LOS ANGELES, California—“Are you implying that I’m not dolled up?” Julia Roberts asked impishly when a reporter at this press con prefaced her question with, “We have seen a lot of actresses in that hot seat where you are now, trying to be dolled up.”

With the famous 1,000-megawatt smile, Julia quipped: “I don’t know how I feel about that. You should have seen me three hours ago.”

For the record, Julia was looking every inch a “Pretty Woman”—except that she was casually dressed in black denim jacket over a long-sleeved white shirt and jeans.

Asked if she has the patience to get, well, all dolled up in her everyday life, the actress who stars with Clive Owen in the drama-thriller, “Duplicity,” replied: “No, I would never make it out the door.”

Julia, the mother of twins, Hazel and Phinn, 4, and Henry, 18 months, continued: “When you’ve got three people to get dressed to get out the door, then you don’t really spend a lot of time on yourself. I was never one to do my hair and make-up for myself just to go marketing. If I get a little eye cream on, I feel I’m ahead of myself.”

What about the paparazzi, a reporter wanted to know.

“There’s not that many who follow me,” Julia wryly noted. “It’s the slow ones who haven’t figured out that I’m not the one to follow.”

Married since 2002, Julia was asked how she and cinematographer Danny Moder, the father of her three kids, “arrived at that trust” especially since she’s working opposite attractive men in films. (We’ve written previously about “Duplicity” and the chemistry and friendship of Julia and Clive.).

“Danny and I don’t arrive at that,” she answered. “We just are that. We just occupy that space of love and trust. We’re best friends and we support each other in every way. He loves Clive as much as I do. It doesn’t make any difference that you go to work with some handsome, talented guy.”

Unbreakable bond

Julia expounded that she does not have the monopoly of being exposed to beautiful people. “There are beautiful women walking around the supermarket, you know,” she pointed out. “I mean ... there’s no shortage of interesting people in the world. You have that connection with your partner and it becomes that unbreakable bond. That’s why you get married ... I just know that I’ve found my husband and we understand each other. So that is my great fortune. Everything comes from that.”

A reporter inquired if she finds that people are intimidated by her. And was she the one who asked Danny to marry her because he might have been daunted, too?

Julia, without skipping a beat, retorted: “If someone’s that afraid of you, you probably shouldn’t be together.”

Giving the journalist an unblinking, intense stare to serve as an ironic counterpoint to her words, Julia deadpanned: “I don’t think I’m a scary person. I don’t think I intimidate people unless I want to.” As the assembled press tittered at her mock-intimidating stance, she broke into that smile and giggled. “I’m getting warmed up now,” she teased.

In “Duplicity,” Julia and Clive play corporate spies engaged to secure the formula for a product that will bring a huge windfall to the company that patents it first. This formula and what it will treat are not revealed until near the film’s end so we will not disclose these spoilers.

When another reporter began asking Julia, “In real life, if you get your hands on this formula …,” she did not wait for the guy to finish his question. “I will call you!” she told him. She brought the house down with laughter. “Is that what you were going to ask me? You’re covered.”

Good threesome

On how the twins have taken to their baby brother, Julia answered: “They love him so much since the moment his feet hit the ground. They’re definitely a threesome.”

As to how her kids feel about their mom being famous, Julia joked: “Was I famous?” Then she commented, “I don’t think they’ve figured it out yet, which I’m happy to report.”

She sometimes wonders whether her kids know what her profession is, because they’re always with her at work. “They’re in a trailer and they meet Clive. They know that Tony is my boss. They’ve never really asked me what the name of my job is,” Julia said. “It will be interesting but I think that when they figure it out, they’ll be able to participate in a conversation with me about it when they can already understand.”

In the meantime, she has been teaching her kids the joys of organic gardening. “We’ve just dug up our garden to replant,” happily reported the actress who remembered how her mother had a garden compost, and made peanut butter, bread, jelly and other stuff from scratch. “The kids love the garden. It’s the best training. When children are able to know their food sources, they’re more inclined to eat what they’re growing because they’re so proud of it. To watch my kids eat kale is a pretty proud moment for me as a mom. They’ve grown the garden and they’re so impressed. It’s so gorgeous a garden—vegetables and everything. They love participating in that.”

Julia drives a tractor in the family’s ranch in New Mexico. Described as one of the “greenest celebs,” she said of her house in Malibu: “We use a lot of solar power. It’s not a 100-percent green house but I’d say that all the materials that were in the house before went to Habitat for Humanity.”

Broadway debut

She went on: “We all need to do things, certainly and there are so many little simple things that you can do through the course of a day—compost our food, unplug our appliances when not in use, put lights on dimmers and timers. So much energy would be saved.”

Another writer steered Julia to her Broadway debut, “Three Days of Rain,” in 2006. She gushed: “It was great. I loved it. It’s hard to be on stage eight times a week. It is relentless but it’s magical and amazing. Joe Mantello, my director, was just perfect for me because he pushed and encouraged me. I would probably do it again.”

Since the media is prone to proclaiming a hot newcomer as the new this and new that, she was asked who she thinks is the new Julia Roberts. The 41-year-old star gamely dished: “Well, I’m here. Not new but clean pressed. There’s just a lot of talented girls, for sure. The first one that springs to mind is Anne Hathaway. She seems lovely, talented and she’s got her feet on the ground. Keira Knightley is so good. She was amazing in ‘The Duchess.’ Reese Witherspoon is a great talent. There are so many talented actresses that I look up to, regardless of whether they’re younger or older like Annette Bening, Frances McDormand and Susan Sarandon.”

With the humor, candor and good nature she displayed that morning, we’ll go with this particular Julia Roberts anytime.

E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com and read his blog, “The Nepales Report,” on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.