Eric Roberts is keeping his family secrets to himself.
The โDark Knightโ actor, 68, wouldnโt talk about his sister Julia Roberts on the July 8 episode of Steve Kmetkoโs โStill Here Hollywoodโ podcast.
โYouโll have to ask her,โ Eric told Kmetko, 71, who asked about the โPretty Womanโ actress.
โI love my sister, but I canโt talk about her,โ Eric continued. โShe donโt want to talk about it.โ
Eric also said his daughter Emma Roberts โtold me also not to talk about her, but I stumbled and do.โ
โIโm not supposed to talk about either of them. But I do,โ he added.
But Eric broke his rule later in the podcast when he praised Emma, 33, and her acting chops.
โI am in love with my daughterโs work these days,โ the proud dad shared about the โAmerican Horror Storyโ actress. โLike, I canโt believe how great sheโs become.โ
โIโm so proud of her I canโt see straight,โ he continued. โSince her performance in โMaybe I Doโ until right now, she overwhelms me with pride and just, โOh my God, here she goes again.โ And Iโm just so happy to be her dad, because sheโs kicking ass. And Iโm so proud.โ
Kmetko asked Eric if heโs responsible for Emmaโs success, to which he responded, โAbsolutely nothing. Except I gave her that name.โ
Eric shares Emma with his ex Kelly Cunningham.
He talked about Julia, 56, and Emmaโs bond in May 2020.
โItโs really cool to look at them. I love seeing them together,โ he told Us Weekly.
There may be a reason for Eric having to be tight-lipped. The โKing of the Gypsiesโ star has spoken about his famous family members, including Julia, on numerous occasions in the past โ and the topics havenโt always been positive.
The siblings, who also have a sister, Lisa Roberts Gillan, were estranged until 2004 when Julia and her husband, Danny Moder, welcomed their twins Hazel and Phinnaeus.
In 2018, Eric told Vanity Fair that his substance abuse struggles affected his relationships with his sisters.
โI wouldnโt characterize it as a falling-out. I was crazy about my sisters. Loved them, adored them,โ he said. โThey were precious to me, and we had times of great closeness. We all felt very protective of each other, but the hardest person to protect yourself from is yourself.โ
โI was exhausting to be around: complainy, blamey, unable to enjoy enjoyment,โ Eric added. โEveryone in my world needed a break sometimes, and that must have included Julia.โ
The โHeroesโ star elaborated more on his relationship with Julia on the โBehind the Velvet Ropeโ podcast in 2022.
โJulia and I have always been fine,โ he said. โI think years and years ago, I was doing a press tour for some movie. It was just when โPretty Womanโ released, and so theyโre asking a bunch of questions about Julia. And I said, โHey, excuse me. Can we talk about me?โ โ
โSuddenly, I keep hearing about [issues] I have with my sister that I donโt have with my sister,โ Eric continued. โTheyโre just popping up all over the place, and Iโm asked about them as if theyโre real issues. [Iโd say,] โOh, I wasnโt aware of that.โ [It] blew up and became all these things it wasnโt and [there was claims that] we donโt agree on a lot of things.โ
โMy sister and I, weโve always talked, weโve always bitched. Iโve always had fun, [weโve always] known each other. Simple as that,โ he further explained. โI love knowing my sister. Sheโs a cool chick, my sister . . . Sheโs doing a lot of stuff and . . . I donโt ignore it. I just stay out of her hair with the press. Thatโs all. And she stays out of mine.โ
Eric and Julia also had a half-sister, Nancy Motes, who died by suicide in February 2014. She overdosed on drugs.
According to the Daily Mail, Motes blamed Julia for driving her into โthe deepest depression Iโve ever been inโ in her suicide note.
โI have suffered thru this disease all my life, however It has never been this bad,โ Motes reportedly wrote. โI burst into tears every morning b/c (because) I woke up.โ
Motes reportedly slammed Julia in several tweets before her death, as well.
โJust so you all know, Americaโs Sweetheart is a bโch,โ Motes allegedly said about her famous sister. In another tweet, she reportedly wrote, โDo you want to be a fan of someone so cruel? Sheโs not even that good of an actress.โ
Julia addressed Motesโ death three weeks later in an interview with the WSJ.
โItโs just heartbreak,โ Julia said. โItโs only been 20 days. There arenโt words to explain what any of us have been through in these last 20 days. Itโs hour by hour some days, but you just keep looking ahead. You donโt want anything bad to happen to anyone, but there are so many tragic, painful, inexplicable things in the world. But [as with] any situation of challenge and despair, we must find a way, as a family. Itโs so hard to formulate a sentence about it outside the weepy huddle of my family.โ
Both Julia and Emma, meanwhile, rarely talk about Eric publicly.
Emma, however, recently said in an interview that sheโs โnever gotten a jobโ because of her famous father and aunt, but rather โlost a coupleโ of roles because of them.
โIโve lost more jobs than Iโve gained from being in the business,โ the โMadame Webโ actress told Flaunt.
โPeople have opinions and sometimes maybe theyโre not good opinions of people in your family,โ Emma added. โIโve never gotten a job because of it, I know I definitely have lost a couple of jobs because of it.โ
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Source: USA Today