"Turistas" Beauties Beau Garrett and Olivia Wilde
You grab your bff, pack your bikinis and head for sunny South America! Sounds great, right? Who knew that, away from the gorgeous beaches, waiting in the forests of Brazil, are some pretty ghoulish dudes ready to slice and dice you!
Pretty blonde Beau Garrett ("Entourage", Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer) and brunette Olivia Wilde ("The O.C.", Running with Scissors, Alpha Dog) got to bond, suffer and party for days on end while shooting the new thriller Turistas in Brazil. The girls, both looking slim and gorgeous, met with us in Beverly Hills recently and we got the dish on injuries, mosquitoes, partying with the cast, crew and locals, the really dangerous shoot and what's up next for two gal pals in Hollywood.
Beau (checking out Olivia's dress tag) Hey, size 2, good girl.
TeenHollywood: How did you both get approached for this film?
Olivia: All I know is that it was quite the audition process. We both worked really hard to get these roles, and I'm glad that we did because the casting was such an important part of the way this movie panned out. The dynamic between the characters ended up being just perfect. We had a mix and match session where all different actors try out being on the team, and they see who does it best.
Beau: That was an experience as well.
Olivia:
Beau and Josh [Duhamel] and I were together for the first time and the scene we did just clicked and they said that it was that moment that they knew who it was going to be. And I was so thrilled that they were going to let me do Bea. I closed the script, and said, 'I need to play her and I'm going to work so hard to do it.' And I was so thrilled and said 'yes' right away.
Beau: Yeah; I auditioned for it as well, but I had worked with [director] John Stockwell before. And he told me, 'I'm doing this script and I think you'd be great for this role. Would you be interested?' I was like, 'Of course.' And then, of course, the auditioning process.
TeenHollywood: What about the bug bites and injuries? There's a lot of action in the film.
Olivia: Well, I had a bruise the size of Texas on my butt, but that was it.
TeenHollywood: Landing on a rock?
Beau: Crawling out of a bus when it was going down [the hill]; and that was the only major injury I got was that. The women didn't get the mosquito bites as much as the men.
Olivia: Huge really bad mosquito bites. We were working in this waterfall that just happened to be the breeding ground for the giant, Brazilian mosquitoes. That was really, really terrible for some people, and we were thrown in there 100% right away. We started with the nice eco-friendly [bug repellent] and slowly went towards the chemical.
Beau: Just bring it on.
Olivia: There were the bugs, the sickness that came from trying the different food. We were really great about that; no one was too afraid. We wanted to experience it, and I really felt like they welcomed us and encouraged us to try their food and try their drinks and we did.
Beau: Some people got sick, but it was worth it.
Olivia:
It was definitely an experience; we called it an episode of 'Survivor'. It was like 'who was going down next?'
Both girls together: The Turistas.
TeenHollywood: Beau, your character Amy is more flirty than Olivia's. Was that fun to play?
Beau: I think Bea [Olivia's character] is the more conservative and insecure character, and Amy is like 'Common, let's go do this.' And I love that about her; she's free, she wants to travel and see Brazil and all its glory. And Josh is kind of like the big brother, and she just likes to flirt with him. It's about 'who cares?' She just is free, just a go-with-the-wind. I grew up in a very free-spirited community and very self confident. I think that resonates in the character as well.
TeenHollywood: Did making this film make you scared to take vacations?
Olivia:
No, I think these people we play in the movie exemplify, or represent tourists, usually from first-world countries, who take for granted the treatment they will receive, the safety, the language. People often travel and wonder, 'Why don't these people speak English?' And that is a ridiculous kind of barrier that keeps the third-world away from the first-world, and keeps people from absorbing cultures when they go and visit. A lot of people who see the movie might recognize that in themselves, and realize, 'Hmm, I've never read up on a country's political climate before I've gone to visit it.' People just think, 'Let's go to Thailand, it'll be fun; we'll go to Thailand and we'll go camping.' But, is there something going on with Thailand, and I am arriving as an American. Does that send a message? I hope people realize that when they go and see the film, they don't just go traipsing off to Madagascar and want to drink beer and scream and wonder why no one's speaking English. So no, not afraid to travel; if anything, it makes me more eager to travel.
Beau: Yeah, it's an incredible time, and this film isn't about scaring people away from traveling, or seeing places like Brazil. Brazil is an incredible country and embraced us; I never felt alien at all in that country, and it's about being aware. It's about researching, and I think we should travel more. It should be mandatory that we should travel for a year in our youth. It's the best knowledge you can be given. You can't learn that from school.
TeenHollywood: Josh said there was some partying and that you girls started it.
Olivia:
Well, there's this thing called 'The Duhamel' that's if you suddenly disappear from a party and you've gone home and haven't said goodbye to anyone. That's called 'A Duhamel.' I still use it, and no one knows what I'm talking about. But, you can't go to Brazil without embracing their nightlife; they're happy people, and they love to dance, and we love to dance, and we really took advantage of that. There were 10 of us who were American, as well as English and Australian in the cast. Half the cast is Brazilian, and the crew was Brazilian; so we were the minority. It's not like we traipsed in with 100 Americans and took over a city; we were visitors, and they encouraged us to enjoy their nightlife. We were a very small community. So going out and having a night out on the town literally meant sitting at the bar with these little bar stools and dancing samba, or attempting to.
Beau: And we went out with the crew; the crew would join us. We were all combined.
Olivia: Well, it's different there. Here, it's the actors, director on top, and the crew at the very bottom. There, it's the director at the top, and everyone else at the very bottom; he is the captain, and everyone else is working on his ship. And I really appreciated that because they really didn't give us any special treatment, and didn't understand it when the special treatment would be hinted at. 'Can someone get them their robes, they're freezing.' They'd be like, 'They get robes? We should get robes.'
TeenHollywood: Beau, we won't say too much but you have a gruesome scene that involves surgery. How was it to shoot that?
Beau:
It was a process. It started before I went to Brazil; I had a body cast. That I had never done before. It's a seven hour process. I fainted, and woke up to them panicking and feeding me ice cream, and I was like, 'I'm ok, I'm ok. Where am I? Get it off me.' They did my head, the whole thing. They made her me. [I'm looking at it] 'oh my god, you're hot!' Kidding, I'm kidding. But to do the scene where I'm on this cold medal hospital bed for like 12 hours, strapped in, and I have this torso thing on me and this doctor, an amazing Brazilian actor, is cutting me. I peed in a bed pan, and I ate food in a torso, and it was super strange. And then to see it was so eerie. I won't let my parents see it. They're going to buy the ticket to support it, cause if they don't, I'll kill 'em; but they won't see it cause it's super real. It was a very gruesome surgery scene.
TeenHollywood: Olivia, you have a scene in which you are handcuffed behind your back but get out of it. Are you that flexible?
Olivia: Yeah, that's yoga for you; it really comes in handy when you're hogtied in a dog kennel in the rain. John was thinking, 'One of you has got to be able to pull the cuffs in front of you,' and we were thinking about it. And so he said, 'You can't do that thing, can you? You know that thing from movies when they...that's not real, is it?' 'I can try.' And I remember everyone was standing around hoping I could do it, because if we could do it, we could solve the plot point problem. I was like, 'Common yoga.' And I did it, and it was realistic enough to make that plot work. You can try it at home, and you can do it. Go yoga!
TeenHollywood: What about all the swimming; none of it was in tanks?
Olivia:
No tanks. We were in the most beautiful underwater caves and it was all about pushing yourself farther than you ever imagined going. By the end, we all became pretty good free divers; we had amazing doubles who were teaching us everything. Mine was the world champion free diver. She can dive 185 feet in one breath. And rather than wanting to do all the stuff instead of me, she was encouraging me; she said, 'You should try it, you can do this, I've seen you swim, I think you can do this.' And I would say, 'There's no way in hell; I am claustrophobic, and I'm afraid of drowning'. And she'd say, 'You can do it.' And she's the reason I did, and I'm really happy and grateful, even though we ran into some sticky situations.
TeenHollywood: Did you have SCUBA guys standing by in case something went wrong?
Olivia: Yeah, it was interesting because they felt so far away. How are they supposed to tell when you're actually panicking. The situation I ran into, was I literally started to have a panic attack, flailing my arms, and they thought I was acting because that's exactly what my character is supposed to be doing. You can see in the movie when I go for one air pocket, realize it's not there, turn around. That's when I thought it was over. I didn't think that the safety diver would be close enough, even though he was only 50 feet away and could swim really fast; he told me afterwards he had no idea. He said, 'We were watching the monitor, and thought you were doing a great job.' I'm just happy it happened at the end because it made for good movie watching.
TeenHollywood: Let's talk other projects. Beau, you're in Fantastic Four 2; who is your character Frankie Raye?
Beau: Frankie Raye is a military brat, who works under General Hager, who is played by Andre Braugher; and they come in to collaborate with the Fantastic Four to help stop these occurrences that are putting the world at stake. So she's a very thick-skinned character who grew up in the military; he's kind of a father figure to her, and she has this love interest with Johnny Storm. She's a cool character, she's human underneath all the exterior; she's got a good side that really comes out in the film.
TeenHollywood: Do you secretly have super powers?
Beau: In the comic, she does end up having super powers; I don't know what they're going to do with that in the film.
TeenHollywood: Olivia, are you able to watch yourself on screen?
Olivia:
Well, with this movie there was no make-up and hair, so it was a little difficult. But I find myself totally unrecognizable; I don't recognize the person on screen, and I guess that's a good thing. But it's a little odd for everybody, I guess.
TeenHollywood: Josh plays your brother. Do you have a brother?
Olivia: I have a little brother, but I've always wanted a big brother; and if I got one, I'd hope he's exactly like Josh. He is a little more worldly, and a little less anal than his character. But that sweetness, and that brotherly nurturing is there in both the character and the real person. But he is my brother now; he calls me 'little sister.' I think we've convinced a lot of people.
TeenHollywood: What's next for you?
Olivia:
I am shooting 'The Black Donnellys' right now, which is an NBC show by Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco. And it's about the Irish mob in New York, about this family that's struggling with taking over the neighborhood; and it's very, very different than Turistas. But it's also fact-based, and loosely based on the life of Bobby Moresco, who grew up in Hell's Kitchen; so it's great and interesting, and hope people will like it when it premieres in January. And around that same time, Alpha Dog [co-starring Justin Timberlake] finally comes out.
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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter


