Oscar-winning actress Julia Roberts defended the next movie she will appear in, Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt, in response to questions suggesting the picture was potentially regressive in its handling of #MeToo-related topics. After the Hunt follows a university professor (Roberts) who is faced with her star student (Ayo Edebiri) accusing a friend and colleague (Andrew Garfield) of Sєxual ᴀssault.

According to Variety, at a Venice Film Festival press conference, Roberts initially “waved off an early question about whether After the Hunt was undermining the feminist movement.” The journalist in question asked for Roberts’ response to the movie “[causing] controversy” and “[reviving] old arguments” about how women who level ᴀssault accusations against men in power are treated.

Roberts emphasized that After the Hunt is meant to provoke thought and conversation rather than “making statements,” saying that we are “losing the art of conversation in humanity right now.” Read Roberts’ full response below:

Not to be disagreeable, because it’s not in my nature, but the thing you said that I love is it “revives old arguments.” I don’t think it’s just reviving an argument of women being pitted against each other or not supporting each other. There are a lot of old arguments that get rejuvenated that creates conversation.

The best part of your question is that you all came out of the theater talking about it. 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. […]

We’re not making statements; we are portraying these people in this moment in time. I don’t know about controversy, per se, but we are challenging people to have conversation. To be excited or infuriated about it is up to you. If making this movie does anything, getting everybody to talk to each other is the most exciting thing that I think we could accomplish.

Guadagnino also said that the film is not about “one truth,” but about examining a clash of ideas and generations. Check out his full comments below:

[…] looking at people in their truths. It’s not that one truth is most important, it’s how we see the clash of truths and what is the boundary of these truths together. It’s not about making a manifesto to revive old-fashioned values.

What This Means For After The Hunt

After the Hunt was likely always going to be a divisive release due to its sensitive subject matter, but the cast and crew are standing behind what they have produced. The director and the stars are well-established in the entertainment industry. Thus, the project will still be taken seriously by critics and awarding bodies, even if they decide not to favor it.

Roberts and Guadagnino’s comments suggest that After the Hunt could potentially be valuable, “not reviving old arguments” in the sense that people are having the exact same exchanges as they did before. By “looking at people in their truths,” After the Hunt is seemingly setting out to delve into why people act a certain way, not providing any definitive answers.

Supposedly, all the movie wants to do is get people to think and talk, looking at these issues from a different angle. It still might not sit well with everyone, but it is seemingly going to be a weighty contribution to ongoing discussions and addition to Luca Guadagnino’s filmography.

Our Take On Julia Roberts’ After The Hunt Comments

However, the burgeoning criticisms of this movie are understandable, and we likely won’t know what the full extent of any backlash will be until After the Hunt has its wide theatrical release. A movie that invests too much time in understanding the perpetrator of a crime rather than the experience of the victim can’t expect to be well-received.

After the Hunt could be a total misfire in terms of what conversations it hopes to start and what it wants to accomplish in the grand scheme of things. Still, Roberts and Guadagnino are using their press appearances to break down the movie, so people understand what they were trying to accomplish, and it has at least some of its intended effect.