Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth Share Their Weirdest Travel Habits

The travel-fueled rom-com micro-genre that everyone secretly (or not so secretly) loves is getting its newest addition this Friday, courtesy of Netflix. Starring Laura Dern (Jurassic Park, Big Little Lies) and Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games, Land of Bad), Lonely Planet follows novelist Katherine Loewe (Dern) as she goes on a remote retreat to Morocco where she hopes to overcome a raging case of writer’s block. In the early days of the trip, she meets Owen Brophy (Hemsworth), a charismatic younger man who’s accompanying his girlfriend on the retreat while also facing a crossroads in his own life. What starts off as a friendship between Loewe and Brophy soon transforms into a life-changing love affair between the two.

In a featurette for the film premiering exclusively on Thrillist, Dern and Hemsworth talked about the incredible time they had in Morocco. From riding camels on the beach to drinking cocktails out of icy copper mugs, the two reminisced about what it was like traveling with one another. Their love and respect for each other is palpable. It is the kind of bond that can only form when traveling with another human. “Laura is the most kind, nurturing, welcoming, warm person that enters the room and puts everyone at ease,” said Hemsworth of his co-star.

“Laughing constantly and being saved whenever there was a hard day, by this human, it was everything,” Dern said. “The movie has this at its core. It was the greatest experience possible.”

In a conversation with Thrillist, Dern and Hemsworth discussed their love of travel, their tips for passing time on long-haul flights, and how, after working and traveling so much together, they have evolved practically into the same person–with a few key differences.

Thrillist: What is your relationship with travel, particularly when it comes to your work? Do you love it? Do you hate it? Something in between?

Liam Hemsworth: I love it most of the time, but it gets to a point where you’ve done so much travel that you just want to be home. But we’re so lucky to do what we do and have the opportunity to be taken to so many different places that a lot of the time you wouldn’t even know about or wouldn’t be the obvious place to go on a holiday. Travel is such a great opportunity to experience something different and immerse yourself in a different culture. And it’s short and intense in our job. We might be sent somewhere for two weeks that we’ve never been before. We get to live in that world for two weeks and experience a little bit of what people in that area live like. It’s such a privilege.

Laura Dern: Yeah, I love to travel. We are so lucky, as Liam said, to be immersed in new places. Not just a five-day holiday, but sometimes we’re spending months in a new place, in a new culture, and meeting friends we will have forever. That’s an incredible opportunity we get from working on movies. But it’s easy to get homesick. So being with the people I love is my favorite travel destination for sure.

What’s the most unexpected place your work has taken you?

LD: I’ve been to incredible places. I remember when I was starting a film and they said that we will be shooting in Omaha, Nebraska, and Omaha, Nebraska has become one of my favorite places. I love Omaha and I have some of my dearest friends there. And it’s wild that when you really truly are transported, then you get to find home in those places. So my lesson is not to have judgment before I’m really immersed in a place.

When flying, do you choose the window, middle, or aisle seat?

LH: Window!

LD: Window! Oh my god, we are the same person!

Do you overpack or pack light?

LD: Overpack!

LH: Overpack! We really are the same person! I overpack because I just can’t choose. I’m scared of not having that one pair of pants that I haven’t worn in 10 years, but maybe I’ll need it on this trip!

LD: Yeah, exactly. I thought [the pants] were never really me in the first place and I probably shouldn’t have bought them, but this is going to be the trip that I might need them. And I like some vitamins and some toiletries and some protein bars and exercise straps…

LH: A whole bunch of fucking bands! Bands that will never come out of the suitcase. I’m going on holiday, I’m not going to use those bands.

LD: And I like little objects. I’m like “this little crystal” and then a little picture that reminds me of home and my dog in a frame. Oh god, it’s exhausting.

What’s your favorite way to pass time on a plane?

LD: Sleep if you can, which often doesn’t happen.

LH: Definitely sleep or watch movies.

LD: And my favorite thing to do that I only recently realized about me is I commit to believing I am going to sleep on the plane. Don’t. Talk myself into not watching the movie. And so I do my new favorite thing, which is watching the other person’s screen without sound.

I do the same thing!

LH: Really?

LD: I love it. I’m like, “oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god, somebody’s going to climb out of that thing. Oh my god. She’s going to, oh my god, they’re falling in love.” I get so invested in these movies that I’ve never seen. I just watched the Bob Marley movie on the plane and knew enough about his amazing life that I kind of filled in the blanks, but I watched it without sound. It’s an amazing movie.

LH: That is crazy.

LD: You’ve got to try it! It’s so fun!

LH: I mean I’ve done it. I’ve looked over there for a second and I’m like, “What am I doing? Let me just put on a movie.”

LD: I was on a plane recently and a very beloved director was sitting in front of me and I didn’t know it was him. And I was like, what guy is watching 10 minutes of Ratatouille? And he’s in his forties by himself. Then he’s watching Inside Out. It was mostly Pixar films. And then he watched 10 minutes of a Cassavetes movie. By the end of the fourth film that he watched for 10 minutes, I thought, okay, “it’s a film director and he’s American.” Anyway, he got up and I was right about him. I emailed him after the flight a list of everything he watched. It was so creepy. But I love it. That’s what I do.

LH: This is wild to me.

LD: You’ve got to try it.

LH: I mean, look, I’ve watched it for a couple of seconds, but then I just…put my own movie on. This is the one thing we’re different on.

LD: No! I’m scared, I don’t want to have any differences.

What’s your biggest travel fear?

LD: Great white sharks.

LH: GIANT PANDAS!

LD: I meant it! I’m not kidding. I’m like, “I know it’s going to be incredible and I want to surf there and I want to be brave. But what if?”

LH: My biggest travel fear is losing my passport. That’d be pretty annoying. Like when we go to that place and sit there for hours and explain myself. Probably get put in jail for a little bit and have to explain yourself some more. “What are you doing here sir? Where’s your passport?” “Well, I lost it.” “Well, you’re going to jail for a little bit.” “Well, but I don’t deserve to. I didn’t do anything wrong.” “You don’t have a passport, you’re going to jail.”

LD: So great white sharks and going to jail. Our biggest travel fears. Sums it up.

What’s your favorite travel snack?

LH: Protein bars because they’re easy and I can still get my protein to [flexes his bicep] feed my body.

LD: Same, yeah, my big guns.

What about your go-to drink order on the plane? 

LD: Well, we don’t drink [alcohol] on flights. I try to drink so much water on flights.

LH: I do like red wine on a flight, though. A couple reds and then go to sleep. But definitely drink a lot of water. But then I gotta get up to go to the bathroom and that messes up my sleeping.. Do I just not drink anything and try to sleep?

LD: Then you drink more red wine.

LH: Then I drink more red wine. I didn’t do any of the water I said I was going to do and I’ve just had 19 red wines now.

LD: Forgot the protein bar.

LH: Forgot the protein bar. And everything’s gone out the door. Now I’m eating bread. And give me some more of those sandwiches please. And a couple of cookies and a little bit of that cheesecake. And I’ll take a small amount of any other dessert you’ve got and a little bit more wine.

LD: And also, excuse me sir. I said I like the window seat but it wasn’t available. Do you mind?

LH: Sir, can we change? Sir! Will you change seats for me? Have you ever done that, too? “Hey sir, wake up. I need your seat.”

LD: “Sir, what’s happening now? Is she crying? Why is she crying?” So basically our favorite thing to do on a flight is torture the person next to us.

And all the while, you’re watching a movie on someone else’s screen. What are a few things that you cannot travel without?

LD: Every time I’m on a flight I look at somebody with a neck pillow and I’m like, that probably would be so good. I’ve never tried one. Do they work?

LH: Yes!

LD: My neck always hurts after a flight.

LH: You should get a neck pillow.

LD: I think I really need one. But also then you gotta have it and carry it.

LH: It’s a whole thing isn’t it?

There are people who will get on a plane with absolutely nothing. Just jeans, no headphones, nothing. And they just sit and stare for the entire 12-hour flight.

LH: They call it rawdogging now. I’ve seen the rawdogging culture. You don’t do anything. You don’t drink water, you don’t eat, you don’t watch anything. You just stare into the seat in front of you.

Is there anything else that you really need with you when you are on the go?

LD: I mean, now I’ve traveled with Liam Hemsworth, I think I just need Liam Hemsworth in my pocket when I travel. I’m definitely never going to Morocco without Liam Hemsworth. I know that. Or Paris.

LH: We don’t do anything without each other anymore.

Unless going to jail or great white sharks are involved?

LD: If there’s a shark, he’ll punch it right on the nose.

LH: If I go to jail, she’ll be right there. I’ll blame it on her. She stole my passport. She’s probably got it. You should lock her up as well.

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