Eric and Julia Roberts Share Many Things: Including Stuttering

Eric and Julia Roberts are a brother-and-sister act that is unique in the world of acting. They are only the third brother-and-sister act to be both nominated for Oscars for acting. Eric was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his 1985 role in Runaway Train. His sister Julia won the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Erin Brockovich in 2001, after receiving previous nominations in 1989 and 1990, for Steel Magnolias and Pretty Woman, respectively. Only two other brother/sister combos have done the same thing. Lionel and Ethel Barrymore both won Oscars, while Warren Beatty and his sister Shirley MacLaine received multiple nominations as actors. MacLaine won Best Actress in 1984 for Terms of Endearment. While Beatty has never won an Oscar as an actor, he won one as Best Director for Reds in 1981.

While the public knows much about the careers of Eric & Julia Roberts, as well as their estrangement over family issues, the public is largely unaware that this distinguished brother-and-sister act are both entered on the SFA’s list of Famous People Who Stutter. The Roberts siblings stuttered as children and ironically give credence to the factor of the heredity/genetic link in the stuttering equation.

Julia has stated in public several times that she stuttered as a young girl. However, it seems that she has not gone into much detail. On the other hand, Eric has spoken very candidly about his childhood speech, and one could surmise that he not only stuttered into more advanced years of childhood than his sister, but also that his stuttering was more severe.

Eric appeared on the cover of Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine in October 1986, a period in time which could be considered a high point in his career. In the interview he did with the magazine, he said, “I read a lot when I was little because I had the worst stutter in the world – “The the the wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-water is cold”. And the class cracked up. I suppose it was funny, but it was so painful for me. So I read because it was a solitary thing where I didn’t have to be cracked up at.”

Similarly, the 2004 biography Julia: Her Life by James Spada goes into detail about Eric’s painful stuttering several times throughout the book. Spada wrote, “Eric had not uttered a word until he was five, then suffered from a nearly crippling stutter.” Spada quotes a family friend as saying, “When I knew Eric, he was so eager to please, he was a delight – he was this really cute kid who stuttered and who tried so hard.” The book then goes on to say that Eric was so afraid of taunts at school that when his teachers went from pupil to pupil to read out loud in class, Eric would strategically figure out his passage in advance and then memorize it because he would not stutter when
speaking from memory.

There was talk of putting Eric into a special ed class, but when his father, an acting teacher, saw him reciting memorized lines in front of a mirror without stuttering, he immediately decided that acting was the route for his son.

The fact that both Eric and Julia Roberts appear on the SFA’s list of Famous People Who Stutter no doubt has inspired young people struggling with the problem. Maybe someday in the future they might consider becoming spokespeople for the SFA. Until then, the worldwide stuttering community will continue to be proud to have such a unique brother-and sister combo among our ranks.

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Emily Blunt

Actress Emily Blunt struggled with stuttering early in her life. A teacher encouraged her to act in a school play at age 12 despite her stuttering.

Blunt’s name is prominently featured on the Stuttering Foundation's list of Famous People Who Stutter.

Dave Taylor

Dave Taylor has been on the Stuttering Foundation's list of Famous People Who Stutter for many years, but probably few people know all of the unique accomplishments of this former hockey great who was born on December 4, 1955, in Levack, Ontario.

Bob Love

Bob Love has dreamt about being a great public speaker since his early days in Bastrop Louisiana, even though, as a young man, he could barely put two words together, let alone speak a full sentence.

In spite of his severe stuttering disability, Bob Love, the son of a sharecropper, rose to become a Chicago Bulls NBA superstar, whose records were eventually surpassed by Michael Jordan. Throughout his entire athletic career, Bob Love kept his stuttering a secret from the fans who adored him, thinking he could do his “talking” on the basketball court.

Bruce Willis

While the world knows Bruce Willis as an A-list actor, few know that he struggled with stuttering throughout his first 20 years.

Walter Bruce Willis was born in 1955 in West Germany to his German mother, Marlene, and his American GI father, David Willis. The family settled in David’s hometown of Penns Grove, New Jersey in 1957, and the couple has three other children.

Bill Withers

While Bill Withers has long been on the Stuttering Foundation's list of Famous People Who Stutter, many people probably didn’t realize he stuttered. He passed away on March 30, 2020.

Born in 1938 in Slab Fork, W.V., Withers was the youngest of six children. When his father died when Withers was small, he was raised by his mother and grandmother, both of whom worked as domestics.