NEED TO KNOW
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Eric Roberts explained how he almost gave up on acting before he was cast in Star 80
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The film ended up earning him a Golden Globe nomination and allowed him to work with one of his idols, Bob Fosse
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Roberts has since appeared in over 700 movies and TV shows
Eric Roberts thought his Hollywood career was over at the age of 27.
Roberts appeared on the April 14 episode of the It Happened in Hollywood podcast, hosted by Seth Abramovitch, to talk about his 1983 film Star 80. The movie was directed by Bob Fosse and told the story of Playboy model Dorothy Stratten (Mariel Hemingway) and her husband Paul Snider (Roberts). For a short time, Stratten was set to become a major star, but before she could, Snider murdered her and himself.
Abramovitch asked Roberts, 69, what his life was like when he was cast in the movie, and he admitted he was having a really difficult time.
“It was a really odd, peculiar, hard time for me because the year before that I had an automobile accident and I was in a coma for a little bit,” he revealed. He encountered “short-term memory loss” as well as difficulties with his hand-eye coordination.
“And, so I thought my days as an actor were probably over, if not very much numbered and, was going through the deepest depression I’ve ever had in my life,” he admitted.
Mariel Hemingway (left) and Eric Roberts in ‘Star 80’
Credit: Warner Brothers/Courtesy Everett Collection
But then his manager called and told him he had “a Bob Fosse script” that he’d gotten from a casting director who wasn’t supposed to give it to him. “I’m giving it to you to read because I think you should go for it,” Roberts remembered his manager telling him. “I know you’re a big fan of Bob Fosse.”
Roberts was, and he happily took the script and read it. “I didn’t like it because it seemed too black and white to me,” he confessed. “It seemed too bad guy, good girl, put upon, oppressive. It just seemed too black and white, and it wasn’t interesting. Even though it was a true story, it didn’t light me up.” He didn’t understand why Fosse, who died in 1987 at the age of 60, wanted to make the movie.
“So I was not really interested in it as a script, but I was interested in it because of Bob Fosse,” Roberts said. He worked “very hard” on his audition, and Fosse told him he would get a callback. He returned for more auditions, guessing it took “five or six times” before Fosse called and offered him the film.
Roberts said he spent “three months” doing research with Fosse and eventually he did understand the point of the movie. “Everybody thinks it’s [an] unusual tale because of how it ended, but Paul Sniders are a dime a dozen,” he said. “They surround us. They’re all around us.”
Especially in show business, he said, you’re surrounded by the “obnoxiousness,” “ego” and “pointless coolness” all day.
Eric Roberts in January 2026
Credit: Savion Washington/Variety via Getty
“They are not unusual,” he said. “That’s why the story is so valuable. These guys are not unusual. . . . They just don’t end up murder suicides. But that goes on all the time.” Roberts said that when he first read the script, he thought it was “either very hard to get to or very cliché if you do get to it.”
Instead, he walked the “fine line” of Snider, with Fosse’s help. “He was the coolest man,” he said.
Roberts was nominated for best actor in a motion picture — drama at the Golden Globes for his performance in the film. It was Fosse’s last film before his death.
As for Roberts, he became one of the most prolific actors of film and television, with over 700 appearances under his belt. He told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022 that he considers himself “one of the luckiest guys in Hollywood.”
“We get anywhere from eight to 30 offers every single day from all over the world,” he said. “It’s just so much fun to have all these offers and get to play such an extreme range of characters.”
His many film credits include 1985’s Runaway Train (which earned him an Oscar nomination), 2008’s The Dark Knight, 2014’s Inherent Vice and 2022’s Babylon. He also had recurring roles on Heroes, The Young and the Restless, Suits and The Righteous Gemstones.
Read the original article on People
