‘Ticket to Paradise’: George Clooney and Julia Roberts’ Dance Scene Made Their Younger Co-Stars ‘Speechless’
Fans believed that the days of Julia Roberts starring in romantic comedy movies were long over. Roberts always said she just couldn’t find one good enough. That was until she found Ticket to Paradise co-starring George Clooney. While filming the rom-com in Queensland, there were some hilarious scenes shared by all.
‘Ticket to Paradise’ is the first rom-com for Julia Roberts and George Clooney together
According to IMDb, Ticket to Paradise is about “David and Georgia, two divorced parents who can’t stand each other, head to Bali after their daughter, Lily, announces her plans to marry a local islander she just met while on holiday. They decide to put aside their differences and work together to stop the wedding, believing that doing so will keep Lily from making a dreadful mistake similar to their own.”
Roberts plays the part of Georgia alongside Clooney who plays David. Their fictional daughter, Lily, is played by Kaitlyn Dever. Billie Lourd plays the part of Wren Butler, who is Lily’s friend and travels with her to Bali.
Roberts and Clooney have a history of acting together in projects, but never in a romantic comedy like Ticket to Paradise. The duo first appeared together in Ocean’s Eleven (2001) followed by Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) and Ocean’s Twelve (2004). The last time Roberts and Clooney acted together before Ticket to Paradise was in Money Master (2016).
Roberts was not the only co-star in Ticket to Paradise with a longtime friendship with Clooney, according to The New York Times. Lourd is the daughter of Carrie Fisher and her father, Bryan Lourd, is a longtime agent for Clooney. So, Clooney has known Lourd for pretty much her entire life. And now Lourd has a baby she had with her on the set.
Ticket to Paradise started shooting in Queensland, Australia in 2021 but paused for three months due to an outbreak of Covid-19. The movie will now be released on October 21, 2022.
The dancing scene was too much for the younger cast
There is a scene in Ticket to Paradise when David and Georgia drunkenly dance to “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now).” They embarrass their daughter and her friends in the process. To add to the mortification, that scene was not even choreographed.
Roberts told the NY Times, “People always want to choreograph it, but you can’t put steps to it. You have to just open the box and let the magic fly.”
Clooney explained further, “I remember early on in my career, I had to do a kissing scene with this girl and the director goes, ‘Not like that.’ And I was like, ‘Dude, that’s my move! That’s what I do in real life!’ It was sort of that same way here, because everyone had plans for how we should dance, and then we were like, ‘Well, actually we’ve got some really bad dance moves in real life.’ Julia and I have done all those moves before, that’s the sickest part.”
The younger co-stars were apparently horrified by the dancing job of Clooney and Roberts who found the whole thing to be hysterical.
Clooney and Roberts laugh about their kissing scene
Clooney made it clear he doesn’t like having his kissing scenes choreographed for him. Clearly, since Ticket to Paradise is a romantic comedy there has to be a kiss. There is one kiss and Clooney said, “Yeah. I told my wife [Amal], ‘It took 80 takes.’ She was like, ‘What the hell?'”
Roberts clarified, “It took 79 takes of us laughing and then the one take of us kissing.”
