A Fan's '2 Truths & A Lie' Story Makes Julia Roberts Seem Like The Nicest Woman In Hollywood
It turns out that "America's sweetheart" nickname was for good reason.
taniavolobueva / Shutterstock.com; TikTok; Canva The key to winning any game of "Two Truth and a Lie" is having a story so weirdly specific it seems like it can't possibly be real, and a TikToker named Syd has one about a celebrity encounter that truly takes the cake.
As Syd revealed in a recent TikTok, the story always wins any bout of the popular ice-breaker game because nobody ever believes it's true.
A TikToker told the story of meeting Julia Roberts on the set of 'Runaway Bride.'
But this wasn't just any celebrity encounter story. The TikToker was just a tiny baby during the filming of the classic 1999 romantic comedy, which reunited Julia Roberts, 55, and her costar in 1990's "Pretty Woman," Richard Gere, 73, as an unlikely pair of marriage-shy commitment-phobes who finally get each other to say "I do."
Given that they were just a couple months old at the time, their story of meeting Julia Roberts involves the star doing something most of us would consider totally out of character for a huge A-list celebrity.
The TikToker's parents both worked in the film industry and would bring their newborn baby to the "Runaway Bride" set.
"My mom was a first assistant director, and my dad was a cameraman," Syd said in their video. "They met on a movie set, they fell in love, they got married, then they had me like less than a year later." Shortly after their birth, Syd's dad started work on "Runaway Bride."
The people that hired Syd's dad told him he could bring his wife and baby to the "Runaway Bride" filming location in Berlin, Maryland so that they could all be together since Syd was just "a couple [of] months old." So Syd and their parents lived in a hotel room near the set, and each day, "my mom would come onto set during lunch break and her and my dad would have lunch together with me," Syd said.
Those lunches would be the catalyst for Syd meeting Julia Roberts and the two forming an adorable movie star/baby friendship.
Julia Roberts instantly fell in love with the baby and offered to change their diaper so their parents could have lunch together
"I don't know how far into the shoot this happened," Syd said, "but at some point during [the] filming of 'Runaway Bride,' my parents were sitting having lunch with me, and Julia Roberts came up and she was like, 'oh my God, a baby.'" Roberts began flooding Syd's parents with questions. "Can I say hi? What's the baby's name?," Syd says the star asked her parents.
They let Roberts hold Syd for a while, and suddenly Roberts made them an unexpected offer. "She was like, 'you guys look like you want to have lunch by yourself. Do you guys need a break?'" As any parent of a newborn would have, Syd's parents immediately answered "Yeah, we would love that." So, Syd went on to say, "Julia just took me, took my diaper bag and just left" so their parents could relax and enjoy their lunch.
Julia Roberts ended up babysitting nearly every day on the 'Runaway Bride' set from then on.
"Every single day, my mom would come to set, she would meet up with my dad, they would hand me to Julia," Syd said. "Julia Roberts took care of me, changed my diaper, fed me, did whatever needed to be done while my parents were doing their thing."
Syd then showed a photograph of Roberts lovingly cradling their baby self back in the day, which they said was taken at the "Runaway Bride" wrap party. "She was holding me and I was playing with her necklace and somebody took a picture."
"I've always wondered if she would remember me," Syd mused. "I have absolutely no idea if she would or not. My parents think that she would because she's very sweet," they went on to say. They also captioned their TikTok, "if she sees this, I'll cry."
Julia Roberts has been rumored to be a rude celebrity who is difficult to work with.
Syd's story certainly differs from the long-running rumors that "America's Sweetheart" isn't always quite so sweet as her nickname would suggest. As the video below lays out, Roberts has been rumored to be no picnic to work with, according to some of her past collaborators.
But Roberts was a very young woman in her 20s—a time when we're all a bit messy—and there is of course a long history of women being branded rude and demanding—or worse—simply for being assertive in ways that men are typically rewarded for. So, grain of salt.
What Syd's story reveals is who Julia Roberts would eventually become in the 2000s—an A-list star, sure, but also a devoted wife to cameraman Daniel Moder and mother to three children, Phinnaeus Moder, 18, and twins Henry and Hazel Moder, 15.
And it's that side of Roberts that has TikTokers convinced she would indeed remember Syd just like Syd remembers meeting Julia Roberts—or the story of it, anyway. As one commenter put it, "once you bond with a baby or child, you absolutely do not forget them. I guarantee she remembers."
Here's hoping the internet does its thing and reunites Syd with her long-lost babysitter and diaper changer, Julia Roberts!
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.