Welcome, loving viewers, to Vegetarian Elite on Supreme Master Television. Exuding beauty and benevolence, Eliza Roberts is a kind-hearted soul who uses her voice in the Hollywood film industry to speak up for the welfare of all animals.

Hailing from an illustrious and talented entertainment family, Eliza had an early introduction to Hollywood.

With her gifted genes and a nurturing environment, Eliza naturally progressed to becoming a successful actress and casting director in her own right. She has had roles in over thirty films and television shows, bringing her special presence and talent to the characters in “All in the Family,” “Animal House,” “St. Elsewhere,” “Dr. Who,” and in the upcoming “The Way Shower,” in which she teams up with her Oscar-nominated husband, Eric Roberts.

Supreme Master Television had the honor to interview Eliza at her beautiful home in Southern California, a true sanctuary for both humans and animals. Eliza’s own understanding and respect for animals began at a tender age. Following the principle of ahimsa, meaning nonviolence, she explored the plant-based diet.

I’ve gone back and forth between vegetarian and vegan for 30 years, through two pregnancies and studying carefully to be sure that the babies would grow and everybody was fine, was more than fine, really healthy. It just was being exposed to one thing that really brought it home, “Oh, this doesn’t happen in a way that’s happy for all parties involved.” It’s unconscionable to eat meat. It’s completely unconscionable. Anything that’s obtained through a disturbance for an animal, or a discomfort, whether it’s make-up brushes or whatever, but certainly with food, forget it.

Eliza’s decision to turn to a vegetarian diet was purely based on love for our fellow sentient beings. From such a pure-hearted ideal, all other benefits of a compassionate lifestyle were bestowed upon her.

It’s not for the health benefits for me. I’m 57 years old. I’ve never colored my hair. I just use regular old soap, and I don’t use anything and I don’t feel any different than I did when I was 15 I’m never sick. Everything is fine. But so, I didn’t do this to establish or maintain health or longevity or anything. Someone could come tomorrow and say, “Meat is vital to your existence and you must eat it.” And I wouldn’t. Every new [rescue] animal that we get, we also start them on a vegetarian diet. We’ll always offer soy cheese.

What made you get started in animal advocacy?

For me, I was at camp in upstate New York. And it was an organic camp, and it was great with food, except that they had one day every summer where they had the kids pluck a bunch of chickens. And I can barely even talk about that. And I, at a very young age, just thought, “No, this is wrong.” And it really was wrong for me. You know, and I’m very easy person. I made a little case saying I need to not be involved in this, and I don’t even want it to happen at camp anymore.

I think it’s wrong. And they listened. They took it very seriously which is really good. I think for both Eric and me, it was an incident of hearing about or seeing cruelty to an animal. And I think with him, he just saw somebody even be mildly unkind or disrespectful to a dog, and that was it for him. And then I know that his first cat, Mercedes, he found at the pound, and she was on death row. And no one wanted her because she wasn’t a kitten. And he was on location in New Orleans or something, and he saw children coming in and rescuing these animals, and that’s when he got heavily into cats because he’s already been into animals since childhood.

And he was just, “I’ve got to do this.” At the time, his girlfriend was Sandy Dennis, who was a well-known cat rescuer. And she had influenced him. And his grandfather had horses and Eric always wanted to care for the horses. I think that some people are kind of shy, which Eric is. They communicate better with animals than people and it becomes a real relationship.

Leading a true vegan lifestyle, Eliza does not use any animal products. She makes every effort to ensure that her food, clothing and makeup are all cruelty-free. With the influence of the entertainment industry, Eliza works with some of the top celebrities to further the cause for animal welfare.

Well, Jaymes Foster, who is in the music industry, and she works with my son and with lots of my friends, with Diane Warren, who’s very involved in animal rescue. We’re all friends. I was going to a red carpet one day and she had a fur-free necklace and she said, “Would you mind wearing this?” It said, “FF.” Really, there is no need to wear fur. There are so many other things to wear.

We’re constantly gifting our friends who are still, there’re very few left, but our friends who are still into fur, like let’s say older generations, we will see their favorite piece and we will have a replica made with fur-free but the really good ones, the ones that really harm nothing. Just to introduce them to the concept, and let me tell you, we have a lot of converts. We really have a lot of converts.

Leather, too. There’s no leather in our lives.

Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television. Vegetarian Elite will be right back after these brief messages with more on Eliza Roberts’ deep compassion for all animals.

And then over there, we’re doing construction here, over there is Kit Ridge, brand new rescue, named after the street that she was hit by a car on. And the reason they’re here is my daughter is doing some work in this treehouse, and they love her, so they wait for her to come. See, he’s looking. He’s like, “Where is Morgan? Where is she?” She is not here yet. If you go in, I don’t want you to get locked in. She’s not here yet, baby. See, she’s not here yet. But yes, he’s a dog.

And then there’s the pool where I rescue all the bugs with my pool skimmers. I have a little skimmer that I carry in my purse in case I am at a party and I see a bug in the pool, I’ll rescue it, even if people think I am crazy. Because why not, right?

Thank you for joining us again for Vegetarian Elite, with our show on the beautiful and loving actress, Eliza Roberts. Eliza is living proof that one person can truly make a difference in this world, whether that be in the life of a small bee or the lives of her family members, especially her husband, Eric Roberts.

I was rescuing a bee and Eric was like, “Come on! We have to go!” and I said, “Look at this creature who has went in there to dip and get water…” because they do that, it’s amazing, “and got stuck and it’s now suffering terribly, fighting for its life, and we can pick it up with the strainer and it’ll…” and especially if you put it by flowers, they’ll come right back to life, and it will fly away.

That’s an unbelievable power, because this complex creature, doesn’t matter how infinitesimal it is, look at microbes or whatever, it has all the same everything that we have, intelligence, everything. And this is an amazing ability. We can do so little, but we can do this, in our time here, we can do this. And I said, “So think about a fish, a chicken, or cow.” And that was it. He was just like, “Oh my God!” And it worked!

With such a loving heart, Eliza’s inner and outer beauty is ever radiant. The saying, “Behind every great man is a great woman,” is reflected in the relationship between Eliza and Eric. Her adoring husband credits her with turning his life around. He had said in an interview with “Energy Times”: “I think she saved my life - if you can save someone else’s life.

She is such a clean liver, and she made it seem easy and tempting. Eliza’s philosophy is, ‘When in doubt, give.’ You never feel lost or confused if you follow that.” Supreme Master Television was privileged to have Eric as the guest speaker to introduce Supreme Master Ching Hai, as the honored guest, for its 4th anniversary concert “Gifting Peace” earlier this year. At the event, the Oscar-nominated actor attributes his vegan lifestyle to Eliza.

I used to be steak and potatoes all the time. I was a bad guy. I didn’t know any better. I was raised in the South where we eat everything that breathes. We’re terrible! But I met my wife, who’s vegetarian and then she convinced me how horrible it was and why.

Actually my father had a book in his house called “The China Study” and Eric is a reader, he loves to read, and he was looking through my dad’s great books, and he picked that one up. That had a large influence on him, in terms of veganism. Between my daughter and me, we saw what he liked, what he gravitated towards, and we just prepared for him. I’m a terrible cook, but she prepared for him or I obtained for him the vegan alternative. And he liked it more.

There was no question about it, and he didn’t resist, he was just like, “This is fantastic! What is this?” If you look at our refrigerator today, the textured (soy) protein, that’s fake meat whatever, he’ll build a pizza with a whole wheat crust, rice or almond cheese, fresh tomatoes and all that, he’ll make like a whole food out of it. And there’s just no need! Now you can eat everything! I mean there’s so much available. My daughter, her vegan line is unbelievable. And she’ll feed anybody. She’ll run to the ends of the Earth to get somebody going on such a diet.

And I love animals – I have horses and cats and dogs and birds and squirrels and pigs. We have everything. Goats. We have everything! And I love them all with all my heart. So when she [Eliza] finally made me realize I was eating my friends, about 15 years ago, I stopped. And now, she has me even going vegan which means you have no products from animals at all. No milk, no cheese, no butter. No nothing. And I’m proud of it. And I’m healthier by it and anybody else who wants to join me, I want you to come with me because it’s the only way to live. It’s the proper way to live. It’s a kind way to live and I can’t stop talking about it.

Her partner in life, Eric became Eliza’s partner in animal rescue as well. They share a special bond through their vegan advocacy and love for our feline friends.

We had lost a cat who got very old and finally she passed away, and finally Eric was ready for another cat. And we put the word out, and we found this wonderful woman who fosters. And Eric said, “Let’s just get one this time, so we can really bond.” I had no intention of getting just one. So we went there, we got her, we brought her home, I pointed out to him a few times, she was really looking for other kittens. And she’d been found, oh my gosh, she’d been found with an abandoned litter, they were all trying to nurse off her, and she was one of the litter.

And she was just a strong one. It was amazing that she survived. She had welts all over her body, and everything. And so we went and we got her, we saw that she really needed another kitty, but Eric still was really kind of sticking to his guns. I took him to the airport. He went on location. I drove immediately to Yvonne’s house. I said, “Which ones were the best friends of her?” She showed me which ones.

And usually we take the hard luck cases, the ones that somebody else doesn’t want, for one reason or another. Got them. Took them to be vaccinated immediately. Took them home to her, they fell in love with her. Eric walked in the house. He bonded with those kitties. Because I gave him the option, I said, “If you really can’t handle it, we could exchange for a different one because there’s plenty who need homes.” But that was as far as I’d go. He was like, “Are you kidding? I am in love.” So sweet.)

There’s Brooklyn, that’s our other kitty. There she is. That’s the girl that I got the friend for. Heart is her friend. Halo, precious girl. Halo, precious girl. You’re so beautiful, so beautiful. So there you go, I think, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And if she’s with one of the other cats and you say “kisses,” she will kiss them. See she’s looking for them to kiss them now, because I said “kisses”.

From one cat named Tender that led to Eliza and Eric’s marriage came many more feline rescues. The whole family is united in saving abandoned animals in the community, from dogs to cats to squirrels, and converted many of their rescues to vegetarianism.

One was a movie cat, and a video cat, very well known. And after his service was done, the people just put him out. I know, he’s 14 years old. He has kidney failure. My former casting assistant, Georgine is coming over in a few minutes to give him his fluids. And he is just so happy. My daughter cooks for him, because he likes a lot of vegetarian stuff, so she cooks for him. Rescued animals really know. They are amazing. Sunshine is the old guy who was in movies and in videos and in commercials. You’ll recognize him. Hi, Sunshine! Look at that face, look at that beautiful face. And he’s also a sweetheart. See, you’re a beauty, beautiful.

It was a pleasure to have you with us today’s Vegetarian Elite, featuring actress Eliza Roberts. Join us next Saturday for the conclusion of our 3-part series. Between Master and Disciples is up next on Supreme Master Television. May all hearts be immersed in divine love and happiness.

I am Eliza Roberts. Be Veg, Go Green 2 Save the Planet and the people and animals on it.

For a glimpse into Eliza Roberts’ life and family, please visit: www.EricRobertsActor.com