# Julia Roberts' birth was paid for by MLK. Her reaction to the racist interview makes a lot of sense. ### A tone-deaf Venice Film Festival interview exposed ongoing racism, but Julia Roberts' perfect response makes sense when you know she grew up with civil rights legends. [Kahlil Greene](https://substack.com/@kahlilgreene) Sep 09, 2025 Last week, an Italian journalist at the Venice Film Festival delivered one of the most [tone-deaf interview moments](https://www.tiktok.com/@seasonedbf/video/7547265153146866966?q=interview%20ayo&t=1757453035096) in recent memory. And Julia Roberts' response (as well as those of her co-stars) has gone viral. Here's what happened: ArtsLife TV's Federica Polidoro asked a loaded question about Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements being "done" to Andrew Garfield and Julia Roberts—while deliberately excluding Ayo Edebiri, the only Black woman present and the person whose identity intersected with both topics. The audacity was breathtaking, but what happened next was even better. * * * _I'm fighting to document stories like the Roberts family's integrated theater school before they're dismissed as "ancient history" or erased entirely, and I need your help!_ _If everyone reading this became a paid subscriber, I could investigate these hidden connections between past and present full-time, but right now, less than 5% of my followers are paid subscribers._ * * * ## The Perfect Storm of Responses Immediately, Andrew Garfield's body language said everything. He physically turned in his seat to face his co-stars, like he couldn't believe what he'd just heard. His face screamed, "Are you serious right now?". Julia Roberts threw shade with surgical precision. When the journalist asked her question while wearing sunglasses, Roberts leaned forward and said, "Can you repeat that? And with your sunglasses on, I can't tell which of us you're talking to." It was the kind of clever quip that sounds polite but cuts deep, forcing the interviewer to clarify who she was excluding and why. But Ayo Edebiri delivered the moment that made this whole mess worthwhile. Despite being explicitly told the question wasn't for her, she jumped in anyway: "I know that that's not for me, and I don't know if it's purposeful if it's not for me... [but] I don't think it's done. I don't think it's done at all." Her response was thoughtful, eloquent, and completely demolished the interviewer's premise while maintaining perfect composure. ## When the Mask Slipped After the backlash hit, Polidoro's response was everything you'd expect. In a lengthy Instagram statement, she claimed: "In my view, the real racists are those who see racism everywhere and seek to muzzle journalism, limiting freedom of analysis, critical thinking, and the plurality of perspectives." Classic deflection. Classic victim-playing. Classic "I can't be racist because I have Black friends" energy, except she said her family was "multi-ethnic" so racism was impossible. But regardless of her defensive spiral, no one should be surprised at how well all three actors responded—and specifically, I want to talk about Julia Roberts. ## The “Pre-Destined” Ally If you believe in the concept of a "white ally," Julia Roberts was basically pre-destined to be one. Martin Luther King Jr.—yes, _that_ Martin Luther King Jr.—literally paid for her to be born. Julia Roberts was born in Smyrna, Georgia in 1967, and at the time, her parents ran a drama school in Atlanta called the Actors and Writers Workshop. At some point before Julia was born, Coretta Scott King called and asked if her kids could join the school, even though they were Black. And remember, this was when the South was segregated. Black children and white children didn't share schools, water fountains, or stages. But Julia Roberts' mother said yes and allowed them in. In fact, Walter and Betty Roberts ran the only integrated children's theater group in Atlanta at the time. In a city where "separate but equal" was gospel, where Black kids could be arrested for drinking from the wrong fountain, the Roberts were teaching Black and white children to learn together. This was dangerous. One student later wrote about a car exploding after a Klan member saw him kissing Yolanda King during a rehearsal. "I was primarily Caucasian and Yolanda wasn't," he explained. "That's what the trouble was about." But the Roberts kept their doors open anyway. ## The Bill That Started Everything The school was rarely, if ever, financially sound. Running an integrated program in segregated Atlanta wasn't exactly profitable. So when Julia was born and the hospital bill came due, Walter and Betty Roberts couldn't afford to pay it. That's when Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King Jr. stepped in and gave the Roberts family the money they needed. Think about that for a second. Julia Roberts “exists” because the most important civil rights leaders in American history believed her parents were worth investing in. Her first breath was subsidized by people who saw Walter and Betty Roberts as family, forged through the revolutionary act of treating Black children as fully human in a system designed to prevent exactly that. Is it any wonder that when a journalist tried to erase a Black woman from a conversation about racial justice, Julia Roberts' response was swift and perfect? ## Civil Rights History was Very Recent Here's what gets me about this whole story, and what should get you too: when we learn about the Civil Rights movement in school, most of the pictures are in black and white. We're taught about it as if it happened in some distant past, like ancient history that has no bearing on today. But Julia Roberts is 55 years old. She's not some relic from a bygone era—she's a contemporary movie star whose birth was funded by Martin Luther King Jr. The woman who starred in romantic comedies and won Oscars made it to where she is because Movement leaders invested in her family in 1967. This history isn't ancient. It's not "long ago" like conservatives want us to believe. The legalized, explicit racism of the segregated South was happening when people who are very much alive today were being born. Julia Roberts is walking, talking proof that the Civil Rights era isn't some sepia-toned historical period—it's yesterday. The point is this: the next time someone tells you that we've "moved past" the Civil Rights era, that movements like Black Lives Matter are no longer needed, remember Julia Roberts. Remember that the woman who shut down a racist interviewer with perfect precision in 2025 was born because Martin Luther King Jr. paid her hospital bill in 1967. The work isn't done. It's not even close to done. And the people doing it today are carrying forward a legacy that's as close as your favorite movie star's origin story. ## This erasure isn't accidental. The same forces trying to convince us that racism is "ancient history" are systematically removing these connections from our education system. They want us to believe the Civil Rights era has no relevance to today's headlines.