October 16, 2025
Julia Roberts recently revealed how Stand by Me significantly inspired her daughter Hazel Moder.
For those unaware, Stand by Me, a coming-of-age film, revolves around a group of friends who embark on a mission to search for a dead body. The movie, directed by Rob Reiner, starred Corey Feldman, Wil Wheaton, Jerry O’Connell, and River Phoenix.
The 57-year-old Hollywood actress gave an interview to The New York Times to promote her newly released movie, After the Hunt, where she called to mind the 1986 classic Stand by Me, sharing how it changed her daughter, Hazel, when she was younger.
Julia, who shares her 20-year-old twins Hazel and Phinnaeus as well as 18-year-old son Henry Daniel with her husband Danny Moder, said, "I think people don’t realize how much they miss talking.”
She recalled, "For some reason, I was thinking this morning about when my kids were young and we showed them Stand by Me, and our daughter said to me, 'I'm going to give you my phone.' And I said, 'OK. What do you want me to do with it?'”
In response to her question, Hazel quipped, "just keep it. I don’t want it.”
“Seeing that movie, I just thought if those boys had phones, they wouldn’t be talking to each other like that. They wouldn't have gone looking for that body, they wouldn’t sit around the fire and share these stories,” the Mona Lisa Smile star’s daughter explained.
Julia went on to state that Hazel "could see how it was getting in the way of things."
"All that’s to say, we love talking to each other and sometimes we forget how important it is," the Academy winner remarked.