Oprah talks to Julia and Mel  (Part I)

[Setting: Julia and Mel walk out together, hand in hand. Julia is wearing black, skin tight jump suit and Mel is wearing a brown coat and tie.]

Oprah: The sexiest man alive and the pretty woman are in a new movie together opening in late summer called "Conspiracy Theory" - please welcome Julia Roberts and Mel Gibson!

Oprah: Okay okay. You're embarrassing him! Does this happen everywhere?

Julia: He inspires this strong reaction. Good or Bad, it's always very intense.

Oprah: Hello Mel!

Mel: Hi!

Oprah: Does this happen a lot, remember when you were here the last time and you were talking about (Julia interrupts) ...

Julia: Denzel.

Oprah: Denzel. Yes

Julia: It's the same thing.

Oprah: Does that ever annoy you, this whole reaction to you Mel? Really?

Mel: No! No! It's nice, it's flattering. I like it.

Oprah: Very flattering, but, inside, do you feel a little embarrassed?

Mel: Well, kinda. There's a kinda cringing little boy inside of me saying "I don't deserve this - I'm not worthy."

Oprah: You're not worthy. Yes you are Mel.

Mel: God bless you for saying that.

Oprah: So when you finally said yes, you were going to do this new movie, I heard that the brass bands actually played. Is that actually true?

Julia: Yes that is true.

Oprah: Cause you wanted her to do this film.

Mel: Yeah, birds were singing, brass bands were playing.

Oprah: So how did that happen? What happened?

Julia: Well, I had come to, I had just finished a film here in Chicago, and so, I didn't, I wasn't really wanting to go right back to work, but I was really intrigued to work with Mel, cause I had wanted to work with Mel for awhile.

Oprah: Really? You'd see him on the screen and you'd say "Oh you know I could do that with him."

Julia: I could suffer through months of that, yeah. Uh, so I went to have a meeting with Mel and Richard Donner, our director, and Joel Silver, our producer, and I went really just to talk about dates and what they were thinking about and how long were they going to shoot in New York, things that me, wanting to sleep, these were important things to me. And so I think that we're just going to have this conversation and I walk in and within minutes they're saying, well are you gonna do it?

Oprah: Oh really.

Julia: They were expecting an answer and I felt an enormous amount of

Oprah: Was Mel at this meeting?

Julia: Mel was at this meeting.

Mel: They brought me in later, I sat in the corner

Julia: He was sitting in the corner with his feet up looking very suave and intimidating and so finally when I realized "wow they're not going to let me leave until I give an answer and I said well, I really need to make a phone call and I went in the back room, I opened the door and there was this flock of people back there, all with like tape measures and clip boards ready to pounce on me the minute I said yes, they were obviously confident, and so I went to make the phone call and as I'm dialing, I'm in a hotel bedroom and I hear the door open and I turn around and Mel has come in, remember this?

Mel: Oh now I do.

Julia: Mel has come into the room and he's standing by the door this huge lampshade on his head and he's just standing there like this ...(holding her hands above her head depicting how Mel looked with a lamp shade on his head).

Mel: I was trying not to be noticed.

Julia: And I said "what are you doing" and he said "I'm a lamp, ignore me, I'm a lamp" so he's been sent in to do some reconnaissance work and find out who I'm calling and what I'm saying, so I kicked him out, I make my phone call and I walk back in and I say, "well, you know, what the hell" and Joel Silver said "was that a yes?" and I said yeah, and he sticks his head in a door and then out the door and then shuts the door then comes over and they're all standing near me but away from me and a brass band comes out and rallies around me and just starts playing in my face.

That's great!

Oprah: What's this movie about Mel? We're going to -- set this up for us we're going to watch a clip.

Mel: What's it about, it's about a very paranoid, strange man.

Julia: Mel.

Mel: And a very balanced but beautiful woman with problems.

Julia: Me

Mel: Who are thrown together by a strange series of associations that kind of infuriate her and makes me more nuts and he's, I can't explain things like this, you do it.

Julia: It's a complicated story. Mel is nuts, but sweet and has those eyes and so it's hard for me, oh and I work for the justice department and he keep coming to me with these crazy theories.

Oprah: Conspiracy Theories?

Julia: Yes, about NASA is trying to kill the president with earthquakes, so you have to call the president and warn him, but he can sorta back up his theories to a point but they're ridiculous, he's nuts.

Mel: Yeah, M&Ms are blue because, ....a real fruitcake

Oprah: Okay, so what's in the clip we're going to see?

Julia: I think this is when I have been - everyone's looking for him and he's on the loose, and we've searched this hospital up and down looking for him and at the end of this search I get into my car, is that what this is?

Mel: I think so.

Julia: I get into my car.

Mel: Hey Julia, that's the one, roll -

[Film clip from movie shown - Mel hiding in back seat of Julia's car]

Oprah: Next Julia tells what happened the day Mel sent her a gift that made her scream and why she always had to watch her back around Mel. We'll be right back.

[Commercial Break ]

Oprah: Mel doesn't do a lot of talk show kinda things so you know I'm thrilled to have you here.

Mel: I'm glad to be here.

Oprah: You were here years ago with Danny Glover, remember?

Mel: Ten years ago, I remember. Well we sat there and I was just as nervous.

Oprah: Ten years ago, remember that?

Mel: Same bewildered look.

Oprah: Behind Mel's piercing blue eyes lies a tricky, sneaky, cunning prankster. Julia received a little present from Mel that made her scream and somebody in the audience just said that her husband thinks Julia's the best screamer in the world, and uh you can take that anyway you want to - what did he do?

Julia: Well, he did many things but on the first day for filming for me, I had a lovely gift from Mel which surprised me because people don't always give gifts on the first day and I of course had nothing for him, so feeling guilt ridden looking at this lovely package and it had a nice card and the whole thing, and this white tissue paper with a purple ribbon around everything, pitter pat you know, a present from Mel Gibson, I'm the luckiest girl alive, and I opened it up and years came off my life and I scream, my heart's pounding in my chest and it was sort of a taxidermist dried rat about this big with a big long icy tail, so all you women when he come out here and you all yell, that's the reality of why he is Mel.

Oprah: Now why'd you do that?

Julia: Happy Anniversary honey.

Mel: I thought she'd like it, I uh, I liked it and you can only buy things for people that you think you like and they think you might like, but I wasn't prepared for the vigorous reaction it got. She screamed and I was like 30 feet away by then, outside the van, and in New York City with the traffic flying by, the buildings reverberated with the screams.

Oprah: But you got him back I heard.

Julia: Well I paced myself because then not long after that I received in my trailer a large box with a big bow on it and I though, "Hmm what could this be" and I open it up and it's another rat.

Mel: No, it's the same rat.

Julia: I had hidden it and he had found it and gave it to me again, and then my birthday came up shortly after that and the card was imploring me to open the package, please, please I promise, I promise I gave you a present and it wouldn't be a rat.

Oprah: What was it.

Julia: It was a beautiful, soft leather filofax billfold.

Oprah: Okay, very nice.

Julia: And so then I paced myself and weeks later, I

Mel: (laughter)

Julia: This is so childish. When he, I came to work before he did and I snuck into his trailer and I saran-wrapped his toilet bowl.

Oprah: Life on the movie set.

Mel: Yep. I was just thankful it was only number ones.

Julia: The whole bowl.

Oprah: The whole bowl.

Mel: Yeah, I was tap dancing like Gene Kelly in "Singing in the Rain"

Oprah: How do you decide, I watched "Braveheart" again like two weeks ago.

Julia: Oh my God Mel.

Oprah: How do you decide when you come off a picture like that, first I want to talk about how you did that. I mean I just sat and watched and marveled at - okay so this scene he had to get all of these people on the horses and going in that direction, and then, how did you do that?

Mel: It never happened that way, we were saved by the editing. It just took an enormous amount of organization and a lot of help and we had a really great team to get everyone organized and fed and dressed and ....

Oprah: Was there ever a moment you though you couldn't do it?

Mel: Oh, every morning.

Oprah: Every morning.

Mel: You'd crawl to the set and do your best. But you can only do what's in front of you just like little pieces at a time.

Oprah: Don't you marvel that he did that completely?

Julia: Totally.

Mel: It's more impressive when it's all slapped together. It took five months. You had ample time.

Oprah: And when you won the Oscar for it, did you think, well I

Mel: Yeah, Yes.

Oprah: That's got to be pretty gratifying.

Mel: Couple of Golden Boys.

Oprah: And what do you do afterwards? Do you go home and savor the moment? When does it finally hit you "yes I did that and won this."

Mel: I had a Romeo and Juliette Cuban cigar from 1957.

Oprah: Really?

Mel: Yeah, with a couple of friends and I had a few of them and I handed them out and I felt magnanimous that night and we had cake and a good yuck and I went home and went to sleep.

Oprah: Now, were you the least bit intimidated by any leading man, were you the least bit, the fact that he wanted you so much, did that help?

Julia: It didn't hurt. I was intimidated by the group because you have to realize this was Mel, Joel Silver and Richard Donner, who have all known each other for years and made gads of pictures together and not only do I not know them, and I knew Mel this much, but I'm also the only chick hanging out with these guys, so that was a little daunting. But once I got the rat I knew it was going to be their favorite chick so it was okay.

Mel: Baptism of fire.

Oprah: Does it bother you, are you affected at all by what the press is about, about what you wear, and whether you wore the right thing and whether this haircut is the most flattering or the last haircut was.

Julia: Well, you're never going to make everybody happy, so ultimately, it doesn't, I talked to Mel on the phone and said what are you going to wear, I packed a small bag, I don't have a lot to choose from and he approved my wardrobe for today, you know, you just go little by little.

Oprah: So who do you care about, whose opinions do matter to you?

Julia: Yours.

[Laughter and applause.]

Julia: But honestly, if I went to some big event and every paper in the country said that I looked like a loser and I went on your show and you said that I looked good, well I'd feel good about that.

Oprah: Would ya?

Julia: Yeah.

Oprah: But, okay now, but if every paper said you looked that a looser or Mr. Blackwell for God's sake, ....

Julia: Well, okay, let's just take a moment here and say that when I, because I didn't really know who this guy was.

Oprah: Mr. Blackwell.

Mel: Who is it?

Julia: Who is it?, well he's a man, let me tell Mel. He's a man that I was watching television one time said that I had to see this because I was on the worst dressed list which when I first heard this I thought "well, that's bad" you know, that's not nice. And I watched this tape and here's a man of a certain age and you know, sorta curly, grayish hair wearing some kind of rabbit-fur jacket, and chains, and this is the man ...

Oprah: Whose saying ...

Julia: No, Julia, not working. And you know that's when you go well thank God he doesn't like what I'm wearing.

Oprah: So, well what I'm trying to get is that if your best girlfriend says you know, I don't like what you wore, I don't like this haircut, does that affect you?

Julia: It does to a point, but I did have my closest girlfriend tell me that she didn't like the way I wore my hair the other day on an interview, but I did like it, so it didn't - I said, well I liked it. I didn't love hearing that she thought I looked hideous, but I liked my hair.

Oprah: She used the word hideous?

Julia: She may have.

[Commercial Break]

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