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While Julia Roberts cemented her legacy as the ultimate romantic-comedy queen of the 1990s, she’s actually got plenty of thrillers under her belt. It’s a genre that truly shows her versatility, and proves she’s more than just a Pretty Woman.
Indeed, far from simply serving as a damsel in distress, Roberts brings an unmistakable star presence to her darker roles, delivering razor-sharp intelligence and emotional depth along the way. From uncovering political cover-ups to navigating psychological mind games, her thrillers track an evolution from raw vulnerability to subtle, authoritative power.
Here, Top 10 Films takes a look her finest suspense-driven roles, showcasing how seamlessly she transitions across different subgenres. Early career hits like The Pelican Brief and Sleeping with the Enemy established her talent for grounding claustrophobic paranoia and cat-and-mouse games with relatable warmth.
Meanwhile, modern projects like Leave the World Behind and After the Hunt demonstrate her ability to anchor complex, apocalyptic dread and morally ambiguous character studies.
Whether she is taking on corporate giants in Erin Brockovich or navigating real-time studio crisis in Money Monster, Roberts consistently elevates the material, proving that her magnetic screen presence thrives just as naturally in the dark as it does in the light.
10. Secret In Their Eyes
Dir. Billy Ray (2015)
A 2015 remake of an Argentinian original from director Juan José Campanella, Secret in Their Eyes stars Roberts alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor and Nicole Kidman in a film about a tight-knit team of law enforcement investigators who have their world shattered when they discover the murder victim at a crime scene is the teenage daughter of one of their own.
The story follows a relentless, years-long pursuit of justice to track down the killer. Roberts sheds her usual glamour, portraying a character’s heartbreaking transition from a confident investigator to a devastated, grief-stricken mother.
9. Mary Reilly
Dir. Stephen Frears (1996)
Mary Reilly is more of a gothic horror film but for those who like Julia Roberts thrillers it has many of the elements that make her best work in the genre so compelling. The film retells the classic Jekyll and Hyde story from the perspective of an innocent Irish housemaid (Roberts) working in Victorian Edinburgh. Mary finds herself deeply attracted to her employer, Dr. Henry Jekyll (John Malkovich), yet increasingly terrified as she senses a sinister presence connecting him to his terrifying alter ego, Mr. Hyde.
Roberts gives a wonderfully restrained, subtle performance, channelling vulnerability and resilience. Her character’s own childhood trauma allows her to empathise with Jekyll’s dark side, creating an engaging, suspenseful dynamic that anchors the film’s eerie atmosphere.
8. Sleeping With The Enemy
Dir. Joseph Ruben (1991)
The critics didn’t like this one. Roger Ebert called it a “slasher movie in disguise” and reflected that it “briefly seems to have greatness in its grasp” but ends up going “straight for the mundane.” Yet, audiences lapped up this psycho-thriller that sees Roberts on the run from her unhinged husband (played with suitably camp by Patrick Bergin), and as a result the film made a killing at the box office.
Hot off her breakout success in Pretty Woman, Roberts delivers a compelling performance in a film that hits early on with a powerful depiction of psychological and physical domestic terror. Grounded by her magnetic screen presence, the story effectively builds tension around her character’s desperate bid to fake her death and forge a new life.
Even as the plot relies on classic slasher-style formulas and questionable logic, the tension keeps things moving along nicely. Roberts infuses her role with deep vulnerability and strength, making her character’s struggle genuinely captivating. For thriller fans, Roberts deserves the plaudits for an emotive lead performance that elevates the suspenseful, high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse, making this early-90s hit a remarkably entertaining ride despite its flaws.
7. Flatliners
Dir. Joel Schumacher (1990)
Five ambitious medical students conduct a dangerous experiment to glimpse the afterlife, deliberately inducing clinical death before reviving one another. What begins as an audacious scientific pursuit – with the students playing guinea pig – quickly spirals into a supernatural nightmare, as the visions they experience return to haunt them in the waking world.
Roberts appears alongside a who’s who of late 1980s, early 1990s Hollywood including Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland and William Baldwin, in this psychological thriller from director Joel Schumacher. Even this early in her career, she has star presence. It was a massive year for Roberts as Pretty Woman was released as well.
6. Money Monster
Dir. Jodie Foster (2016)
This real-time hostage thriller from director Jodie Foster sees Roberts play Patty Fenn, a serene TV director thrown into a claustrophobic crisis when a desperate investor takes her host hostage live on air. Her effortless chemistry with co-star George Clooney grounds the escalating studio tension as she proves to be the smartest voice in the room.
5. Erin Brockovich
Dir. Steven Soderbergh (2000)
Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich.
Roberts is on Oscar-winning form in Steven Soderbergh’s Erin Brockovich. It’s not a thriller in the classic sense, but this true-life drama turns a legal battle into a high-stake investigation with plenty of tension as well as twists and turns.
Playing a sharp, working-class paralegal who uncovers a massive corporate cover-up involving poisoned groundwater, she brings grit and magnetic charm to the underdog story. Fans of Julia Roberts’ best thriller movies will appreciate the investigative thrills as she uncovers hidden medical records and piecemeal evidence, turning a David-and-Goliath fight against a shadowy utility giant into a compelling, suspense-filled crusade.
4. After The Hunt
Dir. Luca Guadagnino (2025)
Luca Guadagnino’s provocative campus psychodrama After the Hunt sees Roberts delivers a breathtaking performance as Alma Imhoff, a Yale philosophy professor whose pursuit of tenure is upended by a explosive sexual assault accusation within her department.
Roberts breathes compelling, multifaceted life into a complex lead, weaponising her iconic presence and piercing gaze to project intelligence, subtle manipulation and deep personal conflict.
Beyond its sharp social commentary, the film’s psychological suspense is built around characters who each are unreliable narrators. Roberts excels in navigating Alma’s intricate web of secret biases and past trauma, as well as generational friction alongside co-stars Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield. Paired with a relentless, clock-like score, Guadagnino’s direction keeps viewers constantly re-evaluating the truth.
3. Conspiracy Theory
Dir. Richard Donner (1997)
Richard Donner is in the director’s seat for Conspiracy Theory in which Roberts finds herself engulfed by a world of political paranoia and hidden truths. She plays Alice Sutton, a Justice Department attorney who gradually realises that the wildly erratic conspiracy theories spouted by a manic New York cab driver (Mel Gibson) are terrifyingly real.
Evoking echoes of her work in The Pelican Brief, there’s an entertaining mix of suspense and dark humour as Roberts’ character unravels a deep-seated covert plot linked to her father’s mystery murder. It’s a performance that offers a nice counter-balance to Gibson’s unhinged energy, creating an intriguing, unpredictable dynamic that walks the line between romantic chemistry and edge-of-your-seat tension.
Navigating a web of rogue agents and sinister CIA psychiatrists, Roberts turns hair’s-breadth escapes into a fun, star-driven ride. It remains an essential watch for enthusiasts craving classic 90s thriller tropes elevated by magnetic screen presence.
2. The Pelican Brief
Dir. Alan J. Pakula (1993)
Roberts plays Darby Shaw in Alan J. Pakula’s The Pelican Brief, a sharp law student who unwittingly uncovers a high-level conspiracy following the assassination of two Supreme Court justices. She carries the film’s claustrophobic, slow-burn tension with remarkable warmth and understated courage. It’s far removed from her turn three years earlier in Pretty Woman.
Julia Roberts in Alan J. Pakula’s The Pelican Brief (1993).
She shares the screen with the brilliant Denzel Washington, who, as an investigative journalist, begins to help her after she’s targeted by rogue elements of government. Under Pakula’s atmospheric direction, the film relies on brooding suspense, secret hotel rooms, and constant, unseen threats rather than cheap action. Roberts infuses the character with believable resolve amidst the chaos and, alongside her chemistry with Washington, makes this conspiracy thriller an immensely entertaining, classic exercise in suspense.
1. Leave The World Behind
Dir. Sam Esmail (2023)
The best Julia Robert thriller happens to be one of her most recent films. In Sam Esmail’s bracing apocalyptic thriller Leave the World Behind, Roberts shines as Amanda, a cynicism-fuelled advertising executive whose secluded Long Island getaway unravels during a sudden nationwide cyberattack.
Those who love a good thriller – as well as the sight of Julia Roberts – will appreciate how she anchors the drama through sheer paranoia; her character is inherently suspicious of everything, from the strange arrival of the home’s owner at midnight to rogue oil tankers running aground.
Beyond its scale, the film excels by transforming ordinary objects like self-driving cars, stray wildlife, and cut off phone signals into sources of existential dread. Roberts plays brilliantly off co-stars Mahershala Ali and Ethan Hawke, grounding a dynamic where shifting motivations and lingering ambiguity keep us constantly guessing. Indeed, her character’s evolving, defensive struggle to navigate an encroaching societal collapse gives the movie its emotional core.
Discover more on Top 10 Films
10 Edge Of Your Seat Thrillers From The 1990s
The best thrillers of the 1990s including The Silence of the Lambs starring Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster, and Misery with Kathy Bates and James Caan.
FAQ
What was Julia Roberts’ first major thriller role?
Roberts made her first major mark in the thriller genre with Joel Schumacher’s Flatliners in 1990, released in the very same breakthrough year as Pretty Woman. Playing medical student Rachel Mannus, she demonstrated her dramatic range by balancing scientific arrogance with harrowing emotional vulnerability amidst a terrifying near-death experiment.
Which Julia Roberts thriller won her an Academy Award?
Roberts won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role in Steven Soderbergh’s Erin Brockovich. While structured as a biographical legal drama, the film functions as a high-stakes investigative thriller, driven by the suspense of uncovering corporate corruption and groundwater contamination.
What are her best political or conspiracy thrillers?
Her most iconic political and conspiracy thrillers are The Pelican Brief and Conspiracy Theory. In The Pelican Brief, she plays a targeted law student unraveling Supreme Court assassinations alongside Denzel Washington. In Conspiracy Theory, she stars opposite Mel Gibson as an attorney who realises a manic cab driver’s wild cover-up theories are terrifyingly real.
Has Julia Roberts starred in any recent psychological or apocalyptic thrillers?
Yes. In 2023, Roberts starred in Sam Esmail’s hit apocalyptic thriller Leave the World Behind on Netflix, playing an inherently suspicious woman navigating a sudden societal collapse. More recently, she starred in Luca Guadagnino’s 2025 campus psychodrama After the Hunt, in which she played a philosophy professor embroiled in a university scandal.
