Carrie Preston Reveals Why Julia Roberts Was ‘Mean’ to Her on ‘Duplicity’ Set

Carrie Preston loved working with Julia Roberts on 1997’s My Best Friend’s Wedding — but had a different experience when they reunited in 2009’s Duplicity.

Preston, 58, opened up about working with Roberts on the Oct. 7 episode of Dinner’s on Me with Jesse Tyler Ferguson. 

My Best Friend’s Wedding was Preston’s first movie, and she and Roberts, 57, bonded over both being young actresses from Georgia. “She was at the top of her game that young,” Preston said. “And boy did she show it. That was a movie star.” Preston played one of the Newhouse twins (alongside Rachel Griffiths) who serve as bridesmaids for Cameron Diaz’s Kimmy. 

But when Preston and Roberts reunited for Duplicity, it was “interesting.” Preston called her part a “wonderful cameo,” where she slept with Roberts’ character’s boyfriend, played by Clive Owen. She did one scene with Owen, then returned to set about a month later.

“I’m on set doing a very intense scene where Julia Roberts is staring at me wanting me to die because I had slept with her boyfriend. I have to do that cry on cue thing, which, as you know, is a lot of pressure, especially when I don’t know any of the crew,” Preston said. “. . . You have to keep yourself in a vulnerable spot.”

Preston saw Roberts earlier in the day. “She gave me a big hug and then she said, ‘I’m gonna be mean to you for the rest of the day.’ She gave me a fair warning,” Preston said. “She was just like, ‘I’m gonna be mean. I’m just not gonna talk to you for the rest of the day.’ And it was exactly what I needed for the scene.”

Preston said she didn’t want to be “chumming it up and then have to go and cry.” 

“They call me and they’re like, ‘We’re ready for you, we’re ready to go.’ The cameras are all set up. We hardly rehearsed,” she said. Roberts only had to hit her with silence and Preston “just started sobbing.”

“It came. But it was the most high-pressure acting experience I had at that point,” Preston said. She said ultimately, Roberts “graciously” decided to be “mean” in order to help her performance. 

Preston said that she hasn’t seen Roberts since then, but one more memory from Duplicity sticks out. She remembered that when she went to the film’s premiere, director Tony Gilroy shouted out that Preston was in the audience. “And then Julia screamed from the back of the audience, ‘We love you Carrie,’ ” the Elsbeth star remembered.  “These little moments that make you go, ‘Oh wow, OK. All the hard work’s paying off.’ ”

In Duplicity, Roberts and Owen play rival spies who fall in love. Roberts’ character needs Preston’s Barbara Bofferd to tell her about sleeping with Owen’s. Preston said her part is one of her performances she’s produest of. 

Back in January, Preston remembered filming My Best Friend’s Wedding — and how an iconic scene ruined crab and lobster for her. In the movie, “we had that big scene where we sang ‘I Say a Little Prayer,’ ” she remembered on an episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show. 

“And there we were singing, and we started that scene, and you know, it takes place in a crab shack and a lobster house? That took two 12-hour days,” she said. “So you can imagine the smell.”

“You see it and it looks really fun, but by the end, we were all ready to move on,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve had a crab or lobster since.”