Why has Julia Roberts waited 20 years to star in another romcom?

After two decades, Hollywood’s romcom queen is back. But Charlotte Cripps is left wondering why now? What really brought Roberts out of romcom retirement?

Roberts’ new film will be nostalgic for those who grew up on her romcoms (Getty/Shutterstock/The Independent)

Julia Roberts is starring in Ticket to Paradise later this year with George Clooney – it’s her first romcom in 20 years. Why has she waited so long to reappear in the genre that made her one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars?

Is it true there haven’t been any scripts that live up to her expectations, as she claimed last week, in The New York Times? “Here’s the thing: if I’d thought something was good enough, I would have done it,” she said.

Roberts and Clooney play a divorced couple in Ticket to Paradise, who go to Bali to stop their lovestruck daughter – Booksmart’s Kaitlyn Dever – from repeating the same mistake they think they made 25 years earlier.