Homecoming's Julia Roberts has opened up on being reunited with director Sam Esmail on new Netflix movie Leave the World Behind.
In the new psychological thriller, which has been compared to Knock at the Cabin and starts streaming on Netflix this weekend, Roberts plays Amanda Sandford, whose family holiday is cut short by a pair of strangers baring apocalyptic news.
Esmail wrote and directed this adaptation of Rumaan Alam's 2020 novel, having previously directed Roberts across the whole first season of Homecoming.
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In a Digital Spy exclusive, the iconic actress explained: "I think I knew going into it that I understand Sam's approach, which is so great and he's so smart.
"His idea of setting tone and where he comes from musically. He would play music on the set for us and he creates an entire universe, so it really is a fun place to get to go to work because he supplies everything.
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"It's like ... all the tools in the toolbox are just open and available to you every day."
As for working alongside Mahershala Ali and Ethan Hawke on Leave the World Behind, Roberts shared: "I think once we were all in the room together, [Esmail] would let us explore things.
"When you bring people into a room that you respect, you do want to take how you feel about them and think, 'How can I manifest this into my performance?' I think the four of us together, we were a really good combination."
Related: Julia Roberts' Netflix movie lands excellent Rotten Tomatoes rating following first reviews
The filmmaker himself returned the sentiments while speaking to DS, too.
"I'm very much about a family of filmmakers," Esmail revealed. "Julia, who's a producer on the movie, I consider a fellow filmmaker on this.
"My AD Peter Kohn, my cinematographer Tod Campbell, my production designer Anastasia [White], my costume designer Cat, my composer Mac [Quayle], these are all people I've worked with throughout my entire career.
"So, for me, it just makes life a lot easier when you have that secondhand nature with them. When you're doing something as difficult as making a film and pulling all these pieces together, it helps when everyone already knows the tone and the vision. You can just start diving into the deeper conversations of how we're going to pull it off."
Leave the World Behind is in select cinemas now and is released on Netflix on December 8.
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Dan is a freelance entertainment journalist. Beginning his writing career in 2014, Dan's work first graced the pages of cult publications Starburst magazine and Little White Lies before moving onto Total Film, Digital Spy, NME and Yahoo Entertainment.
In the film and TV universe, he kneels at the altar of Jim Carrey, Daniel Plainview, Mike Ehrmantraut and Paulie Walnuts.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
