Julia Roberts blushes as co-stars confirm banana bread prowess at NYFF screening

Julia Roberts blushed Friday night when her After The Hunt co-stars teased her baking skills at the 63rd New York Film Festival screening at Lincoln Center. The moment unfolded as Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri spoke with Page Six about Roberts’ kitchen talents, lending a lighter note to a film drawing growing attention for its timely subject matter.

Garfield and Edebiri confirmed that Roberts makes an excellent banana bread, with Edebiri joking that it lands in the first percentile and Garfield suggesting it sits in the top 0.5 percentile. Roberts listened with a quiet, approving smile as the pair teased the baked-goods aside. Page Six noted that Roberts does not add a cream cheese topping to the loaf, insisting the bread is so good it stands on its own.

The anecdote about Roberts’ baking prowess traces back to a Variety interview in which Luca Guadagnino, the film’s director, praised her cooking. Guadagnino said Roberts is an incredible cook who does an amazing salmon and an incredible banana bread. He recalled staying at her home last year and taking one of her banana breads to the airport, where lounge staff raved and were starstruck by who had baked it. The trio’s lighthearted moment during the NYFF screening underscored the crossover between festival chatter and the film’s heavier themes.

After The Hunt, directed by Luca Guadagnino and presented by MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection, centers on Roberts’ character, a Yale philosophy professor, who becomes entangled in a scandal when her favorite student, played by Edebiri, accuses another professor (Garfield) of sexual assault. The film’s premise has sparked ongoing conversation about accountability and power within academic and professional settings within the #MeToo era.

The film’s festival run has kept the discussion alive beyond its plot. The Venice Film Festival previously drew attention when Edebiri was asked a question about the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements but was not included in the line of questioning, a moment that quickly circulated online. The NYFF screening of After The Hunt amplified that conversation, juxtaposing the film’s courtroom-grounded drama with the social dynamics that have shaped its reception.

Roberts, the Oscar winner, remains a central figure in the film’s press narrative. At NYFF, she fielded questions with the quiet poise that has long characterized her public appearances, while her co-stars added a lighter, humanizing note to the film’s otherwise intense subject matter. The collaboration between Roberts, Garfield and Edebiri — and Guadagnino’s direction — has kept the film at the center of festival discourse as audiences await broader release details.

As the festival week unfolds, After The Hunt stands as a touchstone for conversations about consent, memory, and accountability in contemporary culture, even as it offers a revealing, character-driven drama anchored by a trio of acclaimed performers. The NYFF screening reinforced the film’s dual pull: provocative storytelling and the unusual, real-world warmth among its stars and director.