ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with Lonely Planet stars Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth about the new Netflix romantic comedy movie. The duo discussed an important theme in the film, awkward moments, and more. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
“A reclusive novelist arrives at a prestigious writer’s retreat in Morocco, hoping the remote setting will unlock her writer’s block. While there, she meets a young man — what starts as an acquaintanceship evolves into an intoxicating, life-altering love affair,” says the Lonely Planet synopsis.
Tyler Treese: Laura, your character in Lonely Planet, Katherine, she’s in a very vulnerable spot. She’s having a tough time writing, and she’s coming off a 14-year relationship. What did you find most interesting about where your character starts the film?
Laura Dern: I guess it’s very relatable in some ways. I just have to learn to write, and then everything else will fall into place.
Liam Hemsworth: You’d Be a wonderful writer.
Dern: Thank you.
Hemsworth: Got a lot of great ideas and thoughts. You just need to put it down on paper.
Dern: I do. And then make sure it’s backed up.
Hemsworth: Don’t ever write it Just on one laptop. I mean, that would be ridiculous if you [did it] just on one laptop, one. No one would do that if you write your years of work and it’s just on one laptop. Yeah. I mean, that is the silliest thing I’ve ever seen.
Dern: I swear to God, I’ll never do that, and I will send it to you when I write it.
But I found it deeply relatable what it is to be trying to find not your way back to yourself,but your way to yourself for the first time, which I think is the point of the film that that can happen to us. You know, while we’re embedded in a relationship, newly out of relationship, not having discovered a true love story, or having seemingly had several, that we can be a person who has never felt deeply seen by ourselves or by another person.
That’s a really lovely way to way to put that. I think the big takeaway from this film is definitely to use the cloud and back up your files, which you were alluding to.
Liam, your character Owen, he just feels so out of place in this writer’s resort. He’s a finance guy. He likes sports, not Dickens. How is it kind of just playing into the awkwardness of those moments? Because you did a great job portraying that in Lonely Planet.
Hemsworth: Oh, thank you, mate. I love playing those awkward moments. I live for that sort of thing. Some of my favorite movies are all about those awkward moments. I remember shooting that particular scene where… there were a couple of ’em, but that one where we’re doing the quiz night, and it was so uncomfortable, but I loved it. I wanted to draw it out even more and really struggle with it and have the room go silent. It’d almost be like he’d have the other actors, like, “Has he forgotten his line?” Really, really just draw it out. But it was a lot of fun to play that.
It gives the character’s journey a lot of depth because you see how hurtful it is to him afterward and what it means to have a partner who isn’t backing you up in a situation like that. A big theme about this movie that’s really important in a relationship is if you’re gonna spend your life with someone and you’re gonna love and care for someone, one of the worst things you can do is not stand up for your partner. A beautiful part of our journey and the relationship that we have in this film is finding that support and that person that backs you up no matter what. That person that believes in you, encourages you, listens to you, and understands you.
