Julia Roberts was lucky to be stuck in a pandemic bubble with the Clooneys.
The 54-year-old actress is opening up about how George Clooney, 61, and his family “saved” her during the pandemic.
The pair were filming their upcoming rom-com “Ticket to Paradise” in Australia and quarantined close to each other, with Roberts in a home by herself and Clooney, his wife Amal and their kids in a rental nearby.
“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 said in an interview with the New York Times. “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.”
Julia Roberts said George Clooney and his family “saved” her while filming “Ticket to Paradise.”Toni Anne Barson/FilmMagic
Amal Clooney with her children Alexander Clooney and Ella Clooney on December 6, 2018 in New York City.James Devaney/GC Images
Julia Roberts was away from her husband, Danny Moder, and three kids while filming in Australia.Instagram/modermoderBut the longtime friends became family to each other in more ways than early wake up calls and coffee runs.
“The Clooneys saved me from complete loneliness and despair,” Roberts shared. “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.”
When her husband, Danny Moder, and kids did come visit, they had to fly to Australia and quarantine for two weeks by themselves before the family could fully reunite.
Julia Roberts, George Clooney and Amal Clooney during the 69th annual Cannes Film Festival on May 12, 2016.Toni Anne Barson/FilmMagicThe “Pretty Woman” star shared that their initial quarantine in Australia made them “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,” she said.
“That’s why they invented alcohol,” Clooney quipped in response.
George Clooney and Julia Roberts in “Ticket to Paradise.”Universal Pictures via APThe movie follows a divorced couple who travel to Bali together to stop their daughter from making the same mistake they once made.
“We have a friendship that people are aware of, and we’re going into it as this divorced couple. Half of America probably thinks we are divorced, so we have that going for us,” Roberts said.
“Ticket to Paradise” is in theaters Oct. 21.
