George Clooney and Julia Roberts Joke 'It Took 80 Takes' for Them to Film One Kiss for New Movie

Vince Valitutti/Universal Studios

George Clooney and Julia Roberts took their time to get the perfect shot for their upcoming movie Ticket to Paradise.

Clooney, 61, and Roberts, 54, recently joked to The New York Times that a single kiss between their characters — divorced parents who reunite to attempt to prevent their daughter (Kaitlyn Dever) from getting married — took "like, six months," in an interview published Monday.

"Yeah. I told my wife, 'It took 80 takes,' " Clooney told The Times. "She was like, 'What the hell?' "

"It took 79 takes of us laughing and then the one take of us kissing," Roberts added. Clooney responded, "Well, we had to get it right."

Clooney told The Times that Ticket To Paradise, written and directed by Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again director Ol Parker, was "clearly written for Julia and I" and that their character's names were originally Georgia and Julian.

"I hadn't really done a romantic comedy since One Fine Day — I haven't succeeded like Julia has in that forum — but I read it and thought, 'Well, if Jules is up for it, I think this could be fun,' " Clooney said in the interview.

RELATED: Julia Roberts Jokes That Ticket to Paradise with George Clooney Is 'Probably Going to Be Terrible'

Universal Pictures

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Roberts told The Times that the film "somehow only made sense with George, just based on our chemistry." The friends previously worked together on Ocean's Eleven and 2016's Money Monster.

"We have a friendship that people are aware of, and we're going into it as this divorced couple. Half of America probably thinks we are divorced, so we have that going for us," she said.

Clooney also joked about filming a kissing scene years ago — and being directed to do the opposite of his usual moves: "I remember early on in my career, I had to do a kissing scene with this girl and the director goes, 'Not like that.' And I was like, 'Dude, that's my move! That's what I do in real life!' "

In May, Roberts joked about Ticket To Paradise when she spoke with Variety at the Cannes Film Festival in France.

"Christ. I knew this would come up. Watch, the real acting happens now. Ready?" Roberts told the outlet, before, as Variety noted, she put on a "big smile" and added: "George, isn't he great!?"

Noting that the project is a romantic comedy where Clooney plays her ex-husband, Roberts then told the publication, "I think it's so funny and George is so funny and George and I together, it's probably going to be terrible because there's too much potential for it to be great, it'll just implode on it itself."

"I think that should be the commercial for the movie: 'It's probably going to be terrible,' " continued Roberts, before playfully teasing, "I'm so glad my publicist is on a plane right now."

The trailer for Ticket to Paradise shows the Oscar-winning pair's divorced couple wreaking havoc in Bali in their attempts to prevent their daughter from marrying.

"Out daughter's gonna marry a guy she just met, millions of miles from home. She's throwing her career away," Clooney's character tells a stranger seated between him and his ex (Roberts) on a flight. Roberts' character then says, "Just like her mother did, so I'm the only one who can stop her. She doesn't listen to him."

Ticket to Paradise is in theaters Oct. 21.