Actress Julia Roberts has pushed back at #MeToo suggestions that her new movie is ambiguous on where it stands on sexual assault allegations.
Roberts faced an at-times tense media call at the Venice Film Festival for the premiere of After the Hunt, directed by Luca Guadagnino.
The Oscar-winning star plays Yale professor Alma Imhoff, whose longtime friend and colleague (played by Andrew Garfield) is accused by one of her favourite students (Ayo Edebiri) of sexual assault.
The role is already creating an Oscar buzz, with predictions that Roberts could be in line for her second Academy Award since portraying Erin Brockovich 25 years ago.
It reportedly received a six-minute standing ovation after the screening.
The BBC’s movie review said Roberts, who is on screen for almost every one of the movie’s 139 minutes, is the “monumental centre around which its chaos and controversy swirl”.
However, the film also stirred criticisms at Venice this week, with some questioning its positioning on #MeToo and believing female victims.
Her character is conflicted on where she stands between her colleague and star student.
Roberts, one of Hollywood’s highest paid stars, responded that the movie was aimed at “challenging people to have a conversation”.
She said that society was “losing the art of conversation in humanity right now”.
“We’re not making statements, we are portraying these people in these moments of time,” she said.
“I don’t know about controversy, per se, but we are challenging people to have conversation. To be excited or infuriated about it is up to you.
“If making this movie does anything, getting everybody to talk to each other is the most exciting thing.”
Roberts said she had enjoyed playing a conflicted character.
“Trouble is where the juicy stuff is, right? … It’s like dominoes of conflict. Once one falls, suddenly everywhere you turn there’s some new piece of challenge.”
Guadagnino said the film was not about offering a clear moral verdict, but revealing competing perspectives.
“Everyone has their own truth. It’s not that one truth is more important than another,” he said.
George Clooney falls ill
Also during the festival, George Clooney is said to have been forced to scale back his commitments at the Venice Film Festival after falling ill on the opening day.
The Oscar-winning actor, 64, who is starring in Noah Baumbach’s competition film Jay Kelly, ended his press junket early and did not attend a private dinner with cast, crew and Netflix executives.
Insiders told The Hollywood Reporter Clooney began to feel unwell on on Wednesday afternoon and was advised to return to his accommodation to rest ahead of Thursday’s press conference and world premiere.
The actor was photographed leaving the Hotel Excelsior by boat about 4pm.
His absence meant he missed a dinner with director Noah Baumbach, 55, and co-stars Adam Sandler, 58, and Laura Dern, also 58.
“George has been diagnosed with sinusitis and his doctor has advised him to limit his activities in the coming days to recover,” his management said in response to an inquiry by the German news agency DPA.
Sinusitis is an inflammation of the mucous membranes in the sinuses.
Hours earlier, Clooney had been seen arriving at the Lido with Laura, dressed in a navy suit, striped shirt and tinted sunglasses.
Clooney’s health scare comes after he recently discussed his future plans in acting.
In March, he told CBS News he would no longer appear in romantic comedies.
He said: “Look, I’m 63 years old. I’m not trying to compete with 25-year-old leading men. That’s not my job. I’m not doing romantic films anymore.”
He was speaking ahead of his Broadway debut in Good Night And Good Luck, an adaptation of his 2005 Oscar-nominated film of the same name.
Clooney plays journalist Edward R Murrow in the stage production, which recounts Murrow’s televised confrontation with Senator Joseph McCarthy during the “Second Red Scare” of the 1950s.
He said: “It’s exciting to be (on Broadway.) Let’s not kid ourselves. It’s nerve-wracking. And there’s a million reasons why it’s dumb to do.
“It’s dumb to do because you’re coming out and saying, ‘Well, let’s try to get an audience to take this ride with you back to 1954’.”
Reflecting on the relationship between government and the press, Clooney said: “We’re seeing this idea of using government to scare or fine, or use corporations to make journalists smaller.
“Governments don’t like the freedom of the press, they never have. And that goes for whether you are a conservative or a liberal or whatever side you’re on. They don’t like the press.”
The lifelong Democrat also spoke about his decision to call on Joe Biden, 82, to step aside from the last US presidential race after his debate with Donald Trump, 79.
George said: “I was raised to tell the truth. I had seen the president up close for this fundraiser, and I was surprised. And so, I feel as if there was a lot of… cowardice in my party, through all of that, and I was not proud of that, and I also believed I had to tell the truth.”
-with AAP/DPA
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