Julia Roberts gives her “best performance” yet in her upcoming thriller After the Hunt, according to director Luca Guadagnino.

In the Challengers director’s next movie, the Oscar-winning actress plays a college professor who is forced to grapple with her own secretive past after one of her colleagues is faced with a serious accusation.

Reflecting on the shoot during an appearance on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast, the Italian director made a bold claim about the beloved movie star’s performance.

“I’ve been a fan of Julia forever. I’m a big fan. That’s another incredible movie star; she has something that not everybody has,” he gushed. “Working with Julia was a joy of life. You’ll see. Her performance is… I mean, I don’t want to be presumptuous but I feel that’s her best performance (yet).”

The Call Me By Your Name filmmaker noted that After the Hunt doesn’t tackle sexuality, love or desire, his movies’ usual themes.

Teasing the project, he shared, “I don’t want to say much but I can tell you that it’s a very surprising movie. It’s about what happens in the media or academia between younger and older people and the idea of consent. I can tell you that the movie is very provocative but not in a stupid way, in a very articulate way.

“It’s about conflict (and) in a way, it’s a very timely movie for where we are now, in terms of the division in society and the extreme positions that we can have vis-à-vis an opinion in a way. (I) can’t wait for the world to see that.”

After the Hunt, which also stars Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg, Chloe Sevigny and Ayo Edebiri, wrapped filming in August and Guadagnino revealed he has “almost” finished the editing process.

A release date or possible film festival debut has yet to be announced.

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