With films such as Pretty Woman, Notting Hill and My Best Friend's Wedding under her belt, Julia has earned a name for herself as the queen of the romantic comedy genre. But now the 43-year-old actress is venturing in to unfamiliar terrain in the upcoming Snow White movie, in which she plays the Evil Queen. In the first stills from the as-yet-untitled movie, due for release in March 2012, Roberts is seen looking stony-faced as she glares in to the camera.
In one shot, the actress wears a massive red and white dress, teamed with a white feathered headdress, before donning a sumptuous gold number for another take in Tarsem Singh's big-screen adaptation of the classic fairytale. The movie also stars Phil Collins' daughter Lily, who is making a name for herself in the movie industry after starring alongside Taylor Lautner in recent thriller Abduction, and the 22-year-old actress says people won't be prepared for Roberts' evil turn in the movie. She said: 'She’s playing evil in a way that I don’t think people are going to expect. Everyone loves that Julia smile and laugh and she maintains that, but in such this creepy eerie way that you don’t know if you love her or hate her.
'She’s brilliant and it’s been an honour. She’s so nice, she’s so classy, she’s just everything I had hoped she’d be.'But Lily, who plays the title character in the upcoming film, which also stars Nathan Lane as the queen's servant Brighton, said Roberts often struggled with her villainous alter-ego on the set. She explained: 'Julia gets to be quite horrible to me. There’s a scene where she pulls my hair and she pulled it so hard that some of it came out!
'But we kept rolling and afterward she was like, "I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!" 'Lily recently said playing Snow White is a 'dream come true' for her, especially as it's her first major lead role after being in the supporting cast of The Blind Side and Abduction. She explained: 'It was a complete dream come true. I pinched myself every day. It was crazy and I loved every second.
'It's a weird thought that you're the character the whole story is about. Being the first on the call sheet is a weird concept. I'm the one who saves the call sheets because I'm never going to be No.1 again.''But just being able to work with people like Julia Roberts and Nathan Lane... being in their presence and being on screen with them is a complete honour.'Lily also said that the 3D movie will be a delight for fans when it hits the cinema screens next year.
She said: 'You can expect the unexpected. You can expect huge costumes, hair and make-up. Basically, anything you assume a fairytale would be like, it has all those elements but it's not just your typical Snow White. It's been twisted into many cool ways. I turn out to be a fighter so I've been doing sword fighting. I've had four months of training so I got to kick butt as well... It was really fun.'