“Notting Hill” Turns 25! Why Julia Roberts Almost Passed on the Movie (and More Surprising Facts)

She's just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him if he wants to know more about this Richard Curtis classic

Notting Hill is officially 25, and Richard Curtis' romantic comedy is still a classic.

The 1999 film stars Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant in the lead roles of movie star Anna Scott and bookstore owner William Thacker.

Directed by Roger Michell and written by Curtis (who would go on to write and direct Love Actually), the film also boasted a delightful ensemble including Rhys Ifans, Emma Chambers, Gina McKee, Hugh Bonneville, James Dreyfus, Tim McInnerny and Emily Mortimer.

However, while Roberts and Grant gave fans of the film a relationship to root for, Roberts wasn’t always interested in the movie.

Read on for some surprising facts about Notting Hill in honor of the film's 25th anniversary — including the one script change Roberts insisted on and why she almost turned the iconic role down.

Roberts thought playing a movie star would be "boring"

The actress read the script in June 1997, but she was less than thrilled to play a part that hit so close to home. She told her agent, “How boring. How tedious — what a stupid thing for me to do,” she recalled to Vanity Fair in 1999.

She’d read the script because she was a fan of Curtis', best known for writing Four Weddings and a Funeral. Despite her misgivings, she ended up signing on. “F---, I’m going to do this movie,” she said.

Related: Nicole Kidman Reveals She Wanted Julia Roberts' Role in Notting Hill

Roberts wasn’t the inspiration for Anna Scott, although both were big movie stars

Curtis cheekily told Vanity Fair he sought inspiration from Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn, “neither of whom were available.”

The idea for the film came to Curtis during a few sleepless nights. “I would sometimes wonder what it would be like if I just turned up at my friend’s house, where I used to have dinner once a week with the most famous person at that time, be it Madonna or whomever,” he said.

“It all sprang from there. That was the starting point, the idea of a very normal person going out with an unbelievably famous person and how that impinges on their lives,” Curtis added.

Roberts was initially "uncomfortable" and almost didn't take the role

During an interview with Curtis for British Vogue in January 2024, Roberts and the filmmaker revealed why she almost didn't take the role of Anna Scott in Notting Hill. Playing an actress in the film was "one of the hardest things" she "ever had to do."

"I was so uncomfortable!" Roberts said. "I mean, we’ve talked about this so many times, but I almost didn’t take the part because it just seemed — oh, it just seemed so awkward. I didn’t even know how to play that person."

Roberts also "loathed being dressed as a movie star," Curtis added. This even led to a wardrobe change involving the actress' real clothes on the day they shot the scene with the famous "I'm just a girl..." speech.

"My driver, lovely Tommy, I sent him back to my flat that morning," Roberts shared. "I said, 'Go into my bedroom and grab this, this and this out of my closet.' And it was my own flip-flops and my cute little blue velvet skirt and a T-shirt and my cardigan."

Roberts insisted on a script change to get a better payday on her next film

As Curtis and Roberts continued their chat for British Vogue, they mentioned a line Roberts wanted to change to influence her paycheck on her next project.

Curtis recalled it as "one of the funniest moments" in the movie, which was a line by Hugh Bonneville's character: "Last film you did, what did you get paid?"

Roberts said that Curtis "lowballed" her answer, and he said that the actress "insisted on me changing the script so that your price for your next movie would go up."

"Because I am a feminist," Roberts replied.

Related: Richard Curtis on How Melissa McCarthy's Genie Casting Mirrors Julia Roberts' for Notting Hill (Exclusive)

Real stock footage of Roberts' life was used in Notting Hill

According to E! News, Notting Hill scenes depicting the character Anna Scott on red carpets, attending awards events and footage from the 1998 BAFTA Awards were all real moments from Roberts' life.

After seeing the opening montage, Curtis seemed intimidated by Roberts' fame.

"We said, 'F---! That's who we're dealing with,'" he told Vanity Fair in 1999. "It's very easy when you're dealing with a very reasonable, lovely, relaxed, 30-year-old woman to forget that that's also the Julia Roberts who, for 10 years beforehand, you could never have gotten within a hundred yards of. It was a freakish moment when we realized that the woman we were dealing with was actually both those things: this relaxed person and this untouchable, iconic object of which there are so many photographs."

Grant and Roberts were both attached to Shakespeare in Love at different times

The actor auditioned for the role of William Shakespeare, while Roberts was set to play the Bard's love interest and muse, Violet, opposite Daniel Day-Lewis. When the actor didn’t sign on, Roberts left the project.

The role of Violet eventually went to Gwyneth Paltrow, who won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1999. Roberts would go on to win her own Oscar in 2001 for Erin Brockovich.

Grant found himself intimidated by Roberts

When it came time for Grant to audition for the role of Will in Notting Hill, he was attacked by a case of nerves.

“I was a very, very unemployed, pathetic actor at the time,” he told Vanity Fair. “I remember being so intimidated by the fact that she was in the room that I got myself in a sort of kerfuffle and missed the chair when I sat down.”

He clarified, “I sat on the arm of the chair, then had that very awkward inner debate about whether to say, ‘Actually, I’ve missed the chair,’ or to pretend that I was really a slightly quirky sort of character who always sits on the arm.”

Related: Hugh Grant Jokes He 'Got Too Old and Fat and Ugly' For Romantic Comedies

There was one line in the film Roberts hated

In a scene where Anna is lying in bed with Will, she quotes a famous line Rita Hayworth said after she starred in Gilda: “They go to bed with Gilda, they wake up with me.”

“I hate to say anything negative about what Richard wrote because he’s a genius, but I hated saying that line,” she told Vanity Fair. “To me, it was nails on a chalkboard. I don’t really believe any of that.”

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