Eat Pray Love

Julia Roberts agreed to shoot the Bali scenes on location only if the producers allowed her family to be present there during filming.

BEHIND THE SCENES · SOURCED

Julia Roberts invited her friend Garry Marshall to direct the film, but Marshall declined because he did not want to travel to the locations outside the United States where the film was shot. During their meeting, however, Marshall offered Roberts a role in Valentine's Day (2010), which he was working on, and she accepted, which allowed Ryan Murphy to come on board as director.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

In the book, Felipe is 15 years older than Elizabeth. In reality, Javier Bardem and Julia Roberts are the same age.

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It was Julia Roberts's biggest box-office opening since America's Sweethearts (2001).

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"Samba Da Bencao" by Bebel Gilberto, which appears in the film's Bali sequence, also appeared in Closer (2004), another film starring Julia Roberts.

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The opera playing in the background at the pizzeria is not an Italian opera but "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen" from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's German-language work Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute).

EASTER EGGS & REFERENCES · SOURCED

Rome's two professional football teams, SS Lazio and AS Roma, are bitter rivals. In Elizabeth Gilbert's original book, Mr. Spaghetti was an SS Lazio fan. The producers made him an AS Roma fan instead, angering local SS Lazio supporters.

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In July 2016, the real Elizabeth Gilbert announced that her marriage to José Nunes (the man referred to as "Felipe" in the book and film) had ended. Later, in September 2016, Gilbert explained in a Facebook post that the marriage had fallen apart because she had fallen in love with Rayya Elias, her closest friend of 15 years; Gilbert only realized this after Elias was diagnosed with untreatable pancreatic and liver cancer. Gilbert wrote of Elias: "She is my best friend, yes, but she has always been more than that. She is my role model, my companion, my most reliable source of light, my courage, my most trusted confidante. In short, she is my PERSON… Something happened to my heart and mind in the days and weeks following Rayya's diagnosis. Death — or the possibility of death — has a way of clearing away everything that is not real, and in that spare and dark space I was faced with an Absolute truth: I do not just love Rayya; I am in love with Rayya, and the thought of one day sitting in a hospital room and watching her slip away without letting her (or me!) know the extent of my true feelings for her was unthinkable. The attention of my heart cannot be ignored… For those doing the math here and wondering whether this was the reason my marriage ended this spring, the simple answer is yes… So. Here is where we are now: Rayya and I are together. I love her, and she loves me. I am walking this cancer journey with her not just as a friend but as a partner. I am exactly where I am supposed to be; the only place I can be." Rayya Elias died in January 2018.

DEEPER MEANING · SOURCED

Julia Roberts claims she gained 10 kilos during the Rome races.

CHARACTERS & CAST · SOURCED

Richard Jenkins claimed that the real 'Richard' did not have a thick accent, but Jenkins thought that a character named 'Richard from Texas' not speaking with a Texas accent would distract the audience.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Javier Bardem's casting as Felipe was criticized because the character is Brazilian while Bardem is Spanish.

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Although Julia Roberts is left-handed, she is seen eating her food with her right hand at the ashram. This is because touching food with the left hand is considered taboo in India and many other Asian cultures.

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The pizzeria in the film is L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele, located on Via Cesare Sersale in Naples, Italy.

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The film's cast includes three Oscar winners — Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem and Viola Davis — and two Oscar nominees, Richard Jenkins and James Franco.

CAREER & AWARDS · SOURCED

The book was among Oprah Winfrey's favorites, which led Julia Roberts to take an interest in it and to option the rights to make a film from it.

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Newspapers reported that the film caused trouble in Rome because of the "creative license" taken by the producers. The city of Rome is home to two rival football teams (AS Roma and SS Lazio); in Elisabeth Gilbert's book, on which the film is based, it is clearly stated that she watches an SS Lazio match while in Rome, but because of the limited appeal and awareness of SS Lazio outside Italy, the producers decided to switch to an AS Roma match. This decision so enraged local SS Lazio fans (who of course immediately became the butt of AS Roma fans' jokes) that the production later issued a press release stating that no offense was intended and that J. Roberts is not an AS Roma fan.

DEEPER MEANING · SOURCED

In the first scene, as Liz returns to Bali and gets on her bicycle, you see her pass by Filipe's vehicle.

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

It is the third film Julia Roberts shot in Rome. The other two are Everyone Says I Love You (1996) and Ocean's Twelve (2004).

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It was sent to cinemas under the code name "Guest House."

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A castmate saw Joe Lipari performing a set about teaching yoga at the Gotham Comedy Club and asked him whether he wanted to appear in the film's yoga scenes. The scenes were cut from the final film.

CHARACTERS & CAST · SOURCED

The title means Italy, India and Indonesia (Bali).

INTERESTING FACTS · SOURCED

Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of the source book and the main character (played by Julia Roberts), announced in 2016 that she was ending her nine-year marriage to Jose Nunes (played by Javier Bardem) after realizing her "true feelings" for her friend of 15 years, the writer, musician and hairdresser Rayya Elias. Elias is not mentioned in the book or the film.

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It is one of the first feature films shot on Kodak's Vision3 200T 5213 film stock.

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Javier Bardem does not appear until the 99th minute of the film.

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The hostess role Liz is asked to take on is named Suzie Creamcheese. This is a reference to the WASPish, conformist, uncreative, sweet but shallow figure used in the work of Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention on their 1966 counterculture album Freak Out. It is similar to the term Barbie. Its use in an ashram in India shows the influence of American counterculture, since only a small portion of the population was familiar with it — the hippies and the "freaks" among the baby boomer generation.

EASTER EGGS & REFERENCES · SOURCED

The song playing in the restaurant scene in Italy is "Der Hölle Rache Kocht In Meinem Herzen" from Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte. The song is performed by Sumi Jo and conducted by Sir Georg Solti with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

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Viola Davis and James Franco also appeared in Nights in Rodanthe (2008).

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Julia Roberts uses a Sony VAIO laptop in the film. Sony stopped producing laptops after 2014.

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