Julia Roberts looks to 'stir it up' with cancel culture film at Venice

Julia Roberts said she hoped to "stir it all up" for viewers of her new film about a university professor grappling with fraught US campus politics, as the Hollywood star made her debut at the Venice Film Festival on Friday.

The star walked the red carpet at the city's festival for the first time in her career at the premiere of "After the Hunt", a cancel-culture and MeToo-themed psychological drama from Italian director Luca Guadagnino.

Early reviews could make difficult reading for the "Pretty Woman" actress, however. The Hollywood Reporter wondering how Guadagnino "could deliver something so dour and airless".

While Variety praised Roberts's performance, it nevertheless described the film as "muddled".

Roberts, speaking at a news conference Friday ahead of the premiere, said the film did not aim to answer questions, but provoke them.

She plays a Yale University professor haunted by a secret from her past after a student accuses one of her colleagues of sexual assault.

Italian film director Luca Guadagnino (left), US actress Julia Roberts and US actress Ayo Edebiri attend the red carpet of the movie "After the Hunt" presented out of competition at the 82nd International Venice Film Festival, at Venice Lido on Friday.

Questions over truth and fiction, and whether characters are reliable narrators, course through the film.

Touching on Gen Z culture and the generational divide between students and professors, the Amazon-produced film has overtones of Todd Field's 2022 drama "Tar", which earned Cate Blanchett a best actress award at Venice.

"Not everything is supposed to make you comfortable," Roberts's character in the film tells the student who claims she was assaulted.

A challenge to conversation

Roberts said the film did not advocate any one point of view.

Actor Will Price (left), US actor Michael Stuhlbarg, British-US actor Andrew Garfield, Italian film director Luca Guadagnino, US actress Julia Roberts, US actress Ayo Edebiri, US actress Chloe Sevigny attend the red carpet of the movie "After the Hunt". Photos: AFP

"We are challenging people to have conversations and to be excited by that or to be infuriated by that, it's up to you," she said.

"We are kind of losing the art of conversation in humanity right now and if making this movie does anything, getting everybody to talk to each other is the most exciting thing I feel we could accomplish."

Guadagnino is a Venice regular.

His 2017 "Call Me By Your Name" helped launch Timothee Chalamet to stardom.

And he was back in Venice's main competition last year with "Queer", an adaptation of the William Burroughs novel, starring Daniel Craig.

Agence France-Presse