Roberts talks about life, kids and, yes, her iconic hair, in her new InStyle interview

Julia Roberts is so happy right now — and she not afraid to get cheesy about it.

“There’s no way to describe it without sounding sappy or ridiculous because everything in my mind ends with an exclamation point,” the icon says in the December issue of InStyle, while also gracing the fashion monthly’s cover. Specifically, she’s talking about life with her husband of 15 years, cinematographer Danny Moder, and their three children: Henry Daniel, 10, and twins Hazel Patricia and Phinnaeus “Finn” Walter, 12.

“The thing is,” she continues, “we have these three human beings who are just a complete reflection of the affection we have for each other.”

In fact, this cover — in which she was interviewed by friend and Time Inc.’s Editorial Director, Style and Entertainment, Jess Cagle — ends a pretty eventful year for the star. Not only did she celebrate a momentous marriage anniversary, but she also toasted to her milestone 50th birthday over the weekend, ringing it in with “open arms and gratitude,” she says.

“There’s nothing different about this birthday than any other one,” she says. It’s really a sticking point for her, as she is often asked what it’s really like to turn 50. “Really, people? Are we still in that space? Did anyone go over this with George Clooney or Brad [Pitt] before their 50th birthdays?”

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PHOTOGRAPHED FOR INSTYLE BY CARTER SMITH

Julia Roberts covers InStyle’s December 2017 issue.

She’s also finishing the year with some strong projects.

Her new film, Wonder, co-starring Jacob Tremblay comes out later this month, and next year she’ll start shooting a new Amazon TV series, Homecoming, based on the psychological thriller podcast. But most days, her life consists of taking her kids to soccer and cooking them dinner — and she couldn’t be happier.

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PHOTOGRAPHED FOR INSTYLE BY CARTER SMITH

Julia Roberts in InStyle‘s December 2017 issue.

One story she recalls is when her 12-year-old daughter Hazel donated her hair to an organization that makes wigs for kids with cancer. “That’s a big deal for a girl who’s about to be 13 and has this cascading blond hair that gets commented on a lot,” Roberts said. “But she’s so good and brave. She sees it as something else.”

As somone who knows a thing or two about getting comments on her hair (PeopleStyle, in fact, just celebrated her birthday with a gallery of her most enviable hair moments), Roberts says she was very self conscious about her look when she auditioned for her first role, Mystic Pizza in 1988.

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PHOTOGRAPHED FOR INSTYLE BY CARTER SMITH

Julia Roberts in InStyle‘s December 2017 issue.

She recalled the story of having to dye her blond hair dark brown with a can of colored mousse for her audition. “It was so brown and stiff and curly, and I had this audition with Adam Storke,” she says. “I was so self-conscious of how stiff my hair was—and he’s touching it, and his fingers are turning black.” She ended up drenched in mousse too, when she got caught in the rain on her way home.

Learning the ways around a can of colored mousse isn’t the only style take-away from one of her films. In an accompanying video, she tells Cagle that she’d like to thank Erin Brockovich for “helping me find my previously excavated cleavage.”

“It was the first thing that came to my shallow mind,” she joked.

To read more from Roberts’ interview, pick up a copy of the December issue of InStyle, on stands Friday, November 10.