Actress Julia Roberts attends the LA Premiere of “Secret In Their Eyes” held at the Hammer Museum. Picture: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP.

But when I ask whether she felt relieved to play a role without the burden of appearing her usual glamorous self, it seems I have inadvertently pushed one of her buttons.

Her face visibly falls as she says, “I don’t mean to call you out but it’s interesting to me that only women ask me this question.”

She pauses.

“Nobody is asking Chiwetel Ejiofor [her co-star] about being unglamorous in this role because he had to put grey in his hair.”

No disrespect to Mr Ejiofor, but Roberts is the face of luxe beauty brand, Lancome, and a much-lauded beauty herself since her breakout role, Pretty Woman, 25 years ago. The question wasn’t based on gender but because she’s one of the world’s most glamorous women. It’s just that she apparently doesn’t see herself that way.

Actress Julia Roberts attends the Premiere of STX Entertainment's “Secret In Their Eyes” at the Hammer Museum. Picture: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images.Source:Getty Images

“I am not known as a glamorous person, I don’t think. But thank you. Will you spread that around?” She smiles.

“And also, men are expected to look good, too. But the movie wasn’t examining what this person looks like, it’s examining what this person is going through. It has nothing to do with what they look like because in the latter part of the movie, it’s simply a reflection of how she feels inside. So, I don’t consider it as looking good or not good. It’s more about, ‘Do I look truthful to what I’m trying to express?’ ”

Be that as it may, we live in a sexist society with much gender disparity.

Roberts says, “About the division of men and women, sometimes you feel we’re getting there and sometimes it’s out of balance. It would be so great to come to an understanding and a resolve and move on to a more interesting conversation,” she says, matter-of-factly.

“Wouldn’t that be nice?”

Taking her direction, we move onto the film. Secret in their Eyes is an English-language adaptation of the 2010 Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film and also stars Nicole Kidman. A few minutes later, Roberts’ mood seems to have lightened considerably and she offers, “Oh, Nicole was just a nightmare.” She laughs loudly.

Apparently, all is right again in the world.

“I’ve known Nicole for a long time. I think we have very similar sensibilities. She’s a genuine person and I love her.” She pauses. “No, I’m in love with her.”

In the film, Roberts plays a woman on a search to avenge her daughter’s murder.

An emotional experience for any actress, it was evidently a particularly tough one for this real-life mother of a younger daughter (and two boys), though having husband of 13 years and the children’s father Danny Moder as the film’s cinematographer evidently helped.

After a particularly gruelling scene they filmed at the beginning of the movie, she says, “After we shot that, I was like, ‘I need my husband!’ I think that was fair. I think I earned that hug.”

Roberts is (dare I say) beautiful in person, and seems to epitomise the ‘happy wife, happy life,’ adage. Is that fair to say?

“Well, it’s marriage to my husband, which I don’t recommend for anyone but me,” she quips.

To what does she attribute her good fortune in maintaining a happy marriage?

“I find the continuous excavation of our relationship and our family, fascinating. That’s the real key. It’s to stay invested and interested in your partner. And we have the same values. We work in a great business but it’s separate from our home life. We have a real compatibility and we want the same things in life. That’s important.”

The couple lives in Malibu where they are raising 10-year-old twins Hazel and Phinnaeus and six-year-old Henry. Despite Roberts’ earnings, reportedly US$140 million-plus to date, she makes sure her privileged children are not overly spoiled. “It’s about raising them with values and appreciation that we’re fortunate to have the things we have.” She pauses.

“I think sometimes as parents, if you fear your child being spoiled, you almost strip it down to bare bones. My kids will probably end up being the least spoiled children in a five-mile radius.”

Several years ago Roberts declared that her children were blissfully unaware of their mum’s fame. Do her kids know who Julia Roberts really is these days?

She laughs. “Make no mistake; my children know who I am in the deep, perfect, appropriate sense of who a person is. As far as acknowledging my name as Julia Roberts, I don’t think there was one lightning strike for them. But I remember one of my kids came home from school one day and said, ‘Somebody asked me today if my mum was Julia Roberts. And I said no’,” she laughs.

“They didn’t feel like they were not telling the truth because they don’t have a connection to that question. I said, ‘That’s totally fine if that’s what you feel comfortable saying.’ And then I had another child say, ‘Somebody asked me that too, and I just said yes.’ So we all have our different answers to everything I guess.”

Roberts recently turned 48. How did the Oscar-winning movie star celebrate?

“Wildly,” she smiles. “Just from the moment I opened my eyes until I fell asleep on the couch blissfully exhausted, just was in full celebration mode. It was really a nice day.

“How wild was it?” she repeats the question, laughing again. “Well, I think I played about 15 rounds of Mahjong with my girlfriend, so that was really that kind of just having a free day where you don’t have to do anything but stay in your house and celebrate.”

Some things about her life might not have changed but she’s still come a long way since Pretty Woman. What does she think has changed the most in her life since then?

“Well, I am not as worried about rent as I was when I did Pretty Woman,” she says, with some understatement.

“But it hasn’t so much changed as evolved. My needs and expectations as a creative person have grown up with me and the things that I was looking for personally have come along,” she explains. “I am living a more evolved version of life.”