Before Jennifer Lawrence’s inner ear tried to take her out a half dozen times or so, Julia Roberts had perhaps the most buzzed-about red carpet moment in the past twenty years. While a guest on Sunday’s Busy Tonight, Roberts looked back on her famous, nay, iconic, armpit hair at the 1999 London premiere of Notting Hill. However, despite Busy Philipps’ belief to the contrary, the Homecoming actress says her body hair wasn’t a statement, or at least not a statement about feminism or beauty standards or even red carpet accessorizing.
“I just hadn’t really calculated my sleeve length and the waving and how those two things would go together and reveal personal things about me,†explained Roberts. “So it wasn’t so much a statement, as it’s just part of the statement I make as a human on the planet, for myself.†Okay, so maybe it’s just a statement that says, “Julia Roberts doesn’t always shave her underarms.†Simple. Elegant. A lower-cast ‘s’ type of statement.