The 46-year-old actress sat down with Amy Kaufman from the Los Angeles Times to talk about her transition into motherhood and how it reflects on her career. "I think people like to say that I'm super picky because of how much I l-oo-ve my kids. But as an actor, I sort of pride myself on the fact that I've always been picky," Roberts explained to the paper.

Roberts has been married to cinematographer Daniel Moder for 11 years, and the couple have three children together. At this point in her life, those kids have become her top priority. "We try to protect our kids. We just want to have our family life and not have that intruded upon," Roberts told USA Today in a separate interview.

Speaking to the Times, Roberts also explained how age plays a part in her decision making. "For one, I'm 46 years old, so falling out of chairs isn't as funny. I could break a hip," Roberts said. "Certain scenarios that worked 10 years ago aren't as appealing, as applicable, as believable, as original -- all those things." These factors have directed Roberts away from many of the big romantic comedies she became famous for, and have allowed her to focus on the roles that inspire her most, like "August: Osage County." The new film finds Roberts in unfamiliar territory, playing a depressed mother on the cusp of a divorce.

"Julia, when we first started talking about it, that was our question," director John Wells told HuffPost Entertainment when asked about the decision to cast Roberts in such an against-type role. "This is an embittered, angry woman in her mid-40s, and it's going to be a lot of time spent not being a very nice person. Julia has a screen persona that she has not exclusively done, but done often, where people sort of expect her to be a certain way. None of that was going to be what we're doing. She said, 'Yeah, that's exactly why I want to do it.'"

The actress credits her career's development and success to finding fame in a time when she was allowed to be herself. "Nobody expected me to be anybody but myself, really," she recalled.