Julia Roberts has said she hopes her new film about a teenage boy battling drug addiction prompts people about “all the different fingerprints of responsibility” that are on addictive narcotics.
The actress stars opposite Lucas Hedges in Ben Is Back, as the mother of the troubled teenager who returns home unexpectedly on Christmas Eve.
She told the Press Association: “(I hope it is) a reminder that the problem has so many layers to where it starts and where it comes from and all the different fingerprints of responsibility that are on these drugs before they ever get into the hands of a young person.
“And also that you can make phone calls and you can create change in the legislation.
“The other part of it for me is to be present for one another in our own households in whatever form that is, whether you’re fighting this incredible battle like they are in the film or just to be present and aware and together, humbly and wholly, while we can be.
“Because really anything can happen to any of us, it doesn’t have to be this huge awful thing, it can just be some small awful thing and if you feel that you have fulfilled your responsibility as a present family member then I think that is a life accomplishment.”
Discussing the complexity of her character Holly Burns, she said: “What feels angry and stubborn one minute becomes determination and unconditional love the next minute, it’s so complicated.
“You can’t grab a hold of it and sort it and fix it because it’s this ever-changing, moving, water through-your-fingers issue.
“There are so many things that are in constant flux with it, it just becomes such a mountain to climb, that any mother is willing to climb every day to finally save their child.”
Ben Is Back is out now in UK cinemas.