Ticket To Paradise is one of the films ushering in the return of romantic comedies with Julia Roberts and George Clooney leading as a powerhouse onscreen love team. While Clooney (or Roberts…or both!) is the OG crush that will give your tita some sparkly heart eyes, Maxime Bouttier is the new jowable love interest that will make some of y'all way too thirsty to function. (Will you look at that toothpaste commercial-worthy dimpled smile?)
Bouttier portrays the seaweed farmer and hopeless romantic Gede. He's genuinely friendly and kind but also knows when to call out and throw down to protect the one he loves. The character is so sincere about his intentions that you can't help but root for him.
Maxime Bouttier is just as charming as his onscreen counterpart which we confirmed through a one-on-one chat with him. Our multi-talented guy was super chill, laughed a lot during the interview, and was engaging and an active listener. You could really sense the excitement and passion from the way he talked about his experience. (Wow. Feeling ka-date?!)
Keep reading to find out more about Ticket To Paradise, according to Maxime Bouttier:
-
Maxime and his character Gede both hail from Bali.
"Gede and me, we are two very different people!" says Maxime. The actor considers his character to be "the most charming, wisest, seaweed farmer. Super, you know, nice-looking that is not me!" *laughs* "I am not that. But I guess the similarities…that we both came from Bali. I grew up in Bali and now [I'm] living in Jakarta so going back [there] playing as Gede was very interesting because it was more like a trip down memory lane for me. It's just all coming back to me. I used to be this person, not this person as a seaweed farmer but used to live in that environment in Bali."
CONTINUE READING BELOW ↓watch now
Ticket To Paradise/Universal Pictures International -
He did his chemistry reading with Kaitlyn Dever, who played his fiancée Lily, via online call.
"It was very complicated doing it through Zoom because it's all just like this, you know, [like our interview now] where it’s all kind of far away [and] where the time zones are very different. We didn't really talk about the script because we just wanted to make it more organic. And the script was already good enough for us to build the chemistry upon. She's really good at doing her job and I felt blessed just to be her love interest so, yeah, it was really good and she's really fun."
ADVERTISMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW ↓ -
George Clooney gave him a quick acting tip.
"I had a scene with George where we were in the night market, where we were eating the Indonesian pastry martabak and, like, that was the moment where I had to be a little more dominant than him. And I was just like, "How am I gonna be dominant with George Clooney?" I mean of course, I had to do it but there was a moment where he kinda directed me and he's like, "Yeah, yeah. Here. Just punch in. You don’t have to wait for my dialogue to finish." And I was like, "Okay." And that was, like, my two-second glorious moment being directed by George Clooney."
Ticket To Paradise/Universal Pictures InternationalADVERTISMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW ↓ -
The actor had a lot of fun in Australia, where Ticket to Paradise shot a lot of scenes.
"We were in one of the most beautiful places on earth. We were up in Hamilton Island, or down, down under." *laughs* "We went on boat rides and after the whole pandemic and stuff, the lockdowns, we felt very lucky to be in a place like that after a full year of just not going out. So we hung out and I think there were so many memorable moments."
-
During filming, Maxime was actually roomies with fellow heartthrob Lucas Bravo, who played Paul in the movie.
"Lucas and I were roommates for two weeks so that was pretty special. Because we're both French, we kinda hit it off real quick and that was really cool. There were some really nice moments [while shooting the film and] we [the cast and crew] were all pretty much family there because we ran into each other in the grocery everyday. It's like a big house full of your family and friends."
ADVERTISMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW ↓
Ticket To Paradise/Universal Pictures International -
He believes in Ticket to Paradise’s idea of "right place, right time, right circumstances."
"It feels like a very hard thing to come by but if it does happen it is that magical moment, you know? That’s why I find Gede super charming. He is wise and really believes in that whole purity of it. And I think it’s such a nice way to think about finding love. Right time, right place, right circumstances. I think everybody should start thinking that way. I guess it does make you kinda picky but it's more like the randomness of the whole spark? That to me is quite magical and I love to believe that is the case for love stories. Haha!"
ADVERTISMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW ↓ -
Maxime stans romantic comedy supremacy, and thinks Train To Paradise is the perfect embodiment of the genre.
"What I love about romantic comedies is that it’s such a lighthearted movie [genre]. It makes you laugh but it also makes you feel intimate with the characters [whether] they are in love or brokenhearted or whatever. Romcoms are very much that and it's a good balance to have between the comedy and the romance—because you could always just laugh and cry at the same time but mostly laugh, you know? Especially in this movie, I mean George and Julia—brilliant. And Lucas. So I think they’re like the best two worlds in a movie."
Get kilig over seeing Maxime's dimples on full display in this video:
Ticket to Paradise is now showing in cinemas nationwide so check it out!
