Julia Roberts Jokes "Pickling" Is Her Secret to Beauty

Julia Roberts attends the premiere of Universal Pictures' "Ticket To Paradise" at Regency Village Theatre on October 17, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. — (Image credit: Getty Images)

Julia Roberts probably gets asked her secret to aging beautifully all the time, and it sounds like she's a little sick of it, because she recently preferred to give a tongue-in-cheek answer to this question.

For British Vogue, Notting Hill writer Richard Curtis asked Roberts about her secret for preserving "lustrous youth," which he contrasted to his own sense of not aging so well (which Roberts assured him wasn't true).

"Pickling," the Pretty Woman star told him, deadpan. "I put my head in the jar every other Saturday for 18 hours. It does wonders. The smell is awful."

When pressed, she gave a more truthful answer: "No—serious answer," she said. "Good genes, leading a life that is fulfilling, and I have said this—and I say it usually as kind of a joke—but I do believe in the love of a good man. I believe that my husband loves me and cares for me in a way that makes me feel deeply, deeply happy. And anytime you see someone who’s happy, it doesn’t matter how old they are."

I once again beg of celebrities to stop making me weep before lunchtime. Is that too much to ask???

Anyway, I love Roberts' answer so much, since she strikes a difficult balance, by defining healthy aging by the quality of her life, while still acknowledging that many of us are concerned with our looks in part because of societal pressures.

Meanwhile, Curtis was less kind about himself, telling his longtime friend and coworker, "Sometimes I don’t even recognize my face. I think, 'What’s that in the mirror?' Looks like a loaf of bread to me."

But Roberts assured him, "You don’t look like a loaf of bread."

Best. Interview. Ever.

Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and SELF. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.