Agenda Julia Roberts and George Clooney forced to shoot a movie about Bali to Australia | Movies and TV shows

Parker’s plan was never to shoot anywhere other than Bali, but he had no other choice. “We had to make a drastic change. When it became clear that Bali wasn’t an option at the time George and Julia were available, the question became whether we were going to throw the project in the trash. Or we could find another way to do it.”

Eventually, they moved to the Whitsunday Islands in Australia. There, Parker takes on the challenge of making the story take place in Bali as believably as possible. “We had a crew in Bali that shot some background footage. And they ended up on the movie with the help of CGI. That was definitely a challenge, but that goes for any movie shot in times of COVID-19.”

White beaches and palm trees are good, but the atmosphere and culture of Bali are just as important. “We hired consultants who taught us more about Balinese customs and a large part of our cast are Indonesians. None of them are professional actors,” explains the director. “The guy who plays Gede’s father advised us on the rituals we wanted to show in the movie. Then I saw how handsome and charismatic he was and I wanted him as an actor too.”

However, Parker has received some criticism online about her casting choices. He chose actor Maxime Pottier, who has an Indonesian mother and a French father, for the role of a Balinese man. Because he is partly of European descent, Western ideals of beauty will be projected onto the Balinese character. “Maxim has a house in Bali. He lives there. We talked to a lot of actors and he became one. It was disappointing to read that. He surprised himself. He considers himself a Balinese. I don’t know a single Balinese who has a problem with this.”

Parker says it’s good to listen to those who know and respect the customs of another culture. “Reality in this case is more important than how you want to show it as a director. If I had something a certain way and they said it wasn’t in real life, we didn’t do it on film. There is nothing more fun than showing another culture with great respect.”

A ticket to heaven In cinemas from September 29.