Julia Roberts Explains Why She Hasn't Done a Rom-Com in 20 Years -- Not Because She Wasn't Interested

One might assume that as she progressed as an actress and began to be taken more seriously, Roberts turned her nose up at these types of fluffy films, but that's not the case at all. In fact, she suggested in a new interview for New York Times Magazine that she never stopped reading scripts for them.

Therein, though, lies the problem.

Many people dismiss romantic comedies, saying that they all follow a very generic formula with painfully familiar beats and cliché emotions on display. Hallmark has built an entire Christmas season around these tropes.

"People sometimes misconstrue the amount of time that’s gone by that I haven’t done a romantic comedy as my not wanting to do one," Roberts told NYTM. Instead, she said, it all came down to the scripts she was seeing.

"If I had read something that I thought was that 'Notting Hill' level of writing or 'My Best Friend’s Wedding' level of madcap fun, I would do it," she said. "They didn’t exist until this movie that I just did that Ol Parker wrote and directed," Roberts added, referencing "Ticket to Paradise."

Even better, Roberts said that in the case of this particular movie, she could only imagine doing it opposite frequent co-star George Clooney -- and apparently he felt the same way. As for stepping back into that romcom mindset, Roberts loved it.

"I love to laugh and be funny," she explained. "You get into that mode of those endorphins going off when you’re clever and people going, ‘Oh!’ Then that becomes this automatic thing where you’re always thinking in terms of creating fun."

"It’s a joy to play in that sandbox," she continued. "It has been a long time."

Roberts admitted that over these past two decades, there has also been another factor in making her so choosy over scripts. It was her responsibilities as a parent, which she said "raises the bar even more" and even turns it into math!

"It’s not only, Is this material good? It’s also the math equation of my husband’s work schedule and the kids’ school schedule and summer vacation," she said.

Roberts' emphasis on family and on her kids, which she says she give her "a sense of great pride," has certainly paid off. During her appearance on "The Late Show" Monday night, she and Stephen Colbert talked about long marriages, with Roberts celebrating 20 years and Colbert 28.

For fun, they decided to share in unison what they thought the secret to a strong marriage was, and their answers were not the same. On the count of three, they blurted out what they thought it was.

Colbert shouted," Apologies!" But Roberts' answer was a little more unexpected. "Kissing," she said.

"Well, I would like to apologize to my wife for not saying 'kissing,'" Colbert replied.

They then agreed that maybe it's about apologizing and then enjoying the makeup -- ahem -- kissing.

You can check out her entire "Late Show" interview below, where she talks about the cast of "Ocean's 12" living together at Clooney's place while she was pregnant, and why she's so excited about working with Sean Penn in the upcoming "Gaslit," premiering April 24 on Stars.