Eric Roberts seeks redemption: He apologizes to his sister, Julia Roberts, and now understands why he lost custody of his daughter Emma
For years, the actor has claimed for years that the two women — both successful actresses — owe their success to him, something he now regrets in his memoir. In the book, he also talks about his violent father and how his addiction to cocaine affected his career and family
Eric Roberts’ acting career spans more than five decades, and includes around 750 credits and many ups and downs. He moved to New York at the age of 17 to pursue a career in the industry, and it didn’t take long for him to fulfil his dream. In 1978, he rose to fame thanks to his leading role in the film King of the Gypsies, which he followed up with movies such as Star 80 (1983), The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984) and Runaway Train (1985) — which earned him an Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
That same year — 1985 — something else happened that would change his life: his sister, Julia Roberts, also moved to New York to start her own acting career. “If it wasn’t for me, there would be no Julia Roberts and no Emma Roberts as celebrities, as actresses, and I’m very proud of that,” he told Vanity Fair in 2018, referencing his daughter Emma Roberts. When the interview was published, Julia Roberts had already won an Oscar, while his daughter had landed roles in dozens of movies, including Scream 4.
Six years after that interview, Eric Roberts now regrets saying he made his little sister famous. “That’s not only unfortunate, but it’s also untrue. And I hope Julie will accept this more public apology. It was an asinine thing to have said,” he writes in his recently released memoir Runaway Train: Or the Story of My Life So Far.
Roberts has taken advantage of the buzz around his participation in the reality TV show Dancing with the Stars to publish the book, which describes his problematic upbringing in Georgia, his downfall due to drug use and how his behavior damaged his relationships with his sisters, Julia and Lisa, and his daughter. “We have agreed not to talk about each other’s careers,” he told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, when asked about Julia Roberts.
Roberts does not try to justify his past behavior. In the book, he explains that his sister arrived in the Big Apple when he was at the height of his career. He was making a lot of money, which meant he could buy a penthouse in the Upper East Side and a house in Greenwich, Connecticut, one of the richest cities in the United States. But it also led to a cocaine addiction. Over time, he says, he lost the penthouse and the house, but the drugs remained. “Blow was everywhere,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I mean, you go to the prop truck on a set and they would have a big bowl of cocaine for everyone. How could I get any work done?”
His addiction also sabotaged his relationship with his sisters. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they suffered from PTSD from when it was dangerous to be around me,” he writes in his memoir. “Lisa and Julia needed love and protection — instead they got fear and uncertainty.”
As a result of his drug use, the actor also lost custody of his daughter, now 33, who was left in the hands of his ex-girlfriend, Kelly Cunningham. Roberts separated from her when Emma was still a baby to marry his current wife, Eliza Garrett, in 1992. “Of course, the biggest consequence of my drug use was losing Emma,” he admits.
In fact, Eric Roberts believes that his relationship with Julia Roberts fell apart when she supported Cunningham in the custody trial. At that time, he confesses, his cocaine addiction was out of control and — although he does not go into details — he now admits that it was the right decision. “I imagine I will remain as Julia’s brother and Emma Roberts’ dad for the rest of my life,” he writes. “I’d like to make good on that, to move aside proudly and with grace. That’s part of the reason for writing the book.”
Keaton Simons — the son of Eliza Garrett and James Simons — also ran away from home as a teenager to escape his mother’s new husband. In 1995, Roberts’ erratic and violent behavior was exposed when he was arrested for pushing Eliza against a wall. In the end, the court ordered him to 18 months of rehab. “If it weren’t for my wife, I might have been dead by now. I know that sounds dramatic, but it’s a fact,” he told the Los Angeles Times.
A violent father
Eric, Julia and Lisa Roberts are the children of Walter Roberts and Betty Lou Bredemus, directors of an acting school for children in Atlanta. In his memoir, Eric Roberts describes his father as a man who drank and was prone to violent outbursts. “I was ashamed to being so much of him,” he writes, adding that his father became jealous of his success: “he was a very screwed-up individual and not safe for me, or anyone, to have as a father.”
After their parents divorced in 1971, Betty remarried Michael Motes — also described as an alcoholic and violent man by sources close to Julia Roberts. The actress, then four, and her sister Lisa, then seven, moved in with the couple in Smyrna, Georgia. Nancy Motes — Michael Motes’ daughter for his previous marriage — also lived with the family. In 2014, she killed herself at the age of 37, and left a suicide note blaming her family for her deep depression.
Eric, then 15, stayed with Walter, who died of cancer in 1977. “My father taught me a lot about the process of being a professional actor, but he would denigrate me at every turn,” the actor said in the interview. “As a kid, it was very difficult. How do you deal with a father like that? It was hard to process.”
When Roberts managed to scrape together enough money to move to New York, his father continued to harass him with an endless stream of letters, either bullying him — calling him a mediocre actor —, or praising him in the hopes of receiving money. “I was still getting thousands of letters,” said Roberts. “I still have them. It was insane, dude! Eventually, I realized you have to love people for who they are, but you can’t let them walk all over you. Even when it was sincere and loving, it felt misplaced and mean.”
Amid the ups and downs, Eric Roberts has never stopped working. On his IMDb profile, he has 748 credits to his name. He also says that he has no less than 91 projects on the horizon. This year alone, he has acted in 73 productions, including a Western miniseries, low-budget sci-fi films and something called My Red Neck Neighbor. And he still has time to compete on Dancing with the Stars, going up against contestants like Tori Spelling and Reginald VelJohnson.
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