Teenager Ditches Smartphone After Watching '80s Classic

In October 2025, Julia Roberts revealed that her daughter, Hazel Moder, was inspired to unplug from her smartphone after watching the 1980s coming-of-age film Stand by Me. According to the actress, Moder told her, "Seeing that movie, I just thought if those boys had phones, they wouldn't be talking to each other like that. They wouldn't have gone looking for that body, they wouldn't sit around the fire and share these stories."

Roberts explained that her daughter recognized how constant smartphone usage can inhibit organic social interaction. "She could see how it was getting in the way of things," the actress said. Roberts and her husband, cinematographer Danny Moder, have also established strict rules around phone usage for their three children, including a charging station and no phones at the dinner table.

The Duplicity star further expressed her concerns about the impact of smartphone obsession, particularly on young, developing brains. "Our brains are incapable of that influx," she said in a recent interview. "Our eyeballs, brains, all that is too much, especially for little, sweet, soft mushy brains, that need to be filled instead with mud and fields."