The two were in Australia filming during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Julia Roberts was far away from family while filming Ticket to Paradise, but luckily for her, co-star and good pal, George Clooney, was there to keep her company. The 54-year-old actress and 61-year-old actor spoke to The New York Times in a new interview about quarantining close to one another in Australia while working on the upcoming film.
"We started in Hamilton Island, with all these wild birds, and Julia had the house down just below Amal and me and the kids," Clooney shared, referring to his wife, Amal Clooney, and 5-year-old twins, Alexander and Ella. "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."
For Roberts, it was more than just the coffee delivery from the Clooneys that kept her going while she was away from her husband of 20 years, Danny Moder, and their three children, Hazel, Phinnaeus, and Henry Daniel.
"The Clooneys saved me from complete loneliness and despair," Roberts said. "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."
While the two have been longtime friends, they found it a tad bit difficult to share an onscreen kiss in Ticket to Paradise, in which they star as exes who reunite in an attempt to stop their daughter from going through with her destination wedding in Bali. "It took 79 takes of us laughing and then the one take of us kissing," Roberts said of she and Clooney not being able to contain their laughter.
Roberts previously opened up about her decision to return to the big screen for a romcom, explaining Clooney played a big part in it.
"People sometimes misconstrue the amount of time that's gone by that I haven't done a romantic comedy as my not wanting to do one," she explained during a New York Times interview in April. "If I had read something that I thought was that Notting Hill level of writing or My Best Friend's Wedding level of madcap fun, I would do it."
"They didn't exist until this movie that I just did that Ol Parker wrote and directed," Roberts continued, referring to Ticket to Paradise. "But even with that, I thought, well, disaster, because this only works if it's George Clooney. Lo and behold, George felt it only worked with me. Somehow we were both able to do it, and off we went."
Roberts also shared that over the past 18 years, being a mom has been her most important job.
"Here's the thing: If I'd thought something was good enough, I would have done it. But I also had three kids in the last 18 years," she said. "That raises the bar even more because then it's not only Is this material good? It's also the math equation of my husband's work schedule and the kids' school schedule and summer vacation. It's not just, 'Oh, I think I want to do this.' I have a sense of great pride in being home with my family and considering myself a homemaker."
"For so much of my children's younger life they would see their dad go off and I would work a little, but they almost didn't notice," Roberts continued. "It was like I was only gone when they were napping or something. But as they get older, and particularly with my daughter, I do have a sense of responsibility for showing my children that I can be creative and that it's meaningful to me — so meaningful that for periods of time I will choose to focus on that almost more than my family, which has been hard for me to come to terms with."
Ticket to Paradise -- which also stars Kaitlyn Dever, Billie Lourd, Lucas Bravo, and Maxime Bouttier -- hits theaters on Oct. 21.
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