He's Just Not That Into You follows a group of 20 and 30 year olds as they try and make their way through the tricky world of relationships. Reading the opposite sex has never been easy, but in these times with email, the internet, cell phones, and text messaging it's only gotten more complicated.
He's Just Not That Into You Press Conference
Where are some good places, or what are some good ways, to meet women?Drew Barrymore: "I go and see bands play all the time, but that’s me."
Scarlett Johansson: "Where to meet a lady? I don’t know. I never looked for a lady before. Maybe you should ask the guys that question."
Ginnifer Goodwin: "I was rockin’ out to an '80s cover band last night. You all missed it. It was at the Key Club, where I can never now go again. Not because of you. You and I will talk after."
Drew Barrymore: "Girls like music."
Ginnifer Goodwin: "Supermarkets. Whole Foods is always a good one. Library..."
Drew, you’re one of the producers of this movie. Why is it you selected for yourself one of the smaller roles?
Drew Barrymore: "Because I identified with that character. I worked with my partner, Nan [Nancy Juvonen], who is the producer, and also with the writers, and I was in the middle of doing Grey Gardens and directing this film Whip It!, and there were just so many other great roles and so many awesome actors, and I just wanted to step back. I liked my character. I wanted to make her the one who’s dismayed by technology. It was just a perfect fit for me. I really liked her, and everything happens organically for a reason. I felt like a Mary, my character."
Drew, one of the best scenes in the movie is where you talk plaintively about an age when everybody is dating electronically. How close to that is the way you feel?
Drew Barrymore: "I wrote that with the writers and Nan. I just said I wanted to express how difficult it is. I still have a wall phone, and I love tape, and shoot on film. Now you’re in your pocket, and you have to respond immediately and be quirky and quippy. No guys call anymore. It’s all texts. I’m awkward enough on the phone. I’m awkward answering this question. It’s really difficult, so I wanted to discuss that in film. It’s so important in our day and age of Facebook and MySpace and the internet and texting and all of this. It’s just a new ball game, so I wanted to address that."
Ginnifer, you have a very, very hard role. Can you talk a little about the edge you have to walk because you could have been so annoying, being so needy? I wonder if you found it hard as an actress.
Ginnifer Goodwin: "It’s interesting because I’ve been asked a lot about the neediness and the annoyance, which is something I clearly never thought about. I don’t know that anyone thinks that she’s needy or annoying, right? But in playing her open and resilient, and choosing to have her walk boldly, even in the wrong direction, I think it certainly can come across as desperate and clingy. But I think that our entire goal with Gigi was to play her as intelligently as possible, because I thought that it was important that she not stumble out of ignorance. None of us can relate to that in that doesn’t every woman think that she’s brilliant? I hope. I hope that’s not me being narcissistic. I think every woman thinks that she’s brilliant, and that we make decisions using the information we have. So the point for us was that the information that she has is misguiding. Therefore her falling on her face with commitment should be humiliating in a really relate-able way. Is this making sense?"
Drew Barrymore: "I’m following."
Ginnifer Goodwin: "It was actually great fun and I didn’t feel that I had to walk any particular line. I’m rejected on a daily basis in what I do for a living, and so it was easy for me to play a character who embraces rejection herself in her personal life. I had really great fun trying to just always live in the moment and not play the end of the story, which is knowing that she would be okay. That is what we always see in movies, and that is what I find incredibly boring. That’s what was so refreshing about this script."
This movie seems to be very much about the exception. Is there such a thing? And if so, do you feel you are the exception, or you are the rule in love? Drew?
Drew Barrymore: "Oh my God. [Laughing] I’m hoping that’s being asked as a producer. I believe there are no rules. I really do. I think it’s a case by case basis. But I think at a certain point something clicks, and you’re just not willing to accept or give less than what your heart desires, or less than what you deserve. Your behavior changes. You run into that wall and you hit your head so many fricking times that it’s just there and bloody on the floor, and you’re like, 'I get it.'"
"I’m going to say the exception is that infinitesimally small chance, and there are those moments and maybe he did get hit by a bus and Bradley is in an oxygen tank in Peru, and things like that do happen. But for the most part, I think a person has a certain pattern and behavior. You have to look at that and just say, 'What works for me? What works for this person?' and not repeat the same BS over and over and over, or accept less. As much as I don’t think there are rules, I think there is sort of a good global case by case basis of how you should treat someone, and how you want to be treated. Anything less and these clichés – and they’re clichés for a reason, because they’re true, and they’re happening so don’t buy into it. It’s so great when that clicks."
