George and Amal Clooney saved Julia Roberts from "complete loneliness and despair" as they filmed Ticket to Paradise in Australia under tight Covid-19 restrictions.
The Ocean's Eleven co-stars and longtime friends lived Down Under to shoot the film between November 2021 and February this year, and while George had his wife and five-year-old twins with him, Julia left her family behind in America.
In an interview with The New York Times, George explained that his frequent collaborator lived in the house below his and Amal's during the shoot.
"I would come out in the early mornings and be like, 'Caa-caa,' and Julia would come out and be like, 'Caa-caa.' And then we'd bring her down a cup of coffee. She was Aunt Juju to my kids," George recalled, to which Julia added, "The Clooneys saved me from complete loneliness and despair. We were in a bubble, and it's the longest I've ever been away from my family. I don't think I've spent that much time by myself since I was 25."
The Pretty Woman star's husband Danny Moder and their three teenage children flew out to Australia to visit during production but had to quarantine for two weeks before they could see her.
"So close and yet so far," Julia admitted, before remembering her own experience in a quarantine hotel. "When we first got to Australia and we were all quarantining, you kind of go a little bit cuckoo. I remember right around day 11, I was like, 'Who am I? Where am I? What is this room that I never leave?' It's a funny thing. I hadn't really anticipated all that."
Ticket to Paradise will be released in U.K. cinemas later this month and in the U.S. in October.
