How Ozark star Julia Garner fell in love with South Australia while shooting, The Royal Hotel, set to open the Adelaide Film Festival

She’s used to the bright lights of Hollywood but Ozark star Julia Garner fell in love with South Australia – and the tiny town of Yatina – while shooting her new Adelaide Film Festival thriller.

The tiny South Australian town of Yatina – population 32 – is a long way from the bright lights of Hollywood.

But that’s where Golden Globe winner Julia Garner found herself last year as production began on The Royal Hotel, the locally-made thriller which will open the 2023 Adelaide Film Festival.

The movie’s Australian director, Kitty Green, admitted she was a little concerned for her leading lady – one of the hottest names in television thanks to starring roles in dramas such as Ozark and Inventing Anna.

“In the first few days I was a bit worried. We were pretty remote where we were shooting, and we really sent her out into the middle of nowhere early on,” said Green of Yatina, located 220km north of Adelaide.

“She was a bit shocked, I think, coming straight from Los Angeles.”

Stills from SA-made movie, The Royal Hotel, starring Julia Garner and Jessica Henshaw, and directed by Kitty Green. Picture: Supplied.

Stills from SA-made movie, The Royal Hotel, starring Julia Garner, pictured, and Jessica Henshaw, and directed by Kitty Green. Picture: Supplied.

But Green said Garner and the rest of the star-studded cast, including Hugo Weaving and Jessica Henwick, quickly adjusted to the conditions and came to love the small community.

“She had a wonderful time, and the town of Yatina embraced us,” she said.

“A few times, I saw Hugo taking selfies with people, and some of them were trying to convince him to do the voice from the Matrix.

“I saw a bit of that going on in the background. It was just such a joy to shoot in SA.”

While in SA, Garner attended a Port Adelaide AFL game at Adelaide Oval, and was seen around town, including East End dining hotspot Golden Boy and The Grace Emily hotel, in Waymouth St.

“We had a lot of fun, and Julia was so happy to be there. I don’t think she wanted to go home, to be honest,” Green said.

Stills from SA-made movie, The Royal Hotel, starring Julia Garner, Jessica Henshaw, Hugo Weaving, pictured, and directed by Kitty Green. Picture: Supplied.

Stills from SA-made movie, The Royal Hotel, starring Julia Garner and Jessica Henshaw, and directed by Kitty Green, above. Picture: Supplied.

The film, about two backpackers who run out of money and take a bar job in a small town, was shot over five weeks at locations around the state and at Adelaide Studios, in Glenside.

The Royal Hotel – Green’s second feature film – reunited her with Garner, who starred in her 2019 breakout hit, The Assistant.

Originally from Melbourne, Green said she had found a kindred spirit in Garner, and the pair had developed an unspoken connection – with plans for a third film together already in the works.

“We feel like we’ve gotten to the point where we know what each other is thinking,” she said. “Often, I would walk up to her on set with a little note after watching her but she’d always say ‘Don’t worry, I got it, I know what you want’. It’s amazing.”

Garner said she didn’t need much convincing to join the cast of the psychological thriller, which is produced by See-Saw Films – the team behind Academy Award-winning The Power of the Dog – and backed by the SA Film Corporation.

“For me, this film was an easy ‘yes’, even before I read it, because I’d worked with Kitty prior to this on The Assistant and I knew it was going to be great. I love collaborating with her,” she said.

The Royal Hotel director and writer Kitty Green. (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP)

US actress Julia Garner at the Critics Choice Awards in Los Angeles. (Photo by Michael TRAN / AFP)

The movie was unveiled at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, US, and is now the centrepiece of this year’s Adelaide Film Festival, which opens on Wednesday night.

This year’s event, which runs from October 18-29, features more than 130 films from 43 countries with 27 world premieres and 38 Australian premieres. Among the movies on show are All of Us Strangers, starring Paul Mescal and Claire Foy, Poor Things, starring Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo, and the closing night film, Scott Hicks’s My Name’s Ben Folds … I Play Piano.

While Garner won’t be on the red carpet at the gala SA premiere, Green will be joined by Weaving, other members of cast and crew, plus her parents and several other family members.

“It’ll be really fun to have them in the theatre, I thought it’d be a good place for them to see for the first time,” Green said.

“I like a festival with a sense of community, and I hear that’s the case in Adelaide. I’m excited to be there, it should be a wonderful event.

Along with Wednesday’s Adelaide Film Festival premiere, The Royal Hotel will also screen on Friday, October 27, at 2.30pm at Palace Nova East End.

It will then premiere in cinemas Australia-wide from November 23.