Julia Roberts is grateful to have shared screen time with prank-loving actors Richard Gere and Mel Gibson because their onset antics gave her early insight into the male psyche.

Roberts was in her twenties when she first appeared alongside Gere in 1990 romantic comedy Pretty Woman, and with Gibson in their 1997 film Conspiracy Theory.

And the movie star, who is now married to cameraman Danny Moder, admits that developing a platonic bond with the leading men helped her gain confidence around the opposite sex.

She tells Allure magazine, "Early on, I worked with Richard Gere and Denzel (Washington) and Dennis Quaid and Mel Gibson, and all these profoundly smart, handsome guys. I was lucky enough to be part of their lives and become friends with them, and it is interesting to understand a solid perspective of the male psyche as a person who's non-threatening to that guy. Men are so revealing when they're not trying to woo you, when you're not intimidated or being flirty, when you're just interested."

(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)