PLAYED BY: Julia Roberts
MARITAL STATUS/OCCUPATION: Single/law-firm researcher
MATERNAL QUALITY WE ADMIRE: Single-mindedness. Perhaps a questionable choice as Erin’s dogged work leads her to, for a time, abandon her kids with a helpful neighbor. But, as the movie makes clear, her seemingly obsessive devotion to a civil action that seeks to punish a polluting corporation, comes from seeing a job through to its end and an intense emotional connection to the families whose lives are shattered.
BEGGING FOR A JOB, AFTER A SERIES OF FRUSTRATING AND DISAPPOINTING INTERVIEWS: “I don’t need pity, I need a paycheck. And I’ve looked. But when you’ve spent the past six years raising babies its real hard to find somebody who pays worth a damn. [Turning her attention to a staring onlooker] Are ya getting every word of this down, honey, or am I talking too fast?”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELzu636Xf6Y]