Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson, He's Just Not That Into You Interview

MoviesOnline sat down with Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson, Justin Long, Bradley Cooper, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Kevin Connolly at the Los Angeles press day for their new film, “He’s Just Not That Into You,” based on the wildly popular bestseller by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo.

The film follows a group of interconnected, Baltimore-based twenty- and thirty somethings as they navigate their various relationships from the shallow end of the dating pool through the deep, murky waters of married life, trying to read the signs of the opposite sex…and hoping to be the exceptions to the “no-exceptions” rule. The all-star cast that also includes Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, and Kris Kristofferson.

Here’s what the cast had to tell us about their exciting new romantic comedy:

MoviesOnline: Sometimes I feel like I’m living in She’s Just Not that into You – for the ladies, where do you think are some good places or good ways to meet women?

DREW: I go and see bands play all the time, but that’s me.

SCARLETT: I don’t know I’ve never looked for a lady before, maybe you should ask the guys that question.

GINNIFER: I was rocking out to an 80’s cover band last night at the Key Club.

JUSTIN: So go to the Key Club

GINNIFER: Where I can now never go again, not because of you. You and I will talk after.

MoviesOnline: It sounds like music in general.

DREW: Yeah, girls who like music.

BRADLEY: Bathhouses

MoviesOnline: You’re listed as one of the producers of this movie?

DREW: That is correct.

MoviesOnline: Drew, I was wondering why you selected one of the smaller roles for yourself?

DREW: Because I identified with that and I worked with my partner Nan, who is the producer, and 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 there were so many awesome actors and I just wanted to step back, and I liked my character, I wanted to make her the one who’s dismayed by technology, and it was just a perfect fit for me. I really liked her. Everything happens organically for a reason, so I felt like a Mary, my character.

MoviesOnline: You talk about an age where everybody is dating electronically, how close is that to the way you feel?

DREW: 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 and so this whole like, you’re in your pocket and you have to respond immediately and be quirky and quippy, and no guys call anymore, it’s all text, so I’m awkward enough on the phone, I’m awkward answering this question, yeah, it’s really difficult, so I wanted to discuss that in film because 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 ballgame, so I wanted to address that.

MoviesOnline: For Jennifer, can you talk about the edge you had to walk with your character because you could have been so annoying and needy?

GINNIFER: It’s interesting, because I’ve been asked a lot about the neediness and the annoyance, which is something I clearly never thought about, because 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, because none of us can relate to that, and doesn’t every woman think that she’s brilliant, I hope, I hope that’s not me being narcissistic. But I think every woman thinks that she’s brilliant and that we make decisions using the information we have, and so the point for us was that the information that she has is misguiding, and therefore her falling on her face with commitment should be humiliating in a really relatable way, is this making sense?

DREW: Oh yeah, I’m following.

GINNIFER: So it was actually great fun, and I didn’t feel that I had to walk any particular line, I am rejected on a daily basis in what I do for a living, so it was easy for me to play a character who embraces rejection herself in her personal life. And 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, because that is what we always see in movies and that’s what I find incredibly boring, and what was so refreshing about this script.

MoviesOnline: Can you share any memorable getting dumped stories, or a bad way you dumped somebody?

BRADLEY: I’ll go. I remember, I think I talked about it yesterday, I think I spent half the day talking about it, and then (to Drew) I called you later just to give you some more details – I left this part out. Hold on Justin. I used to host this trek show for the Discovery Channel called Globe Trekkers, and I was in Peru and we got there late or something and so I hadn’t acclimatized, you either keep your feet above your head, and I had an oxygen tank on, and I was dating this girl at the time, and really I’d always been like, ‘No, once we graduate school we should just go our separate ways,’ but I had clarity in Peru, so I called her which took ten minutes to figure out how to reach her in New York to tell her this mid-breath of oxygen, and she just was not on the same page. I was like, ‘Baby, I was up here and I just really think we should do this.’

GINNIFER: You said baby?

BRADLEY: I did, maybe that was my way – maybe I was doomed from the start. Maybe we were just talking about McConaughey and I was just channeling him.

JUSTIN: He was dating a…?

BRADLEY: And she was not on the same page. I remember she said, ‘You know, that’s so interesting,’ – because we’d been apart for fifteen days, and she said, ‘I have actually really enjoyed myself.’ She just saw a play the night before with like a famous actor who had seen her in the audience –

JUSTIN:  And you might as well say the actor’s name, because you did yesterday without hesitating.

BRADLEY: But I felt bad, because I didn’t hesitate yesterday.

JUSTIN: It was Dom DeLuise.

BRADLEY: Yeah, it was. It was what’s-his-name.

JUSTIN: Do you want me to say it? Of course, it was Gabriel Byrne. No.

BRADLEY: No, it was Bruce Vilanch? God damn him. Anyway that’s my story.

JUSTIN: So he got burned. That should be the title if you write that story up, Bradley Cooper Gets Burned.

MoviesOnline: I read the book, and the movie had a sweetness and non-judgmental factor to it, how did you play those characters and make us care about you?

SCARLETT: I think even though there was somebody that was being hurt in the process, I don’t think that my character was – I think that the two characters really like each other. I mean, they connect and so you can’t really hate them, because it’s not like they’re being vindictive, she’s not looking to steal a married man, and he’s not looking to have some affair. And they both go into it knowing that there’s a third person in the relationship, but they really feel like maybe this is the point in their life. Even Drew’s character is saying that sometimes these things happen and you don’t want to miss the boat, who knows, this could be the person that you have children with and get married to and spend the rest of your life with, and I think these two characters feel that way about each other, they make such a connection. And I think through Bradley’s character’s fault of just not being able to man-up and really commit, because he has so many weaknesses –

BRADLEY: Oh, okay.

SCARLETT: Because of his character’s weaknesses, I think that they don’t actually – what could have been something ends up just being – or that he’s just not able to be truthful and commit, and she sees that weakness and then it all falls apart. But I think that you can’t hate them because they don’t go into it with malice, they don’t go into their relationship with a purpose to hurt somebody, and so it’s just life, I guess. These things happen, I guess, don’t they?

BRADLEY: Yeah. And they were both well written characters I think. I remember reading the script and reading that character, and I thought, ‘I’d love to play that,’ because it is so easy to vilify him especially. But it’s not really in the writing, the writing you could just feel sorry for him and the wreckage that he’s caused, because he’s not really a man, but you can understand him I guess is the point. I’m glad you said that, thank you.

MoviesOnline: For Scarlett – as you just got married, what does marriage bring that the absence of marriage doesn’t?

SCARLETT: I have no perspective on that, I think you should maybe ask me that question in twenty-five years.

MoviesOnline: The movie to me is about who is the rule and who is the exception. Is there such a thing, and if so, are you, Drew, the exception or the rule in love?

DREW: Oh my God, 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 frickin’ times that it’s just there and bloody on the floor, and you’re like, ‘I get it.’ And so I think – 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’s in an oxygen tent in Peru, and things like that do happen, but for the most part I think a person has a certain pattern and behavior and 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. So, 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, and anything less – and these clichés, they are 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.

MoviesOnline: Drew, you have nine different storylines, were there any left out to make it less complicated, and also did you have a favorite storyline among them?

DREW: I love all of them, that’s what’s so great about an ensemble – like I was watching The Big Chill the other night, and you’re just fascinated with everybody’s storyline. It’s so good and it’s such an amazing honor to be in a film with all these people and to get a group like this together. It’s rare and extraordinary. So, no, that’s a better question for Nan, everything was flushed out on purpose for a reason, and I think she covered a lot of bases really well without anything getting lost, and all the stories feeling extremely well interwoven without feeling like, ‘Oh, isn’t it coincidental that everybody knows everybody?’ I think her and Ken’s tone was just perfect.

MoviesOnline: Drew, how did you get such a great cast together, and you mentioned yesterday that you’re working on Charlie’s Angels 3?

DREW: No, they said, ‘You should do a Charlie’s Angels 3,’ and I was like, ‘No shit.’ And in like, I would love to do.

MoviesOnline: Are you actively working on it? And if you had a fourth angel, do you have any idea who that would be?

DREW: No, not yet on Charlie’s 3, it’s still incubating in all of our hearts.
And as far as getting the cast, Nan and Ken and Mark and Abby – again, they had a vision, they had a tone, the writing, everyone was able to – the most important thing is the script, the temple you can’t go in and do anything without it, so everyone obviously decided to do this because of the writing, because they liked the idea of working with each other, the characters and because Ken and Nan’s tone was to make this real and honest. People are in sweatpants, and they’re talking, and the dialogue isn’t bubblegum, and it’s real life and it’s exciting to come across a project that’s a good discussion and a look inside of what we’re all really going through. These are like not fantastical storylines where somebody misses someone at an airport, and somebody’s a prince and someone’s – this is what we’re all really dealing with, so it’s an amazing opportunity for all of us to get to work on a project that’s relatable.

MoviesOnline: Have you read the book and was there one piece of advice from the book that you really wanted to get through in the movie?

DREW: Kevin’s read the book.

KEVIN: Am I the only one that read it?

SCARLETT: I read it.

KEVIN: I read the book because I was doing the movie, I thought it might be – I’m sorry, what was the question?

SCARLETT: First say how you read the book. It’s such a sweet anecdote

KEVIN: I had a girlfriend and she had it on the nightstand, and she’d be like reading it and hemming and hawing and complaining, and asking me strange questions. So, when she was not there, I started flipping through it, and I realized this is a bad idea. I put it down and so I was very aware of the book, so when the movie came along, obviously when I got the role, I read the book, and I’m the only one.

JUSTIN: I glanced at the cover.

KEVIN: Justin, I’m the only guy in the movie that read the book.

GINNIFER: I bought the book. It was important to me for – my character can’t have this information until the end of the story, even though she’s being – she still doesn’t get the point, my character, throughout her lessons from Alex the bartender, she becomes obsessed with the sign reading, and wasting life in that way. And I did buy the book, and I did a lot of other homework. But I read the book the second we were done with the film, and I’m glad I hadn’t read it before because I –

KEVIN: So you have read the book?

GINNIFER: I have now. Clearly before this conference today I had to go home and cram some in last night after all the hell you all gave me yesterday. I did read it right after we wrapped and I don’t think you can read that book without gaining some inner strength and becoming maybe a little less tolerant of foolishness. I did not want to have that strength in my heart while filming.

DREW: I think there’s something so great too about Justin’s character and your friends not codling you but being honest. You think that you’re helping your friend by making them feel better, when really the truth will get them so much further in life, so sage wisdom about how to keep evolving in relationships is fantastic.

JUSTIN: And sometimes that wisdom is so much simpler than what the person is actually looking for, how they’re looking for it. People tend to over-analyze a lot in these situations and Ginny’s character is a good example of that, just deconstructing it to the point where it doesn’t make any sense.

GINNIFER: And then deconstructing your lessons to the point where they don’t make any sense.

JUSTIN: Right. So at one point you need someone to just shake you and say,
’Shut up, it’s right there, he’s (sings it) just not that into you.’ But sing it like that.

GINNIFER: It softens the blow.
 
MoviesOnline: Ginnifer, what is your advice for getting over a broken heart?

GINNIFER:  Well, I'm a girl's girl and I have, honest to God, had girlfriends and sisters come pick me up from break-up locations (laughter).  I've actually said, in the middle of a break-up, 'I'm sorry but I need to call a sister.’ 'Can you please come get me and bring me a Starbucks?' This has happened and I have best girlfriends in the world and I've learned about myself that it's absolutely fine that I have a certain level of co-dependence. I might need to slumber party for a week straight and eat an awful lot of boxes of cookies. I’m all about embracing the girlfriends.

MoviesOnline: Anyone else?

JUSTIN:  I forget the question.  Do I like cookies?  I would say the same exact thing. Slumber parties and cookies.

GINNIFER:  Pillow fights and mud wrestling.

JUSTIN:  Make-overs.  It's just being with family and friends, just being with people who love you and you love and just existing in that until the wounds have healed.

MoviesOnline: For all the guys, do you get together with your guy pals and talk about relationships or not?

KEVIN: I usually just keep everything built up (laughter).

BRADLEY:  I don't think you're joking.

KEVIN:  When I break up, I take a nap. 

JUSTIN:  I do the same thing. I take like eight naps a day.

DREW:  And now they're actors.

MoviesOnline: No, seriously...

JUSTIN: I do. I have a couple of close friends that I talk to about everything, yeah. I think guys talk as much as women...

GINNIFER: No way.

JUSTIN:... unless I just have very gossipy guy friends. But I definitely do, yeah.  I rely pretty heavily on them.

MoviesOnline: There have been a lot of guy-oriented romantic comedies lately, mostly courtesy of Judd Apatow, which have been like 'Women just don't understand us.'  Is this a response to that? And, secondly, to what extent does public knowledge of your personal life insinuate itself into a movie?

JUSTIN: God, I still don't understand the question.

GINNIFER: (answering 2nd half of question) I don't think that we have a choice but I can tell you on behalf of this particular cast, we're extremely discreet and I'm sure these guys agree with me that it's important. Surely your opinion about a character is affected by what you know about the person in real life, so the very nature of the question would sort of ruin what it is we're trying to do and represent the movie here to talk about how we expressed our characters and why because truly, we're playing other people and we're hoping that you empower us with.... can someone help me?

SCARLETT: The whole process, you don't really want to see the little man behind the curtain. Our process is an introspective one and it's strange to share that with the general public, just as you probably wouldn't want to tell us all about your own therapy sessions. In a way, acting is a very cathartic experience. You're imparting your own personal experience into the characters you play. I've never quite been able to grasp the concept of giving away all of your secrets in a way and wanting to talk about your method and your process. It's one thing if you're part of The Actors' Studio and you're working with a bunch of other actors and you're discussing such things but, guaranteed, no other actor is going to ask you what you're working from, what you're drawing from. Just in that regard, it makes no sense, to me anyway, as to why we would want to share that with anybody else certainly.

MoviesOnline: What about the male-aimed romantic comedies?

DREW: I love the Judd Apatow comedies personally, but that's just me.

MoviesOnline: Did this group of actors know each other before this film?

DREW: We all pretty much did know each other in different ways, yeah, absolutely.

BRADLEY: Actually, I didn't meet Jennifer Connelly until the first day and the first scene that we shot was in the Walmart or the Costco, and I didn't even know her which was so crazy and we had to shoot that scene, and I didn't know Scarlett either before our first day.

DREW: Like I said, we all knew each other. 

BRADLEY: And I never met Drew before so I don't know what she's talking about.

DREW: We went to dinner!

BRADLEY: After I got the gig. It meant a lot to me. (laughter)

DREW: I new Justin, I knew Kevin, I knew Scarlett. I met Ginny on this. I knew Jennifer Aniston. I knew everybody.

SCARLETT: You've been around the block.

DREW: Yeah, I have.

SCARLETT: Thirty years in the industry.

DREW: Thirty three, yeah, thirty-three years...God.

MoviesOnline: What surprised you about each other?

KEVIN: For me, the whole thing was pretty humbling -- just a great bunch of actors and none of them more professional than the next, and Bradley and I were kind of joking around yesterday saying if somebody asked us how we came to choose these roles, and it wasn't so much choosing.  Lightning struck.  Bradley and I were fortunate enough to get on pretty early before...

BRADLEY: ...the big guns.

KEVIN: Before the big guns signed on or we probably wouldn't have gotten the roles. The whole thing was just great and everybody was fantastic to work with and, like I said, very humbling.

BRADLEY: I was always a huge fan of Jennifer Connelly, but I wasn't as familiar with Scarlett and that's what blew me away. You have like a real actor here. She's one of the best. I'm so excited to see what she's gonna do. She like blew me away.

SCARLETT: I'll give you your twenty dollars later.

BRADLEY: No it's true. It's really true. I was blown away.

MoviesOnline: Do women just have to hit guys over the head so they'll realize what they have?

JUSTIN: From the movie? The characters, literally? No? I think sometimes, yeah. Hit with a Mac truck or some large, blunt object.

BRADLEY: I'm going to go on the record and say 'no, they shouldn't be.' We disagree.

JUSTIN: I'm sorry that I even started talking about it. I think sometimes, sure, yeah. It's hard to see the forest for the trees, absolutely. Don't let the cat out of the bag.

MoviesOnline: Have you ever had an experience where you misread a guy's signs and can now look back on it and laugh?

GINNIFER: I do every day and now I'm paid to put it on screen.

DREW: I'm sorry, Tourettes.

GINNIFER: But that's what I had to say. I mis-read signs every day and now I'm paid to put those mis-readings on screen.

DREW: Absolutely....Nothing.

MoviesOnline: There aren't any real bedroom scenes in this. It takes us right to the edge. Scarlett, I'm very grateful for the red outfit (laughter) but do you feel you should have gone all the way to the bedroom?  (note: film is PG-13)

GINNIFER: Well, we clearly didn't need to, did we? That's the beauty of it. The script is so balanced. It's so subtle and I don't think the message could have been so powerfully imparted if it wasn't so subtle because life is subtle. That's what makes it so relatable, right?

KEVIN: Right.  Although it would have been nice to have a little (laughter). You're saying how do we get away without having any real hardcore? I had a hard enough time with the post sex thing with Scarlett. (Scarlett laughs).

BRADLEY: Spooning? You had a hard time with that?

KEVIN: I did.

DREW: Awww. It's such a good scene -- one of my favorites.

KEVIN: We had to reshoot it too which is even worse.

BRADLEY: We shot the scenes. They just didn't make the movie. We did shoot them, at least I did. (laughter).

MoviesOnline: Which character out of the entire film do you most identify with?

GINNIFER: I so want Justin to take this one. It would make me so happy.

JUSTIN: They were making fun of me because I kept saying I identify with some of the female characters. But, I really did. There was a little bit of truth that I connected to in all of the storylines, even Bradley's. Even though I'm not married and have never been married, I've been in serious relationships and there was something in there that I was able to draw from in all of the storylines and certainly Ginny's character, which is what she's trying to get me to say. I definitely identified with all of them, yeah. The only one I didn't was my own (laughter) oddly.

MoviesOnline: Has this happened to you? Was there a guy or a girl who wasn't that into you?

JUSTIN: Never for me.

GINNIFER: Yeah, we've all just had only amazing experiences in love. Always, all the time, we're actors now.

JUSTIN: I went out with a girl in college and it was the first girl I ever worked up the courage to ask out blind without any preamble and I asked her out and she spent the entire time asking me about my friend James Duffy and they ended up going out. They ended up dating for a little while but, literally, everything I said like 'How's your coffee?' 'It's good. I wonder if James would like this?' I was finally like 'Do you want me to?' She was like 'Would you? Would that be weird?' And I did.  I was such a pushover.

MoviesOnline: Is there any good way to end a relationship if not in person?

DREW: Oh no! You've answered your own question. It's rhetorical.

JUSTIN: Skywriting. (laughter)

DREW: The in-person is first and foremost 101, a must!

SCARLETT: What about in case of emergency?

DREW: Fly. Do whatever you can. The older you get, the more un-okay it is to do it over any technological device. Yes, in person is the starter right there and then, hopefully, as sweetly and kindly and nurturingly as possible.

MoviesOnline: What was it like shooting the film in Baltimore?

SCARLETT: Baltimore is awesome.

KEVIN: We had a great time in Baltimore.

SCARLETT: I love Baltimore. I was actually walking around going 'I could live here.' It's really a great city and I have a lot of great friends that have come from Baltimore and have lived there in the music scene. It's really just kind of a happening spot. It's a great, great place. We went to a couple of really cool...what was that museum we went to? The Visual... oh, Ken Kwapis would remember.

JUSTIN: Great aquarium.

SCARLETT: The aquarium is great and they have like a Maritime Museum. It's a very happening spot.

KEVIN: And their stadiums are all on the street. You're walking down the street and turn... We weren't there very long but...

SCARLETT: We ate a lot of crab.

JUSTIN: I'd shot a movie there a year earlier and I was lobbying Ken to write me a background scene where I just walk in the background walking a dog or something.

MoviesOnline: Is it true that, if a guy wants to be with you, he will do anything to make that happen?

JUSTIN: Yes.

GINNIFER: Yeah.

DREW: Men build bridges. If they want to get from here to there, they can find your phone number, I think.

JUSTIN: Well, that's dangerous to say.

DREW: Why is that dangerous?

JUSTIN: You might get a potential stalker. 

DREW: No. I'm not saying 'call me.' I'm saying, as a general rule, I feel like men know how to find you if they want to find you. I was not inviting that.

MoviesOnline: Drew, have you ever cried after reading a romantic book?

DREW: "A Farewell to Arms" by Hemingway. I don't think I've ever cried too hard at the end of a book. It's the most beautiful love story. I'm reading "Anna Karenina" right now. But, "A Farewell to Arms" was the first one that popped into my head as far as when it ended and I loved "Franny and Zooey" even though that's a totally different type of love story, it also had such an impact on me. I love when a book just ends in a way where you're just bawling. It's just great.

MoviesOnline: Drew, I love your new look.

DREW: Thank you. Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate that. I'm goin' big. It's all about hairdo and breast taping. 

MoviesOnline: Are you having fun being this blonde?

DREW: Well, I love being a redhead too. Redhead is one of my favorites but I love being blonde.  It's so much fun.

MoviesOnline: Does it feel different being that kind of extreme blonde?

DREW:  It does. Absolutely.  I was so involved in producing and trying to direct this movie and I'd just did this movie Grey Gardens and I was so focused on work that I hadn't reinvented my look in so long and I love to reinvent. It's so much fun.  It gives you a whole new attitude. It's a little scary to get out of your safe zone so I love change. It's fun and I embrace it.

“He’s Just Not That Into You” opens in theaters on February 6th.