Julia Roberts dishes on Meryl Streep’s pot-luck parties at the presser for August: Osage County

Actors don’t just wake up brilliant—they have to work really, really hard at it. Even Meryl Streep. At least, that’s what they told us at Tuesday’s presser for family drama August: Osage County from director John Wells. Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, Juliette Lewis and the rest of the ensemble cast (minus the illustrious Streep) were on hand to dish about the extraordinary effort it took to perfect the film’s dysfunctional family dynamic. “We worked our asses off,” said Roberts, “because there was no other way to do it. I’ve never worked so hard in my life, and I have given birth to three children. It was like a mountain to climb every single day and the only way to climb it, we discovered, was holding hands, whether we liked it or not.” The Pretty Woman actress called the experience the “best acting experience” of her life. As for Streep’s role in the process? She hosted nightly pot-lucks at her condo.