I Watch Notting Hill: What's Real
by Hadley Ajana
Julia Roberts earned her Oscar for playing Erin Brokovich, an extrovert if there ever was one. But my favorite Roberts performance is as the introverted Anna Scott in Notting Hill. Playing a famous Hollywood actress with Hugh Grant as her would-be suitor, bookstore owner William Thackeray, Roberts gently pokes fun at the world of fame and film, explaining in the end that it is not real. Notting Hill demonstrates the absurdity of Hollywood and the sweetness of “real” life. For introverts the whole outer world is surreal; only what is inside is genuine and sweet.
Notting Hill wastes no time in having Anna and William meet. While out shopping alone (as most introverts do), Anna wonders into William’s bookshop (home away from home for introverts). She is impressed when he thwarts a shoplifting. (Introverts are always impressed with how extroverts manage to confront others.) William recognizes her, but tries not to let it show. She sees that he knows her and is grateful that he does not invade her privacy by mentioning it. They flirt, but despite their electric attraction, she leaves, keeping herself all to herself. How mundane and ridiculous it must be for movie stars to be routinely bombarded with gushing comments and compliments from people who hardly know them. How trying it is for introverts to be regularly subjected to invasive and tacky small talk whenever they leave the house.
Of course the two are destined to meet again. After another run-in, Anna invites William to meet at the hotel where she is staying under an assumed name (a common habit of even not famous introverts, by the way). When he arrives, William is mistaken for a film critic, and, under pressure, identifies himself as a writer for Horse & Hound. He is then put through the trappings of a press junket for Anna’s new film, which is apparently pretty bad. To get through the obstacle course that stands between him and his beloved, he must endure a series of interviews with the movie’s lesser stars. He mocks the insidious questions that yield Entertainment Tonight’s bread and butter. “'Did you enjoy making the film?” he wonders. “Any bit in particular?'' is his smart follow up. I enjoy this bit of Notting Hill in particular because it mirrors how I feel about a typical day. To make it home again to my beloved, I must endure a series of ridiculous encounters in which I impersonate someone who is interested in whether the people I work with are enjoying their projects and how the grocery store cashier feels about my purchase. It helps to think of it as comedy.
The meeting at the hotel leads to the couples’ first real date. William invites Anna to his sister’s birthday party. While dining in the privacy of William’s friends’ house, Anna competes with the other guests in “woe is me” one-upmanship to win the last coveted brownie. She predicts her future: "One day my looks will go, and I'll be a sad middle-aged woman who looks like someone who was famous for a while." Her famous form, she reveals, is only the result of constant starvation and two very painful operations; she points to her nose and chin. For extroverts, managing the real world is natural. For introverts, it requires great and sometimes painful sacrifices.
While it’s clear that Anna and William belong together, the course of love, as you know, is not a smooth one. There are several break-ups and make-ups before the two live happily ever after. The main difficulty is William’s inability to understand Anna’s introversion, or perhaps Anna’s inability to explain it to him.
One major disruption in their courtship occurs after nude photos of Anna appear in a newspaper. She takes refuge from the paparazzi at William’s flat, but is betrayed by William’s roommate whose boasting alerts the press to her whereabouts. Thinking she had found solitude, she wakes to face a barrage of flashes and embarrassing questions on the doorstep. William urges her to blow the whole thing off. Anna makes an effort to explain, but William cannot understand the devastation she feels from a double blow: the invasion of her physical privacy when the photos were published followed by the invasion of her psychic privacy when her hideout was revealed.
Anna and William face another challenge to their relationship when he shows up uninvited at one of her movie sets. There he overhears her refer to him as “no one” in response to a curious colleague’s question to Anna about the visitor. To an introvert, the knee jerk response to a nosey question is an obvious cover-up, but to William it could only have the one meaning. It would never occur to him that taking great pains to deflect attention from the relationship is actually a sign it has great significance to her. The last thing an introvert wants is for something personal to be the subject of public speculation.
After hurting William several times, Anna realizes she may have to do a better job of putting her feelings into words if she wants to be understood. She shows up at his bookstore to present William with a piece of art (introverts like to give meaningful gifts) and an apology. She tries to explain her seemingly inexplicable behavior by showing him the world as it appears to her, from the inside out. “The fame thing isn’t real, you know,” she explains. For introverts nothing in the outer world is real. It’s only what’s inside that matters.
William fears he cannot endure the vicissitudes of life with Anna and sends her away. Being an extrovert, he immediately shares the encounter with his friends. As he recounts what happens, it dawns on him that perhaps Anna is telling the truth. She is not a bad person, just a private one. With that, he takes off to find his love and win her back. This of course requires impersonating a journalist from Horse & Hound once again.
The film ends in introvert heaven: Anna’s head is comfortably in William’s lap while her nose is happily snuggled in a book. The two pass an idyllic afternoon in a private park without so much as a word passing between them. They quietly await the child growing in Anna’s belly, the picture of bliss. The moral of the story? Extroverts can understand the way introverts see the world if given enough time and explanation.
Still not convinced? In 2002, Roberts married her very own average Joe. After the wedding, Mr. and Mrs. Danny Moder moved into the actress’ New Mexico ranch, relishing their privacy. In a rare television interview, the bride gushed, “I was born to love and be loved by this man.” In 2004, she gave birth to Hazel and Phinneas. Says Julia of twins, “He likes blueberries and she loves her daddy.” Now that’s real.
more reviews by Hadley Ajana
