Julia Roberts' Daughter Hazel Makes Her Red Carpet Debut

Jan 12, 2022 by apost team

Julia Roberts has been one of the top leading ladies in Hollywood for over four decades since she starred in the 1990 film "Pretty Woman." Her decades-spanning career has brought her numerous accolades for her acting, including an Academy Award and three Golden Globes. Roberts' films have brought in box office grossing of over $3.8 billion globally when counting all of her movies.

But despite her megastar status, the actress does her best to keep herself and her family away from the public eye. In keeping with her private nature, Roberts didn't marry another celebrity; instead, she married cinematographer Daniel Moder in 2002. The couple met on the set of the movie "The Mexican," where Daniel had been a cameraman and Roberts the leading lady. Together the couple has three children — twins Phinnaeus and Hazel, 16, and a son named Henry, 14.

For the most part, the couple's children have stayed out of the spotlight, but in a rare and unexpected appearance, 16-year-old Hazel accompanied her father to the Cannes Film Festival in France in July 2021, where she made her red carpet debut. Daniel was there to promote the movie "Flag Day," on which he was the cinematographer, and Sean Penn was the director. Despite not appearing in the film, Hazel came along to the movie's premiere with her dad, and it was a truly sweet moment.

The teenager wore a sweet pale yellow lace dress with black Mary Jane shoes and kept her hair and makeup minimal. Her natural beauty shined through, and while she certainly inherited features from her mom, it's no doubt that Hazel looks a lot like her father. Read on to learn more about Roberts and her daughter Hazel.

Roberts was born October 28, 1967, in Smyrna, Georgia, which is a suburb of Atlanta. She is the daughter of Betty Lou Bredemus and Walter Grady Roberts, who passed away from cancer in 1977 when Roberts was 10. 

Her parents were actors and playwrights, and they opened an acting school in Decatur, Georgia, while Roberts' mother was pregnant with her. One of her father's students was Yolanda, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. As a thank you to the family, Mrs. King paid for the hospital bill when Roberts was born.  

Her parents divorced in 1971, and Roberts' mother remarried to a man named Michael Motes that has been accused of being abusive and often unemployed. The Daily Mirror said, "Julia 'feared and despised' Motes, an alcoholic who is said to have made her life, and that of her siblings, a complete misery."

Roberts has not spoken out much about her childhood, but According to Daily Mirror, she did say: "I have very strong opinions about things, and I have a young (half) sister who is a product of my mother's second marriage, and out of respect for her and my mom, I don't think it's really fair." Roberts' half-sister, Nancy Motes, passed away from an apparent drug overdose in 2014.

Roberts attended Smyrna's Campbell High School. The actress said she was "just mediocre, just getting through the hallways with my girlfriend Paige," while she was in school. "We weren't losers, but we weren't popular, we were just coasting, that is exactly what we were doing," said Roberts to Access. She added that her high school friend Paige is also her daughter Hazel's godmother. 

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After high school, Roberts moved to New York City to pursue a career in acting. She appeared in a few films beginning in 1988 but first found critical success with her role in "Steel Magnolias" in 1989. The role earned her an Academy Award nomination and won her a Golden Globe award. The star found worldwide success a year later with the iconic film "Pretty Woman." 

The script for "Pretty Woman" was originally called "3,000," and it had a very different ending. "Threw her out of the car, threw the money on top of her, as memory serves, and just drove away, leaving her in some dirty alley," Roberts recalled to Variety. 

The actress continued, "I got the part in '3,000.' I love that you're asking me this question, but I had no business being in a movie like that. This small movie company folded over the weekend, and by Monday, I didn't have a job." For a while, it seemed the movie would not be made.

Fortunately for fans of the movie, the script was picked up by another company. "There was one producer that stayed with the script, and it went to Disney. I thought, 'Went to Disney? Are they going to animate it?' Garry Marshall came on, and because he's a great human being, he felt it would only be fair to meet me since I had this job for three days and lost it. And they changed the whole thing. And it became more something that is in my wheelhouse," shared Roberts.

Even though it is not a typical Disney movie, "Pretty Woman" was a huge commercial success. It was the third highest-grossing film of 1990 and is still the number one romantic comedy for selling the highest estimated amount of domestic tickets. Roberts received a Golden Globe award and an Academy Award nomination for her performance. Her fee for appearing in "Pretty Woman" was $300,000.

On Acting

Throughout most of the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s, Roberts was the highest-paid actress in the world. In 2003 she was paid an unprecedented $25 million for starring in the film "Mona Lisa Smile." As of 2020, her net worth is an estimated $250 million. However, her demeanor and the way she views her success make her seem very approachable.

Roberts told Variety that she did not feel overwhelmed by making so much money or for being the highest-paid actress of the 90s. "It never felt like pressure. All the salaries in those days where there was just a lot of money to be spent making films — in a comical way, I thought, OK, sure, this is ridiculous, but I'll be part of this party. I'm just walking in a path that Barbra Streisand has hacked out with a machete, so to be the gardener that's picking some weeds that have come up since these incredible women before me have made a path for all of us to be artists in our own right — it was nice to feel that I had a little puzzle piece to that," said Roberts.

Roberts felt her high salary put her on a level playing field with her male co-stars. "They say I can open movies, and that's nice in that it puts it into people's minds that women can do it," Roberts told The New York Times' Timothy Egan in 1994. "It's not just Kevin Costner, not just Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not just guys."

Roberts opened up about her acting process with Grazia Magazine and shared that "I did a film called 'Secret In Their Eyes' (in 2015) and my character's daughter is violently murdered and my whole pact with myself at that point was to say 'I don't relate to this as a parent, I relate to it as an artist and I relate to it within the constructions of my feelings about my own mother or my feelings of being a mother but not as it relates to my own children.'" 

She continued, adding, "It just becomes very complicated and unsafe I think. Tom Hanks would never wear his wedding ring as a married person in a movie because it's separate, it's a different ring." It is fascinating to know what goes on in an actor's mind while they are performing.

In an interview with Harper's Bazaar, the actress shared how she chooses her roles. "I just wait to see what comes along, as opposed to looking for it," said Roberts. "It makes it fun and organic." However, she adds, "there's an almost unfair bar that a script has to attain for me to say 'I'm going to pack everything up for this.'"

Roberts added that her job as an actress could at times feel superfluous. "Sometimes I think, 'I'm pretending my name is Jane and I work at a bank. That's kinda silly – I'm a grown-up woman!'" When asked if she would ever consider giving up acting, she laughed and said, "Well, if I did much less, I wouldn't be in the business at all. I was saying to my husband the other day that I haven't worked in almost a year."

Julia's Love For Daniel

Although the family is very private, Roberts did post a rare show of public adoration for her husband in early July 2021, in celebration of her and Daniel's 19-year-wedding anniversary, which happens to coincide with Independence Day. 

Sharing a candid photo of the two of them on a beach on social media, Roberts is seen beaming as she wears a floral shirt, orange cap, and black sunglasses. Meanwhile, Daniel appears to have just had a swim, as his hair is wet and tousled, and he's wrapped in a towel. Roberts has her arm around him, and it appears the picture is a selfie. She captioned the sweet tribute: "19 years ❤️🤍💙 Just getting started!"

Famous friends and fans alike congratulated the couple, including Tom Hanks's wife Rita Wilson, who commented: "Happy happy anniversary! Gotta celebrate big on 20th!" Roberts even replied to her friend's comment, writing, "we will come to your house!🥰💓💋🥳." 

Clearly, in love with her husband of nearly two decades, the "Pretty Woman" star opened up to Gwyneth Paltrow on her "Goop" podcast in 2018 to talk about her marriage to Daniel, among other topics. She said:

"Getting married to Danny. That was the first, like, my life will never be the same in the most incredible, indescribable way… He truly, to this day, to this minute, is just my favorite human. I'm more interested in what he has to say or his point of view just more than anybody. Really, we're so lucky in that way. We just really, really like each other and we just enjoy each other's company."

Hazel's Debut

Since Julia Roberts and her husband Daniel Moder prefer to stay out of the spotlight, it's no surprise that the couple has kept their children out of the limelight too. The last time we saw any of their kids — twins Phinnaeus and Hazel and son Henry — in public appearances was quite some time ago. 

But now, we've had a glimpse of Hazel in what is her red carpet debut. Stepping out for the premiere of "Flag Day" at the Cannes Film Festival, Daniel and Hazel made a lovely pair together. Daniel dressed the part in a dapper tuxedo, while Hazel looked bright-eyed and sunkissed. Wearing a pale yellow long lace dress, Hazel accessorized her gown with contrasting patent black Mary Jane shoes. She kept her makeup very natural, with her hair scooped back into a ponytail.

What was most surprising about Hazel's appearance was seeing how closely she resembles her father! There's no doubt she is a mix of her two film industry parents, with her smile and nose resembling her mom, but her beaming blue eyes are an exact carbon copy of her dad. Daniel was a very supportive father at the event, staying by Hazel's side the entire time and putting his arm around her.

While two of Sean Penn's children appear in the movie, Hazel does not. However, she and her brothers had a tiny part in her mom's 2016 movie "Mother's Day." Hazel, who is still of school age, hasn't made it clear what kind of career she wishes to pursue, but if it turns out to be acting, she'll have no problems trying to land parts considering who her parents are.

It is great to see Hazel showing some interest in the film industry. Back in 2018, Roberts told Harper's Bazaar about her children:

"I don't think they will ever have a true sense of (my fame). I think I told you once when they were starting to figure it out, it was like, 'You're famous?' And I said, 'I think a lot of people might have seen the movie that I'm in or might know who I am.'"

In the same interview, Roberts sympathized with her kids over how difficult things can be for teenagers in our current society. She said:

"It's different than when I might have said to my mom, 'Mom, you don't know what it's like to be a teenager today,' even though she probably did. Danny and I really don't know what it's like to be a teenager today. Sometimes my kids ask me things and I just say to them, 'I'm going to say no, and I'm going to look into it because I don't even know what we're talking about.'"

Roberts loves being a mother and often says when she isn't working, she lives more like a soccer mom than an actress. It sounds like family life is going very well for the Roberts and Moder household. We can't wait to see how their other children have grown up too!

Are you a fan of Julia Roberts' movies? Do you think Hazel Moder looks more like her dad or mom? If you enjoyed reading this article, then pass it on so others can too!