Chopard Loves Cinema

Julia Roberts shines as Chopard’s global ambassador in a new Feel-Good campaign by James Gray and Alasdair McLellan

The face of the Happy Sport and Happy Diamonds collections since 2021, Chopard global ambassador Julia Roberts is now the muse of all the Maison’s women’s watch and jewellery collections. To celebrate this special bond, Chopard and Julia Roberts are combining their shared love of cinema through a campaign orchestrated by James Gray consisting of 12 video clips to be unveiled from March 20th 2023 – the International Day of Happiness – in which the director has captured all the audacity, playfulness and humanity that make Julia Roberts a contemporary icon. The films are accompanied by a new advertising campaign featuring visuals by photographer Alasdair McLellan. With all the power of a sunny disposition, the most beautiful and famous smile in cinema embodies everything that makes Chopard unique: virtuosity, Joie de Vivre and the Feel-Good spirit. Its positive energy spreads like a tidal wave giving women unshakeable confidence in themselves. Selected by Julia Roberts as talismans, Chopard watches and jewellery symbolise the blossoming of each individual, a sense of well-being extending well beyond Joie de Vivre and exuding an unmistakably radiant sparkle.

Backstage with Julia Roberts

Who has never dreamed of going behind the scenes of a Hollywood movie? Today, Chopard and James Gray are extending an invitation to this secret incursion, as James Gray captures the famous generally unseen backstage glimpses that are an integral part of a film set’s charm in the latest Chopard Loves Cinema campaign.

Twelve episodes will be unveiled over the coming months, starting on March 20th 2023: the International Day of Happiness that Chopard echoes on a global scale. "To me, every day is international happiness day, Global Happiness Day”, says the actress. Chopard’s Co-President and Artistic Director shares more details: “After our Happy Diamonds campaign directed by Xavier Dolan in 2021, which featured a mesmerising and twirling Julia Roberts illustrating the pure, immediate and communicative happiness at the heart of Chopard’s spirit, this new series broadens the spectrum of the initial momentum. We are revealing a new facet of our identity, the Feel-Good vibe: the self-confidence instilled by Chopard jewellery or watches, reverberating in the air and infusing the entire surrounding universe with positive energy."

An icon as you have never seen her

This is Julia Roberts in action, joking around off-camera, spreading her joy and larks. She knits, finds something nice to say about everyone, slips into trainers under her glamorous dresses, takes over the camera herself and interrupts her script rehearsal to cuddle her dog Myrtle that jumps on her lap.

Throwing herself whole-heartedly into this game somewhere between improvisation and script, Julia Roberts recalls her best memory at the Cannes Festival. It was with Chopard, in 2016: "The first time I was there, running late and racing down the hallway. Somebody was still sewing me into my dress, so we were all running down the hallway to the elevator and somebody was sewing away. And I just thought 'It's so classic'. It was a "Cannes"-Do moment."

Julia Roberts is thus captured by the camera as the embodiment of a fulfilled woman. By filming these stolen backstage moments, James Gray has the ability to show in front of the camera what is going on behind the scenes, which is precisely what breathes life and magic into all the Feel-Good films in which Julia Roberts has been so successful.

Adorned with her Chopard jewellery and buoyed by the confidence it instils in her, in turn, Julia Roberts brings her unique magic to the set. Making a film is above all about ensuring that everyone feels good and acknowledged, thus finding their own place in a shared adventure that leaves no one on the sidelines.

Chopard plays the part

As the campaign progresses, we get a look into the antechamber of a vast building full of huge studios bustling with crew members and precautions, props and meticulous logistics: the backstage of a film with Julia Roberts. We also realise that this amazing choreography would be nothing without the heart-felt gestures brilliantly revealed by James Gray’s camera. The fact that the director set out to visit the making of a Hollywood movie from this angle is obviously because that is where the Chopard spirit is most subtly and accurately expressed: placing human energy at the centre of the most precious jewellery and watches created by the Maison.

James Gray's cinematic standpoint epitomises the spirit of Chopard, for which the heart of each collection resides in this mission to adorn men and women - enabling them above all to continue their journey to personal fulfilment and freedom. The impulses of the heart reign supreme, intrinsically bound up with emotions and ready to be generously shared around the world

Directed by James Gray

Winner of several international awards, James Gray – who has had five films selected for the official competition at the Cannes Film Festival – has always placed human relationships at the centre of the kaleidoscope of subjects he has tackled. From Little Odessa, his first feature film that immediately became a cult film, to The Immigrant as well as the most recent Armageddon Time presented at the 2022 Cannes Festival, James Gray is committed to expressing the sting of time, what must be left behind and what is worth defending in the fleeting fabric of memory.

The distinctive lighting of his films conveys this dialectical tension between nostalgia and necessary recomposition, as well as the almost sacred energy of new beginnings. James Gray is a humanist and each of his productions promotes the desire to retain that which is essential for society and for living with dignity. Such are the values woven into this campaign that cleverly plays on various registers through life’s ultra Feel-Good life moments.

The director shares: "Julia Roberts is that rare thing: a genuine movie star. She also happens to be a person with a tremendous sense of humour about it all, and somehow, she hasn't let her legendary status go to her head. I always jump at any chance I might get to work with her. We are pals, with a real respect and affection for each other. I always consider my day made if I’ve made her smile. And the work is always a pleasure, if for no other reason than the fact that the camera is as big a fan of Julia’s as I am! Both Julia and Chopard embody a true sense of happiness, so it was a wonderful opportunity to work with them on this campaign."

Alasdair McLellan, a brilliant photographer to capture the image of a film legend

From Happy Diamonds to Haute Joaillerie creations, including the Ice Cube, L’Heure du Diamant and Alpine Eagle collections, Julia Roberts embodies the spirit of the Maison through a series of never-before-seen advertising visuals captured by photographer Alasdair McLellan. He is renowned for his sensitive photographic approach and his work in fashion as well as portraits, landscapes and documentaries evokes a wide range of emotions. Alasdair McLellan embraces a blend of classical and pop-style references creating a dialogue between genres and identities. In front of his lens, the Chopard muse poses with the innate grace of an icon, displaying her legendary smile, the brightest in the world of cinema. Making no attempt to conceal her genuine pleasure at wearing the Maison’s talismanic creations, Julia Roberts allows a sense of well-being and fulfilment such as only Chopard is capable of eliciting to seep through these visuals. As the photographer explains: "It's hard to describe working with Julia without sounding incredibly clichéd, but she really was everything I could've hoped she’d be. Editing the shoot was surprisingly difficult, as she looked great in every frame, and it was easy to imagine every image on a billboard."

Greg Williams' lens to reflect the making-of moments

Rounding off a team of great image professionals, Chopard called upon backstage specialist and photographer Greg Williams to immortalise the making of this behind-the-scenes shoot. A former photojournalist, Greg Williams has made a name for himself in the film industry thanks to the candour emanating from his portraits of stars, synonymous with authentic glamour. Capturing the spontaneity of Julia Roberts in action, he explains: "I'm quite often looking for joy and I try to create a joyful experience. Working closely with Julia on this campaign was in many ways the perfect assignment because she is such a joyful person."