During “A Tourist Guide’s To Love” movie premiere, Cook told the press that she was most scared when they filmed her character, Amanda, crossing roads in Ho Chi Minh City.
“I was shocked as I had never seen a road with that many motorbikes,” she said.
When Cook asked her co-star Scott Ly how to cross the road, he replied with a line from the movie “Always move forward, don’t look back.”
The actress added that she didn’t completely believe the advice. Instead, she tried not to look at the motorbike drivers and let them avoid her.
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Rachael Leigh Cook and her co-star Scott Ly. Photo by Netflix |
Among filming spots the crew visited in Vietnam, Hoi An Ancient Town in Quang Nam impressed Cook the most. She regarded the scene during which she and Ly had to ride the basket boat themselves as the most challenging.
“Scott was much heavier than I thought, so the boat kept wobbling. Interestingly enough, we haven’t managed to learn how to ride a basket boat yet,” Cook said.
Vietnam is the first Asian country Cook visited for filming purposes, After she and Eirene Tran Donohue, the Vietnamese-Irish screenwriter who penned “A Tourist’s Guide To Love,” submitted the script to Netflix and got approved, the production crew arrived in Vietnam in 2021 when social distancing rules were lifted.
“We were grateful to be welcomed and supported during filming [in Vietnam]. I was impressed with the kitchens, the scenery, and the enthusiastic energy I noticed in people here,” Cook said.
“A Tourist’s Guide to Love” follows the story of the Los Angeles-based travel executive Amanda who is assigned to go undercover in Vietnam as a tourist to find information on a local tourism agency after breaking up with her boyfriend.
During her trip, she meets Sinh, a local tour guide, played by Ly. Sinh suggests several changes to Amanda’s itinerary and the pair travel the country together. But just as they begin to fall in love, Amanda’s ex-boyfriend shows up and she’s forced to choose between the two.
The main characters explore the bustling rhythm of Ho Chi Minh City, hold candle-lit lanterns in a boat on the Hoai River in Hoi An, and learn how to make stuffed sticky rice cakes in celebration of the Lunar New Year.
Born in 1979, Cook rose to stardom after starring in the rom-com “She’s All That,” which was released in 1999 and generated box office revenue of over $100 million.
Her other films include “The Baby-Sitters Club” (1995), “Josie and the Pussycats” (2001), and “Perception” (2012).
Amanda crosses the road in “A Tourist’s Guide to Love.” Video by Netflix
