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Oprah: Now is, of course, the visit from our special guest today. She's a big time, I mean like the biggest movie star ever and in her new movie, Erin Brockovich, you are going to see Julia Roberts as you've never seen her before. Not only are the micro-minis and cleavage gonna wow you, Julia's performance is just terrific. Please welcome, Julia Roberts!

[Julia walks in and they hug, then they sit down]

Oprah: What a great performance.

Julia: Thank you.

Oprah: A very great performance. After giving a performance like that, do you think sometimes you need like take a break, because what else can you do to top that.

Julia: Well, yeah. And this was also a really perfect movie-making experience, start to finish, top to bottom, all over the place. Uhm, so it was really that that made me feel, jeez what else could I do that would be as much fun and creative and this challenging. And we wrapped in August… haven't worked a day since.

Oprah: Really.

Julia: Yeah.

Oprah: Really? Is that, that's a long time for you to not work.

Julia: Uhm, not really long but yeah, I suppose.

Oprah: So what do you do with yourself?

Julia: Uhm, you know, watch Oprah, soap operas, stuff like that.

Oprah: Hanging out at your ranch.

Julia: With my family and my dogs and my… man, and well, that kinda stuff.

Oprah: I know, listen, when Dianne Sawyer did that interview with you, my friend Gaile called "turn on the TV now, you've never seen anybody light up like that, when they're talking about being in love", I mean, it's a wonderful thing to see you feel that good about somebody and to know that he feels the same way about you. Look at you right now!

Julia: I know.

Oprah: Look at you right now, this must be really good.

Julia: … yeah…(Audience laughs)

Oprah: Is it?

Julia: yeah.

Oprah: And isn't it like how, I know I've heard you say this or read that you said this, that how every other relationship, every other thing prepares you for this great moment. That if you hadn't been through the others, you couldn't have experienced this the way you're experiencing it now.

Julia: Absolutely, yeah. Worries many, regrets none. That's how I kinda classify it. You know, you can't, when relationships don't work out, you can't regret that you were ever in that, I think, because each person that comes into your life whether it be a boyfriend or a friend or someone that you work with, they all teach you something that helpes you hopefully evolve to the next step or level or whatever so, uhm, yeah, it's through all my wonderful mistakes that I landed in a place where I could be completely open and… appealing… to this person.

Oprah: Now obviously, just thinking about him gives you goose bumps or something.

Julia: Am I red in the face right now?

Oprah: Yeah, you are. Yeah.

What is that? A soul connection or what?

Julia: It's uhm, you know, I find him so challenging to .. 'him', he's a pronoun. (They show a picture of Ben and Julia) Oh, good God! Yeah, look, like I have a hanger in my mouth, right?

(Audience and Oprah start to laugh)

Oprah: How big is that grin!

Julia: I know. Uhm, he's just a person who I find difficult to talk about because I either have to say everything and this becomes the "Oprah mini-series". Or, I mean, i can't even start cause it's too much and nothing comes first, he's a wonderful person, such a good, good person and very funny and just loves me unconditionally, he accepts me as a flawed individual and loves me anyway.

Oprah: I think I remember reading, you say it's like sitting down with somebody with whom you can share a great meal and then be able to share that great meal with somebody who's also humorous and given and all the other things…

Julia: Yeah, well, I was talking about how, what the real.. I'm sorry when I'm nervous I tear out of my left eye which is why I keep tearing.. uhm, I was talking about what a miracle it is, that any of us meet our true love. How unusual it is to meet someone that you actually can have interesting conversation with and then imagine going out to dinner and having a bowl of pasta and having interesting fun time and then going to the next level and the next level and what a miracle it is when you meet somebody that can go to each level with you and you both be really happy.

Oprah: So I have to ask you, does this mean, and no that I don't care what you do or not, cause I get asked it too, does this mean you wanna marry him, you're gonna get married, you talked about marriage.

Julia: Well, we talk about it about every six months because people write that we're married and so I started telling people that we're married, and some guy asked me on the press junket for this movie, you know, so when are you guys gonna get married and I said, "we're married! We've been married for a year and a half, we have 3 kids! Where have you been?" But we are just ecstaticly happy and the.. I appreciate the support, people saying "oh, get married you're so in love" but, you know, it's sweet but, we just kinda go along as we go along, we're, we're… DRUNK with joy, 24 hours a day, it's… we're sickening. (Audience laughs)

Oprah: You can't keep your hands off each other that kinda thing?

Julia: yeah.

Oprah: DRUNK with joy!

Julia: We are! …I'm sorry, yeah. (Audience laughter)

Oprah: that's fantastic, I'm happy for you.

Julia: Thank you.

Oprah: I'm happy for you that you have that. Now everyone in our audience has just seen Julia's new movie Erin Brockovich, which opens on March 17 and as I was saying she is just a world-class movie star but does just a terrific job in this movie. For those of you at home who have not seen it yet, the movie tells the true story of how one smart-mouthed, gutsy woman brought a small town to its feet and a huge company to its knees. Take a look.

[Clips from Erin Brockovich]

Oprah: Good story, great scene. So it's based on a true story, Erin's stuff with the case and did it pay off. The residents of Hinckley, California won, in real life, $333 million, the biggest pay in a direct-action lawsuit in the US history. That was amazing. Is it hard to portray somebody who is a real person, who is alive, who can then judge you based upon.

Julia: That's the thing I did it once and she has passed many many years ago, so you know, I didn't feel quite the same pressure as I did playing someone who could watch and say "that's not me". But Steven Soderbergh, our director, who is a genius, actually kept us apart for quite a while and he was the liaison of information berween us.

Oprah: So you did not meet her and try to get her mannerisms or...

Julia: No, because, Steven felt, and I think that it was really smart I didn't understand it at first but he felt that, it isn't so much that I should be imitating this woman as interpreting this woman and, you know, even though I physically tried to look like her as much as I possibly could, uhm, and really tried to identify with her situation it isn't, I'm not trying to BE her, I'm trying to portray her, so there's a difference.

Oprah: When we come back, meet the real Erin Brockovich and find out about the day she and Julia finally did meet. I heard Julia was actually a bit intimidated. I heard that, I don't know if it's true, we can ask Julia when we come back.

[Clip of Erin Brockovich]

Oprah: That's one of my favorite scenes from the movie Erin Brockovich, starring Ms. Julia Roberts, opening March 17. Joining us is the real-life heroin, welcome Erin Brockovich. The real deal. This is the real deal, Erin's first TV appearance ever. This is your first time? Oh, you picked a very friendly place.

Erin : Thank you.

Oprah: Very friendly. There're friendly people here. It must be really weird, I don't know any other way to describe it, to… ok, have this happen in your life and then have somebody approach you about doing a movie and then the person that ends up playing you is the biggest movie star on the planet. That must be like weird.

Erin : Very weird.

Oprah: It's very weird.

Erin : It's very weird.

Oprah: Do you feel out of body sometimes?

Erin : definitely.

Oprah: Well you know, those who are watching, aside from being wowed by Julia and the… and the…. How did you get your breasts up there?! (Audience laughs) Really, I've never seen you like that before, I didn't know you had that much!

Julia: Well, Benjamin said… I don't! I mean let's be honest right . I'm 34 B, right across the board, couldn't be more mediocre. Benjamin says it takes a village to raise that cleavage.

(Audience laughs)

Julia: And it did, but there was no tape or wires involved, there was no mechanics, but it did take about…

[Pic is shown of Julia as Erin Brockovich, with a good view of her breasts.]

Oprah: That's impressive! And when you were at the counter with the guy at the waterworks plant and you lean over and they come together.

[Clip is shown]

Oprah: That's a moment!

Julia: Yeah, that's so major.

Oprah: It takes a village to raise that cleavage.

Julia: when I'm 70 I 'm gonna have like a standy of that in my house. (Audience laughs)

Oprah: I believe it, and look all kinda seperated down the ...

Julia: But they look so fabulous and real and of course, it's not all real, you know, it's like pushed and tweaked and we did so many things to them.

Oprah: Now the world wants to know, all the 34 B's out there want to know, what kinda bra is that honey?!

Julia: Well, I think that it's a great advertissement for, there's no need for surgery at this point. Really, because that only takes 5 minutes.

Oprah: Really?

Julia: And you know, even though, if you're dating somebody and they think that's the real deal you have to tell him, so they don't, you know.. (Audience starts to laugh) so they don't have a heart attack, you know, when you take it off.

Oprah: So it's just a bra, or is it those things you put on the sides.

Julia: It's a few things actually, uhm, but it was, yeah, we call them 'cutlets'.

Oprah: Oh you had the cutlets, we've done those.

Julia: It was cutlets and it was pads and we kinda recut the bras apart and put them back together in a different way to make it work and, I got a little sweaty actually in the desert, I had to make sure they stayed in their place.

Oprah: Benjamin's right, that is a village.

Julia: Yes.

Oprah: It's a village working to raise 'em. This is Ed Masry, who's played by Albert Finney in the movie. Working together, Erin and Ed won the largest settlement ever paid for a direct-action lawsuit in US history. As I was saying earlier, $333 million for the citizens of Hinckley. Ed says when he first met Erin, the real Erin, he really didn't like her at all. Is that true?

Ed : That is true.

Oprah: And did you ever say to her what we hear Albert Finney say in the movie, you mentionned to her about her dress, her provocative dressing.

Ed : Yeah, well actually in the movie Julia, you're skirts are actually longer.

Julia: A little long, that's what I heard. (Audience laughs as a pic is shown of Julia as Erin, wearing a pretty short mini-skirt)

Ed : Than what Erin used to wear. Erin used to wear, I guess you call them micro-minis.

Oprah: Uhu. In 1991.

Ed : 1991,1992, yes. And she has a very nice pair of legs. And it is true, some of the office staff didn't appreciate her attire.

Oprah: Yeah.

Ed : So there were some problems.

Oprah: Yeah, what kinda problems Erin?

Erin : Uh well, at one time I guess there was an office policy about what you wouldn't wouldn't wear and they actually came out and measured my skirt.

Oprah: oh really?

Erin : When I was at the office.

Julia: How they measure up.

Erin : I was 22 inches off, it was.. (The audience, Oprah and Julia start laughing)

Oprah: 22 inches off!

Erin : It was a little bit of a skirt.

Oprah: Is the movie pretty accurate?

Ed : I'd say it's very accurate, the movie was, actually it brought me to tears. It was so realistic.

Oprah: So he's become a mentor for you I hear.

Erin : Uhm, I love Ed, there's, you know, I am… I love Ed, he has been my mentor. (Audience applauds)

Oprah: Do you still work together? Are you still in the lawfirm?

Erin : I'm on his ass all day long.

Oprah: So to speak, so to speak. Next, any chance for yet another reunion with Richard Gere, we'll talk about that. Or we have to wait 9 more years. We'll be right back. To talk to Julia.

[Interviewer : Is it difficult for you guys to have a relationship with the whole world watching or do you just roll with it?

Julia: No, they don't get to see the good stuff.

Ben : You roll on, you roll it.

Interviewer : Is there anything that you can say about the woman that you get to share your life with?

Ben : She's already won.

Julia: oh sweet! sweet!]

Oprah: That was Julia and her honey Benjamin Bratt at the Golden Globes. Uh, Julia was nominated for her role in Notting Hill. Her other summer blockbuster, as you know, was the hit Runaway Bride, which teamed Julia with Richard Gere up together again after 10 years. A little peek at that.

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