Julia Roberts knows better than most that a good romantic comedy is tough to make. Her track record within the genre succeeds so much more than many of her contemporaries because she has a pretty good eye for material, along with terrific natural comedic instincts. She recently said to the New York Times about working in rom-coms:

“This is a genre that I love to participate in and watch, and I think they are hard to get right. There is a really simple math to it, but how do you make it special? … I think we didn’t appreciate the bumper crop of romantic comedies that we had then. You don’t see all the effort and puppet strings because it’s fun and sweet and people are laughing and kissing and being mischievous.”

That perceived effortlessness is both the genre’s biggest selling point and its biggest roadblock. While we are watching the film, we like not feeling the mechanics at work, engineering this story to our liking, but that makes us think the process was the exact same. And I fear that a lot of writers and directors similarly feel that way and thus do not put forth the proper amount of effort into crafting these pictures. This is why Julia Roberts hasn’t done one in about 20 years. If you are going to do one, do it right.

Also, she is a mother to three children, and she only wants to be away from her kids if it’s worthy. She tells the NYT, “[I]t’s not only ‘Is this material good?’ It’s also the math equation of my husband’s work schedule and the kids’ school schedule and summer vacation.” That math hasn’t added up until “Ticket to Paradise” this year.