# What is the best Julia Roberts performance of all time?

> From the rom-com queen who defined a generation to a gritty dramatic powerhouse, her range goes far deeper than the megawatt smile. Which role stands above the rest?

*By YPB Team · Published April 10, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-julia-roberts-performance-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Erin Brockovich**
   A 2000 Steven Soderbergh drama in which Roberts won the Academy Award for Best Actress as the tenacious legal clerk who builds a landmark environmental case.
2. **Pretty Woman**
   A 1990 romantic comedy in which Roberts became a global superstar playing a warm-hearted Hollywood sex worker who falls for a wealthy businessman.
3. **Steel Magnolias**
   A 1989 drama in which Roberts earned her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress as a spirited young Southern woman determined to live fully despite diabetes.
4. **My Best Friend's Wedding**
   A 1997 romantic comedy in which Roberts plays a food critic who realizes she loves her best friend only when he announces his engagement.
5. **Notting Hill**
   A 1999 Richard Curtis romantic comedy in which Roberts plays a famous American actress who falls for an ordinary London bookseller.
6. **August: Osage County**
   A 2013 drama in which Roberts earned her fourth Oscar nomination playing the fierce eldest daughter of a dysfunctional Oklahoma family, sparring with Meryl Streep.
7. **Ocean's Eleven**
   A 2001 Steven Soderbergh heist film in which Roberts holds her own opposite George Clooney and a star-studded ensemble as the elegant ex-wife at the center of a Las Vegas heist.
8. **Closer**
   A 2004 Mike Nichols drama in which Roberts gives one of her most restrained performances as a photographer entangled in brutal romantic deception.
9. **Runaway Bride**
   A 1999 romantic comedy reuniting Roberts with Richard Gere as a woman with a habit of leaving men at the altar.
10. **Mona Lisa Smile**
   A 2003 period drama in which Roberts plays an unconventional 1950s art history professor at Wellesley College who challenges her students to think beyond domestic futures.
11. **Charlie Wilson's War**
   A 2007 political drama in which Roberts is glamorously sharp as the wealthy Texas socialite who enlists Congressman Charlie Wilson to fund the Afghan Mujahideen.
12. **Ben Is Back**
   A 2018 drama in which Roberts delivers a raw, physically committed performance as a mother struggling to protect her addicted son during one fraught Christmas Eve.
13. **Wonder**
   A 2017 family drama in which Roberts brings quiet warmth and depth as the devoted mother of a boy with facial differences navigating his first year of mainstream school.
14. **Duplicity**
   A 2009 Tony Gilroy spy thriller in which Roberts plays a CIA operative turned corporate spy running an elaborate long con alongside Clive Owen.
15. **Flatliners**
   A 1990 psychological thriller in which Roberts plays a medical student haunted by childhood guilt alongside Kiefer Sutherland and Kevin Bacon.
16. **Leave the World Behind**
   A 2023 Netflix thriller in which Roberts plays a woman whose luxurious vacation is disrupted by a mysterious cyberattack and the arrival of the home's owners.

Tags: movies, celebrities, actors, julia roberts