We're literally counting down the days until "Eat Pray Love" hits theaters on August 13 (103 more to go, for those of you who don't care as much as we do) and this latest article from the Los Angeles Times has got us even more psyched for the adaptation of the best-selling Elizabeth Gilbert novel. When we saw the trailer for the first time back in March, we were immediately awed by the incredible locales (the film takes place in NYC, Italy, India and Bali), and turns out the film was actually shot on location.
Of course, it makes complete sense that "Eat Pray Love" should be shot on location because, in the story, the places Elizabeth visits are characters as important as the people she meets along her journey. But it's a lot of money and, in the words of director Ryan Murphy, a "Herculean effort" to actually be done. Turns out it was leading lady Julia Roberts who pushed for the film to be done right.
"Julia was really adamant about wanting to film in the locations because the book has become such a phenomenon over the years. There are actual 'Eat, Pray, Love' vacation tours people do to travel all over the world like Liz did," Ryan said.
He added that, because they got to shoot in four different locations, the film "is like four movies in one. The light in each one of these countries is so different and the colors and the ambiance and the smells. They kind of don't make movies that let you do this type of traveling anymore."
Apparently the chance to travel to Bali where his character meets Julia's Elizabeth is the main reason Javier Bardem agreed to sign on to the film. "It was the chance to go there and see what was there to discover," he told the Times.
He said he enjoyed getting a chance to see a completely different culture, and noticed that the local people had a special relationship with their surroundings. "They truly feel they are a component of nature itself and that nature has a power to create and destroy," he said. "So nature is like a god itself on that island. It's a beautiful thing because I think it brings a humble feeling to life that we need to remind ourselves of that we live in a place that is thousands of years older than us."
Are you even more excited about "Eat Pray Love" now that you found out it has all been shot on location?
** Hollywood Crush Twitter