Lucas Bravo Talks ‘Ticket to Paradise’ and What He Learned Watching Julia Roberts and George Clooney (2024)

With director Ol Parker’s Ticket to Paradise now playing in select countries and opening in North America this weekend, a few days ago I got to sit down with Lucas Bravo to talk about playing Julia Roberts younger love interest in the romantic comedy. During the interview, Bravo talked about what it was like telling his family and friends he was in a Julia Roberts and George Clooney movie, what he learned from watching them on set, memorable moments from filming, and reveals the first thing you should watch if you’ve never seen his work.

Ticket to Paradise is about a divorced couple (Roberts and Clooney) who agree to put aside their differences to stop their lovestruck daughter from marrying someone she just met. As you might expect, things do not go according to plan. The film also stars Kaitlyn Dever as the daughter of Clooney and Roberts's characters, Maxime Bouttier plays the young man from Bali who Dever wants to marry, and Billie Lourd plays Dever’s best friend from college. The film also stars Rowan Chapman, Sean Lynch, Romi Paulier, and Murran Kain, among many others.

Watch what Bravo had to say in the player above, or you can read our conversation below.

COLLIDER: If someone has actually never seen anything you've done before, what would you like them to watch first and why?

LUCAS BRAVO: I would like them to watch, it's a very interesting question. I'd like them to watch a short movie that I did fresh out of acting school. It's a bit dark. I'm portraying kind of a weird, twisted character, but it's one of the performance I'm most proud about or I felt more authentic about. And I don't know if it's easy to find, but I feel like this would be the performance that characterizes my drive and my passion for this craft.

I definitely have to ask you, what is the secret to playing the love interest of Julia Roberts?

BRAVO: Profound love and admiration for Julia. It's As simple as this, and then you go with the flow.

I can't imagine what it's like to tell your friends and family, "By the way, I booked a movie, it's going to have Julia Roberts. Oh yes, it also has George Clooney in it."

BRAVO: Actually, it's true. When I would announce it…it took me a while to announce it to my family and friends. I wanted to work first and not get distracted, but when I did, it was fun because I was all way through announcing it just with one name and they were already so happy. I was like, "I should keep the second name for later. Just to keep more length in this happy moment." And yeah, it's too much almost.

I would imagine every project you make, you learn something about the craft.

BRAVO: Yeah.

How to make it, et cetera. What did you actually learn by watching Julia and George work that you want to take with you to future endeavors?

BRAVO: I learned that you can be an icon and that you can be the biggest actors on the planet and still be the kindest person, and that for me, changes everything, gives me a lot of fuel. There's a lot of ego in this industry and to see that you can make it this far and still keep your inner child intact and be a respectful, considerate person is for me, everything.

Were you a little sad that you didn't get to be involved in the beer pong dancing stuff?

BRAVO: Yes. I was there. I came to see the scene that night and what you've see in the movie is actually 5% of what happened that night. There was a lot of dancing, a lot of different inspirations and nuances to George's dance and I wish you guys could see all of them because he went at it and they left the stage drenched completely wet from leave it all on the set.

Is there, and it might be this night of filming, but is there a day or two that you will always remember from this shoot? One of those just a really memorable day?

BRAVO: I think the first day we had this plane in studio, they recreated an entire plane, like an entire cabin. And this was pretty huge because I arrived and entered this little cabin and I was in this little confined space with the biggest stars on the planet and the contrast about this little secluded space and the energy they were sending was kind of where to deal with, and so this is a memory. And the other one I guess would be, I think the snake cave with Julia because it was just a…so everything on paper was so weird. Australia, Summer, Christmas, Julia Roberts, snake poison, me on the floor. I was like, "What are the choices that brought me to this moment?"

It's a good scene though.

BRAVO: Yeah.

On that note, I got to stop. I'm just going to say, seriously, congrats. I wish you nothing but the best.

BRAVO: Thank you, man.

Thank you for your time.