Hollywood loves a morality tale—but rarely one this combustible. In Luca Guadagnino’s new psychological thriller After the Hunt, written by Nora Garrett, a devastating accusation on a college campus becomes the spark that ignites a cultural wildfire. What begins as a single allegation erupts into public frenzy, private betrayals, and a moral quagmire where truth becomes almost impossible to discern. Secrets, deceptions, rivalries, and buried agendas collide in a narrative that feels engineered to provoke—and uncomfortably familiar in the way it mirrors our current moment.

For Julia Roberts, the film represents a chance to step into one of the most complex roles of her career, a woman whose interior life is layered with brilliance and damage in equal measure. She was drawn to the project instantly for its intricacy and psychological depth. “This is one of those movies where you can go out afterwards, dissect every moment, and debate why each character did what they did. For me, that’s what makes going to the movies great,” Roberts says.

She joined the film almost immediately after reading Garrett’s script, captivated by its “uncommonly sharp, intricate storytelling” and by the character of Alma, a professor whose intellect becomes both her armor and her Achilles’ heel.

“You don’t come across many films with this many different kinds of intricate relationships. And then our cast was like a dream dinner party.”

“The thing that intrigued me most initially was I just couldn’t land my thoughts on if I liked her, if I hated her, or if I even fully understood her,” Roberts recalls. “She is definitely one of those rare characters that you keep puzzling over, and that was exciting to me. And Luca clearly didn’t want to dull any of her jagged edges. In fact, he only wanted to keep sharpening them.”

Alma is brilliant, calculating, emotionally guarded—and deeply fractured beneath her precise exterior. For Roberts, who has played every shade of heroine across her storied career, Alma represented something entirely different: a woman defined not by charm or warmth, but by ruthlessness, intellect, and a painful need to maintain control.

“Alma is always the smartest person in any room,” Roberts describes. “She has used her formidable intellect to gain impressive power in this male-dominated environment. But in order to do that, she has had to learn to be one tough cookie.”

One of Alma’s greatest defenses is performance—both in her professional life and in her most intimate relationships.“There is a big performance aspect to Alma’s life as professor, and teachers are on stage in a way in the lecture hall,” Roberts observes. “But she is perhaps just as performative in her home life and her personal relationships because that is how she survives. She is a very complicated woman.”

Through conversations with Guadagnino and Garrett, Roberts discovered that Alma’s emotional architecture shifts depending on the person in front of her—a psychological chameleon effect that reveals as much as it conceals. “Alma with Michael is completely different from Alma with Hank or Alma with Maggie,” Roberts observes. “It just shows how intricate people can make their lives!”

The role demanded an acute understanding of human duplicity, self-mythology, and the masks people wear to survive. It also gave Roberts the chance to play off an ensemble she describes as “a dream dinner party,” with Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri, Chloë Sevigny, and Michael Stuhlbarg each bringing their own moral contradictions into the story. “I loved that this is an ensemble piece where every character is equally vital to the tapestry,” she says. “You don’t come across many films with this many different kinds of intricate relationships. And then our cast was like a dream dinner party. When you admire the actors that you are working with this much all you want to do is impress them.”

Roberts credits Guadagnino with creating a rare atmosphere—one where actors are encouraged to push boundaries without losing their footing. “In his gentle, loving way, Luca pushes his actors to bring everything, to try anything, and to go as far as you possibly can, knowing he’ll be honest with you if it doesn’t work. He’s really an extraordinary artist.” It’s this alchemy—Garrett’s razor-sharp script, Guadagnino’s exacting vision, and a ferocious ensemble—that makes After the Hunt feel less like a film and more like an intellectual trapdoor. Just when you think you’ve found the truth, the ground shifts.

More than just a thriller, After the Hunt is a cultural provocation—one that forces audiences to wrestle with the messiness of power, privilege, morality, and the narratives we construct to protect ourselves. Roberts knows the film will spark debate. That’s not accidental. “This is one of those movies,” she says again, “where you can go out afterwards, dissect every moment, and debate why each character did what they did.”

It’s not comfort cinema; it’s a cinematic argument—one that lingers under the skin and refuses to resolve neatly. And Alma, with all her contradictions and jagged brilliance, may be the most arresting character Roberts has ever taken on. A woman who is neither villain nor victim, but something far thornier—and far more human.

–Kelly Fine