Julia Roberts Delivers Riveting Role in After the Hunt

Luca Guadagnino vividly remembers the first time Julia Roberts’ star power struck him—back in 1989, when she played the unforgettable Shelby in Steel Magnolias. More than three decades later, the filmmaker finally met the Hollywood icon at a glamorous Los Angeles party, where a mutual acquaintance introduced them on a couch that would become the setting of their first long, effortless conversation.

Even with his extensive experience, Guadagnino recalls feeling nervous. Roberts, however, dissolved those nerves instantly. “She made me feel familiar in a second,” he says. “Over time, we bonded over many things.”

Their first talk soon turned toward a buzzy new screenplay by emerging writer Nora Garrett. Guadagnino was preparing to direct it following his 2024 releases Queer and Challengers. The film, After the Hunt, is set within Yale’s insular yet politically charged academic environment, where characters hide complex secrets behind well-constructed facades.

Roberts stars as Alma, a sharp, ambitious philosophy professor locked in a tense tenure race with her colleague—and potential love interest—Hank, played by Andrew Garfield. Their star student, Maggie (Ayo Edebiri), becomes the pivotal third point in a fraught triangle shaped by power imbalances and privilege—especially given Maggie’s wealthy, donor parents.

The story erupts when Maggie arrives at Alma’s home late one night, claiming she was sexually assaulted by Hank. But Alma is far from sympathetic. The fallout draws in Alma’s affectionate but frustrated husband Frederik (Michael Stuhlbarg) and university psychiatrist Kim Sayers (Chloë Sevigny), setting off a chain of events that explores generational conflict, race, class, and sexuality.

Roberts was drawn to the project’s ensemble strength. “Every character is equally vital to the tapestry,” she says. “You don’t come across many films with this many intricate relationships.”

The film’s title echoes Otto von Bismarck’s observation that people lie the most “after a hunt, during a war, or before an election.” In After the Hunt, dishonesty is practically instinctive. Alma, in what many are calling Roberts’s strongest performance since Closer, spirals through intense confrontations—including a standout moment where she tells Maggie, “Not everything is supposed to make you comfortable… Not everything is supposed to be a lukewarm bath.”

Guadagnino praises Roberts’ range: “She has that movie-star immediacy—familiar yet profoundly capable of change.”

The film has been compared to Tár for its psychological depth and cultural nuance. Guadagnino cites influences ranging from Hitchcock to Bergman’s Persona and Mike Nichols’ work, with a special nod to Gena Rowlands in Another Woman.

Rehearsals for the film took place in Roberts’s San Francisco home, where she cooked for the cast—her banana bread becoming a minor legend during press tours. Guadagnino, who is lactose-intolerant, was delighted: “Julia is a formidable chef.”

He recalls their time in the city fondly. “She doesn’t know it, but for me, San Francisco will always be Julia,” he says. “Walking with her, going to church with her—Julia has changed me a lot.”

The two remain close, and Roberts even visited him on the set of his latest film, Artificial, also shot in San Francisco. Guadagnino says he’d work with her again “without question.”

After the Hunt has quickly become one of the year’s most talked-about releases, now streaming in more than 300 million homes on Prime Video. With its thorny moral landscape, the film is poised to ignite heated discussions during the holiday season.

Is Alma a flawed symbol of generational conflict? Is Hank manipulative? Are younger generations too sensitive—or are they finally demanding accountability?

Roberts acknowledges the ambiguity. “I couldn’t land on whether I liked her or hated her,” she says of Alma. “That’s what excited me.”

The debates began immediately after the film’s Venice Film Festival premiere. A viral moment followed when an Italian journalist posed a question that excluded Edebiri; Roberts gently called attention to the oversight, echoing the film’s themes of bias.

Guadagnino welcomed the passionate reactions. “It’s important to be in dialogue with people,” he says. “The beauty of art is that someone else’s perspective can be completely different from yours.”

Although he avoided reading online reactions, he’s proud of the discussions the film has sparked.

When asked about the film’s use of opening credits referencing Woody Allen’s classic style, Guadagnino pushed back on over-explaining artistic choices. “People should think about their biases first,” he says.

Roberts sums up the film’s impact: “This is one of those movies where you can dissect every moment afterward and debate why each character did what they did. For me, that’s what makes going to the movies great.”