The film that lured Julia Roberts back to the romcom
Ticket To Paradise director Ol Parker on working with a titan of the genre
EVEN WITH romcoms back on the rise, it would take something remarkable to lure Julia Roberts back to the genre after a 20-year hiatus. That something remarkable? George Clooney. Having confirmed in an interview that she would only return if a script as impactful as Notting Hill or My Best Friend’s Wedding crossed her path, Roberts now reunites with her Ocean’s Eleven beau for
Ticket To Paradise, from director and co-writer Ol Parker.
“A huge part of the temptation for both was the other one,” Parker tells
Empire about bringing the pair back together for the first time since 2016 thriller Money Monster. Clooney, however, made the first move. “We sent the script to the pair of them at the same time. George said, ‘This only works if it’s me and Julia.’ So he rang Julia and she was like, ‘Oh my God — I thought the same thing.’”
The pair play long-divorced parents in the film, who travel to Bali in the hope of deterring their daughter (Kaitlyn Dever) from getting married and repeating their mistakes. The script was written with the pair in mind — the characters were even named Julius and Georgia in earlier drafts — with the Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again director mining their shared history on screen and off to create a story that felt like a continuation of a hypothetical romcom they made 25 years ago. “Sequels to romantic comedies are always crap because you don’t want to see people struggling together,” he says. “This film is about coming back together instead.”
Parker and his co-writer Daniel Pipski turned to classic Cary Grant films such as His Girl Friday and
The Philadelphia Story when writing the script. “They have more of a snap to them than more recent romantic comedies,” says Parker.
He also made room for Roberts and Clooney to improvise. A playful Roberts made the decision to cover one of Clooney’s eyes while his character takes drunken aim at a red plastic cup while playing beer pong. “Some really good jokes in the movie are hers,” enthuses Parker. “There’s a scene in which they jump up after they’re discovered doing something, and for every single take she improvised a different line.”
It may have taken 20 years, but the romcom queen is truly back, and on her own terms.
TICKET TO PARADISE IS IN CINEMAS FROM 16 SEPTEMBER