Entertainment Movies Shirley MacLaine Knew Julia Roberts Was Going to Be a 'Huge Star' Before 'Pretty Woman ' Before Roberts made Pretty Woman, she nabbed her first Oscar nomination for Steel Magnolias By Nigel Smith Published on July 19, 2019 10:00 AM Share Tweet Pin Email Shirley MacLaine knew a star was born when she met Julia Roberts in the ’80s. The two famously starred together in 1989’s Steel Magnolias opposite an all-star cast that included Olympia Dukakis, Dolly Parton, Sally Field and Daryl Hannah. Based on the 1987 play of the same name, the film explored the relationships and sisterhood of a group of women in a small Southern community. MacLaine, 85, played Louisa “Ouiser” Boudreaux, the grouchy one of the group with a hardened heart of gold. Roberts, a relative newcomer at the time, embodied the heartbreaking part of Shelby Eatenton Latcherie. As MacLaine tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue, she was wowed by Roberts the second she met her. Steve Granitz/WireImage My Life in Pictures … Shirley MacLaine “We were rehearsing on a sound stage, I can’t remember where, and she walks in,” MacLaine remembers. “And the way she walked into the room and sat down and said hello… I got up from the table and called my agent before we even started to rehearse. I said, ‘There’s a woman here and she’s going to be a huge star. You should handle her,’ I told him. She was amazing. The energy that she had just walking into the sound stage.” Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock RELATED VIDEO: Julia Roberts Ends ‘Fun Night’ at the Golden Globes with ‘My Fella’ — and In-N-Out Burgers! As MacLaine tells it, Roberts’ rise to fame after shooting Steel Magnolias was “immediate.” “She did Pretty Woman right after this,” she recalls. Roberts’ devastating performance landed her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. She would later go on to win the Oscar for Best Actress for Erin Brockovich in 2001.