Sitting down to talk about her new movie on 'Lorraine', the 'Ben is Back' actress compares her character's parenting approach to those caught up in the college entry scam.

• Mar 16, 2019

AceShowbiz - Julia Roberts is saddened some of her fellow actors appear to have a lack of faith in their kids, after they allegedly tried to scam the U.S. college admissions system.

Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin were among 50 people indicted by U.S. federal authorities on Tuesday, March 12 for allegedly taking part in a nationwide scheme in which exam administrators or athletics coaches were given cash to get children into elite universities.

While promoting her new movie "Ben is Back", in which she stars as a mum trying to help her son recover from drug addiction, she compared her character's unwavering faith in her son to the parents caught up in the college entry scandal.

"To bring the college situation into the mix, that to me is so sad because I feel from an outsider that it says a little bit 'I don't have enough faith in you'," she told TV host Lorraine Kelly on her show "Lorraine". "In this story ('Ben Is Back'), this mother is trying to say, 'I have both of our faiths until you can find the faith in yourself again'."

Speaking about her own approach to parenting, the mother of three said she's glad her children are better off than she was during her childhood in Smyrna, Georgia, but insists they each learn vital life skills for themselves.

"From the kind of childhood I had, I raised my kids now, I don't want them to have to have some of the struggles I had, but at the same time, you do need to know how to make your bed and how to do your laundry and how to be able to make one meal, these are important life skills," she said. "They have to run their own race, they have to have their own experience."

Both Felicity and Lori have been arrested and bailed over the scheme. The "Desperate Housewives" actress and her husband William H. Macy, who remains unindicted, are accused of paying a $15,000 to bump up their 18-year-old daughter Sofia's test scores. Lori and her fashion designer spouse Mossimo Giannulli are accused of paying $500,000 to scam the University of Southern California into believing their two daughters Olivia and Bella would be joining the school's rowing team. Both her daughters are reported to have dropped out of university following the scandal.