TURISTAS NIGHTAMARE VACATION

The stars of Turistas experience nightmare vacation in Brazil with no cash or credit cards.

It started off innocently enough for three girlfriends backpacking on holiday in Brazil until they’re left stranded by a bus accident in a remote and secluded Brazilian jungle in the thriller Turistas. Olivia Wilde, Melissa George and Beau Garrett talk about what can happen when you leave home without it.

Turistas might be somewhat of a cautionary tale to not always trust the locals but when you’re stranded in a foreign jungle who else do you turn to for help but the locals which turns out to be a deadly choice the girls make in the film.

“It’s a traveler’s journey of survival. When you go to a country like Brazil or China or wherever in the world, know the place that you’re going to. Don’t try to fight against their customs and the way they do things. But also we expect as Americans and Australians and even Europeans that when we go somewhere and something goes wrong a phone call will fix that. We’re very lucky in that way. But when you get into a situation where there are no phones and you can’t get in touch with your embassy, you don’t have money and suddenly you’re without that magic card, your passport and your credit card. What do you have? And that is the interesting question about this movie I think.”

On their days off from shooting Melissa, Olivia and Beau really got to experience the flavor of Brazil especially Melissa who ventured into non-touristy areas.

“You need to trust somebody so you follow your instincts. You trust too much sometimes. But really it’s like what other choice do you have? That’s what’s good about the film because people can’t say ‘don’t run into the burning basement with your shirt off’ like most of these films. Don’t go in the attic. For this I guess I would do that too. What else would I do? You trust the locals because when you get to a place you’re very vulnerable so when you see a Brazilian who says, ‘I’ll help you’ I think you don’t trust everybody just because they’re from that country. I think that’s a good lesson to learn too and of course we all trust the young Brazilian boy.”

Turistas opens Friday in theaters.

“Rio was cool. I liked Rio. John Stockwell and I went to a rock concert to see Marcella duDose. That went kind of sour. The guy pulled out a gun. We all went running. The bodyguards were like, ‘get down on the ground.’ And then everyone was sambaing back to their positions and we were really in the favellas and sort of experiencing Brazil in a dangerous kind of way but it was a really cool experience.”