in that movie. When I saw her in Steel Magnolias, I thought, 'Okay. Good. She's almost a good actor, and one day she's gonna be one.'"
He added, "Nobody’s great in that movie. They all chewed a lot of scenery, and we know that if an actor cries on film, they go to the top of the class. They get the Oscar nod because crying gets a lot of credit."
He also took credit for the careers of both Julia and his daughter, actress Emma Roberts, in 2018.
But in the new interview, Eric gushed about his sister.
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"She's a wonderful actress. She's a wonderful human. I think she's even a wonderful mother; that's the hardest job there is," he said. "So, you know, she's a cool chick, and I like her."
Julia Roberts at a 'Steel Magnolias' event in 1989Credit: Steve Granitz Archive/WireImage
He said the media has twisted their story.
"We don't talk about each other in the press much, because it's always a contest brought on by the press. We’re not in a contest. We'll never be up for the same parts," he noted. "And we can't play anything but brother and sister, because everybody knows us."
Eric acknowledged that they had the same kind of relationship as other siblings.
"The only issues we have are day-to-day disagreements on whatever, but it's not a thing," he said. "I like my sister very much. I'm impressed with her wonderful career, and she’s got three kids. She's a mom, dude."
Julia and her husband Danny Moder share 21-year-old twins Hazel and Phinnaeus, and Henry, who's 18.
As for whether Eric and Julia will ever portray brother and sister onscreen, Eric said, "Well, you'll have to talk to her."
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to Julia Roberts for comment.
Hear the full conversation above.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
