You know, you wrote
with these characters with George Clooney and Julia Roberts in mind.
Were you quite nervous when you await the response for actors,
when you've written the characters that you intend for them to?
Yeah, it's terrifying. I mean, you aim high, obviously.
And then the really scary bit was that
we did a thing that you never supposed to do, which is we
sent it to both of them at the same time, mentioning the other one.
I wrote a letter to both of them, but in each one
I said, I've written this for you and the other one.
And so if one of them turns it down, then the other one's going to turn it down.
And then you've blown your chance of either.
But yeah, there was an amazing moment to get the call that, you know,
subject to a call, they were going to say, yes, it was amazing.
I mean, when you're dealing with
two of the most iconic actors still living today, does there come a point?
As a director, I know you've still got to give directions.
You still got to tell them what to do and stuff.
But is there is there a point where you just go,
you guys are so well versed in so experience, particularly like in
genres like this, you have to kind of just let them take it away.
To some degree, yeah.
Completely. Yeah. I mean, and they're they're very generous.
They pretended to listen to me and pretended to do anything
that I asked them to do, you know,
before reverting to what they were doing right before I got involved.
But yeah, I mean, they know, you know, this is a gift rather than a
they know what they're doing, especially Julia is the queen of the show.
And, you know, I mean, and so, you know, George doesn't know what he's doing.
And so you can you know, it just makes for an easy day.
You know, one take and you like, yeah, that was great.
And yeah, I mean, I mean, I mean, this is a compliment.
But this film felt like something.
It could have been made 20, 25 years ago
There's a nostalgic feeling to it.
And why did you think there are less rom coms and good rom coms like this
these days?
And this used to be, I think.
Thank you, by the way.
I think I think the tropes got a bit tired.
I think the airport dash and the structure of it, people said it's as if,
you know, the ending, which is obviously the case of the Rom Com - you know roughly...
So the journey is the point and I think the journey became
a bit clichéd and so but it's nice to try and bring it back.
I mean, when we were on set, George's greatest compliment, if he saw
we'd lined up or there was a beat in it was to show old school.
And so it was very consciously a throwback to the kind of movies and, you know,
the incredibly glamorous movie stars.
So, yeah, it was a deliberate thing because I love seeing films like this
and this and I think also speaking with people
in this very much lead to Idris Elba about the film Beast last week,
which also felt like a bit of a kind of throwback in a kind of nostalgia,
just not speaking to them about how important is it
films like they still find a home theatrically because,
you know, there is obviously such a rise
in kind of prequels and seizures and reboots and MCU sort of stuff.
But is this something you really want
have to sort of fight for to make sure
that films like this are still landing in cinemas?
Yeah, we had the option of not doing this in cinema,
and in a way that's a relief for the filmmaker
in that you stay out of the tyranny of the marketplace.
And so films aren't flops or not. They're just films, you know?
I mean, they're not judged by how much money they make or don't make.
And that's obviously a nice thing for a filmmaker.
But we very much wanted to try and bring audiences back to the cinema.
And also like, if this isn't a cinema movie, I don't know what is.
You know, partly
because of the glamor of the leads, partly because the beaches, the locations,
but also because it's lovely to have a lot of people
in the room laughing together and sitting rooms just don't give that.
Comedies just don't play as well in your house
as they do in a cinema, you know what I mean?
And so, yeah, we very much hope a lot of people go and pay and go.
I mean, like with any films where Americans are kind of Brits
to travel to a foreign land, the kind of cultural differences
are highlighted in the comedy device from the American family.
So trying to navigate that, which is fine when we go abroad,
we all have to adjust to different places and ways of living.
Was it quite conscious balance for you kind of tonally to ensure the film
celebrated people's differences but was never condescending
and never too different? If that makes sense?
Thank you very much. Yeah, I hope so. Yeah.
There's a joke at the beginning where you have
George makes a slightly kind of racist assumption about the dad that he's.
And the dad starts laughing.
Yeah, I mean, he trying.
I mean, it turns out I've written three films in a row now then, you know,
characters going too far flung places and learning about different cultures.
And it's not, you know,
it just seems to be something that I'm doing,
which is nice for me because I get to go to these places and meet new people.
And yeah, I think if you do it with respect and humility
and take it, you know, then it's beautiful.
I mean, there's a wedding ceremony
in this film that I find intensely moving, and I loved learning about it.
I loved learning about the different rituals and trying to celebrate them
and also just visiting a motorbike at one point.
The motorbike is my favorite thing. So it's nice, isn't it?
Yeah, it's like the real thing.
And he was like, No, no. Yeah. We were all eating on set that night.
Yeah. So
and lastly, I'm assuming,
given your history that you pick up the phone,
I just want to know if you've been to the ABBA experience yet.
Don't you have.
Yeah, I went something a few times actually.
I know, you know, because I know quite well so
yeah I saw, I went to a very early one
where it wasn't working and they weren't sure that it was going to work.
And then I went on the first night and it was, you know, it's ridiculous.
It's sensational, Oscar, because I'm so toying with my voice.
Just been undergoing it, I think. Have you not seen it?
I've not seen anything like it. You've never seen anything like it.
I mean, even if you don't like ever you've never seen anything like that.
Well, then you know.
Oh, no, go. Oh, okay, cool.
Completely. Because one of these, you know, 30 years as
they say.