Julia Roberts And Denzel Washington Reunite 27 Years After The Pelican Brief For New Netflix Movie

Published on July 21, 2020.

WARNER BROS./COURTESY EVERETT COLLECTION

Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington are reuniting for a new Netflix film!

The actors, who starred together in the 1993 film The Pelican Brief, will star in a Netflix adaptation of Leave the World Behind, an upcoming novel by Rumaan Alam.

The novel is set to release this fall and follows a husband and wife vacationing with their children in Long Island. Due to a major blackout in the city, the owners of the house they are renting are forced to return and the families must coexist in a tense living situation. The plot explores themes like race and class.

While Roberts and Washington haven’t been onscreen together since The Pelican Brief in 1993, the duo has still kept in touch and recently reunited when Washington was honored with the American Film Institute’s lifetime achievement award in 2019. Roberts sat next to Washington’s wife Pauletta during the ceremony.

During the awards ceremony, Roberts said a few words of appreciation for her former costar. “I met Denzel Washington over half of my life ago,” she shared. “Working with Denzel, I had really never seen anything like it, honestly. It was like working as I imagined, with wheels. People screaming, women fainting in the street. I am amazed that I was never trampled in the crowds.”

“But what I remember so well as meeting Pauletta and all your kids and seeing how you valued your family, your home life above all else,” she continued. “I know it takes a lot of hard work but you and Pauletta made it look like a dream to me, and now I live my life with those same values. The two of you inspired me then and continue to inspire me to this day.”