Eric Roberts is publicly apologizing to his sister, Julia Roberts , over the claim that he made her famous. The actor, 68, took responsibility for the “asinine” comments he’s made over the years in his new memoir, Runaway Train: Or the Story of My Life So Far . “Now one of the things I’d like to apologize for in this book is for publicly saying on more than one occasion, ‘If it wasn’t for me, there would be no Julia Roberts,'” read an excerpt from the book via Entertainment Weekly .
“That’s not only unfortunate, but it’s also untrue. And I hope Julie will accept this more public apology. It was an asinine thing to have said.
I was proud of her, but it was pride turned on its head, to my own advantage.” (He also shared how his family calls the Oscar winner Julie.) Eric, whose daughter is actress Emma Roberts , added that Julia, 56, is “very driven” and destined for greatness.
“Someone would have plucked her out of the crowd in a place like New York without my help,” he said. Though he recanted his previous comments, the Academy Award nominee appeared to take credit for getting Julia and their two other sisters up to New York, where he claimed Julia caught the acting bug. “That’s when, it seems to me, she saw my life as a young actor in New York, and saw what I was doing for my livelihood, and she wanted to try it,” he claimed.
In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2018, Eric infamously took credit for the success of Julia and his daughter Em.