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JULIA ROBERTS ON GAINING WEIGHT WHILE FILMING "EAT, PRAY, LOVE": "IT BECAME INEVITABLE. I WAS OLYMPIC CARBO LOADING!"

July 29, 2010 (Los Angeles, CA) - ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT's MARK STEINES sat down with Julia Roberts today in Napa Valley, CA for a new interview to air tonight, July 29th.

On being cast in her new film, Eat, Pray, Love, Julia says she is grateful to boss Brad Pitt, who was a producer on the film. "I was beholden to him that he would think of me and come to me with this," she says. "I think [this film was] a great, defining moment for me as an actor. I don't usually work this hard anymore and it really made clear that I still possess joy for doing it.  I had to test to see if I still had that level of commitment." When asked how it was having Brad as a boss, Julia laughs and says, "He was around in the beginning, but he's a busy man himself. He left a lot of the heavy lifting to another producer."

Julia tells ET that while shooting her new film, her journey took her around the world and even included an instance of déjà vu with an elephant from her past, "I said to the assistant director, ‘I know that elephant!' It happened to have been the elephant that [my son] Finn and I had gone for a ride on in Jaipur earlier that same year. What are the chances?!" Julia also says that she gained weight while filming and enjoying all the food in Italy, "It became inevitable. I was olympic carbo loading!"

She goes on to recall her own travels across the globe, "I used to take myself on a trip every year, up until I got married and then I wanted to go with my husband. It was sort of my reward for finishing a job. When you're working, you're with so many people and I like my time to myself." Julia recalls the trip where she felt most out of her comfort zone, saying, "Going to India in my early 20's by myself was a big, big trip. I got about halfway there and thought, ‘Wow, where am I going!?'"

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