Julia Roberts arrived at the Venice Film Festival on Friday not only to premiere her latest project, but also to defend it. After the Hunt, directed by Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, is a taut psychological drama set in academia. It puts Roberts at the center as a beloved philosophy professor suddenly pulled into the fallout of a sexual misconduct allegation.
The film, which also stars Ayo Edebiri (The Bear), Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Chloë Sevigny, explores how personal and professional loyalties collide when an accusation threatens to unravel lives.
And, as expected, the press conference that preceded its Venice debut quickly turned political. Roberts’s very first question was whether the film undermines feminist principles by revisiting old, damaging narratives — namely, that women turn against each other or fail to stand united.
Roberts didn’t flinch. “Not to be disagreeable because it’s not in my nature,” she said with a smile, “but I don’t think it’s reviving an argument of women being pitted against each other or not supporting each other. There’s a lot of old arguments that get rejuvenated in this movie in a way that does create conversation.”
For Roberts, that’s the point. “The best part of your question is that you all came out of the theatre talking about it,” she added, half-joking. “That’s how we wanted it to feel. You realize what you believe in strongly because we stir it all up for you. So, you’re welcome.”
Guadagnino, who has built his reputation on lush, provocative dramas like Call Me by Your Name and Bones and All, pushed back on the idea that After the Hunt is making a political statement at all. “We are looking at people in their truths,” he said. “Everyone has their own truths. It’s not that one truth is more important than another. And from the perspective of filmmakers and artists, how do we see the clash of truth, and what is the boundary of these truths together? It’s not about making a manifesto to revive old-fashioned values.”
Still, the questions kept circling back to the politics of the film. Reporters pressed Roberts and Edebiri on what drew them to playing characters who, in the words of one journalist, seemed like “troubled women.”
Roberts didn’t shy away from the framing. “Trouble is where the juicy stuff is,” she said. “It’s like dominos of conflict: once one falls, then suddenly everywhere you turn, there’s some new piece of conflict and challenge. That’s what makes it worth getting up and going to work in the morning.”
Edebiri, who has quickly become one of Hollywood’s most sought-after young stars, agreed. “That’s how you grow,” she said. “That’s the type of movie I enjoy watching.”
Whether audiences will see After the Hunt as a thoughtful provocation or as a regression in the post-#MeToo conversation will have to wait until it’s released to theaters. But Roberts seemed unfazed by the controversy swirling around the film even before its Venice premiere. “We’re losing the art of conversation,” she warned. If nothing else, the film seems designed to prove her right.
