In naughty romantic comedy The Ugly Truth, part-time film goddess (Knocked Up & 27 Dresses) and full-time TV star (Grey’s Anatomy) Katherine Heigl, teamed up with 300 and RockNRolla Scot Gerard Butler for director Robert Luketic’s look at the war between the sexes. Heigl is Abby Richter, a romantically-challenged morning show producer and Butler is a chauvinistic news correspondent, Mike Chadway; determined to prove that she’s not romantically challenged, Abby takes Mike’s advice during a promising new romance, with amusingly unexpected results. The Ugly Truth is filled with fake orgasms, sexy Jell-O Twins and politically incorrect gags.
What ugly truth might people not want to know that might actually help them in their dating life, which you discovered?
BUTLER: “You answer first.”
HEIGL: “He’s asking you!”
BUTLER: “No, he asked both of us! I hate that, because it’s okay for you, because you’re married. Everybody is like ‘Alright, Gerry. You’re so like Mike, aren’t you?’ I’m like ‘No.’ They are all ‘Yes, you are.’ Tell us how you approach all this. I know, that’s what you’re saying. Don’t pretend with me!”
What works? What can they take away? Should we call if they don’t call us back?
HEIGL: “No. No.”
BUTLER: “No.”
HEIGL: “Would you want a woman to call you, not once but twice, if you haven’t returned a phone call?”
BUTLER: “Yeah. I’m busy.”
HEIGL: “Exactly why you should not call him back.” [Laughs]
BUTLER: “This is why I’m single!”
HEIGL: “‘I’m so busy! Call me six times and maybe I’ll get back to you.’”
BUTLER: “Listen, this is why it’s called The Ugly Truth. There is an element of truth in that the second that you think the girl is maybe not quite as keen, there is a little more ‘Okay.’ Sometimes when its there right in front of you it’s not as interesting. Is that right?”
HEIGL: “It’s true.”
Is it true it took 35 takes before you got the dinner/orgasm scene right?
HEIGL: “Hold on. It didn’t take 35 to get it right, it took 35 set ups to film the scene. Which is a different thing. I got that on take one, thank you very much.”
So it was a total breeze?
HEIGL: “Oh my God, it was a nightmare. And let me tell you, ladies: These were fake orgasms but… can you imagine? ‘I’m very method.’ [Laughs] That would have been a terrible day!”
BUTLER: “I get them all the time! I recognize that!”
HEIGL: “‘I know you’re phoning that one in!’ It’s really just physically exhausting. It’s so much physical movement, the legs dancing under the table, all the tensing up of the body, and by the end of the day I felt like I had done a marathon. I thought I had run 20 miles. Then I went ‘Okay, now I get why it’s called physical comedy.’ Because it’s so physical and it’s exhausting. No one wants to orgasm 35 times.”
I wonder what that little boy with the remote thought? I wonder who was explaining to him what the lady in the white dress was doing?
HEIGL: “He probably thought, ‘This lady is crazy.’”
BUTLER: “He didn’t know there was a connection. He thought ‘She’s crazy over there! What is she doing? I’m just going to keep playing with this thing.’”
HEIGL: “‘She’s screwed up my take!’”
BUTLER: “I go to therapy. I came out the other day and he was sitting there waiting to go in. Now I get it, I went ‘Of course.’ [Laughs] I have to say, no matter how well this movie does, that scene is going to go down in the annals of history in comedies because it’s a classic scene. I don’t know many people who don’t love it. Thirty takes to get it right? Not at all. It’s one of the most brilliant performances I’ve ever seen. She was so, dare is say, bang on. It was incredible. Watching it again last night, you sometimes marvel. It was amazing, just perfection.”
So, what’s the key to happiness?
HEIGL: “Oh, I don’t know. Vodka? Yeah. That works.”
BUTLER: “One of those vibrators she uses in the movie.”
HEIGL: “No, that thing was crap. I told you I was method! You have to respect my process!”
BUTLER: “That number one secret to happiness, it’s funny, that’s why I love that bit at the beginning of movie where I’m like ‘Women who love men who hate them, blah, blah, blah.’ As you would describe as psychobabble bullshit. I find it funny as actors when suddenly you play a role, not just you but everyone asks, ‘What is your secret to a relationship and what’s you’re secret to happiness?’ I want to go ‘I don’t fucking know. I’m not Dr. Ruth. I have no idea.’”
HEIGL: “Dr. Phil.”
BUTLER: “Dr. Gerry.”
Gerry, female movie goes have fallen in love with you thanks to big male action films like 300. Do you think you’re pushing your luck with The Ugly Truth?
BUTLER: “No, I don’t think I’m pushing my luck. That is something I’d like to do, but I don’t think I’m taking it too far. There is definitely a lot of me in this character but I think it’s more about being sort of boisterous and fun. I don’t expound those ideals but I do think that there is a lot of that going on in both men and women if we’re honest and frank about how we look at each other. I think that what is cool is that both of our characters, at the end of the day, we’re human and real. We both have a lot of vulnerabilities. There is a lot of that going on under Mike’s armor. That’s what is so great about this movie. It’s so ridiculous, shocking, and surprising the ways I talk about sex, but at the end of the day women get it. Men get it too. I think it’s right that we see Mike’s character let his guard down. It’s a sex comedy, it’s kind of a romantic comedy, and kind of a love story.”
Did you both dance really well before this movie? Did you practice that dance?
HEIGL: “I think it looked so awesome because of the way that they shot it. Did you notice, Gerry, it was all just upper? They didn’t do any wide shots of us spinning around.”
BUTLER: “I disagree. It was hot.”
HEIGL: “We totally went back to the trailer and made out after. [Laughs] We had like 20 minutes to rehearse it, right?”
BUTLER: “I took a few lessons because I had no idea what I was doing. I actually had a lesson from Julianne Hough from Dancing with the Stars and that took me a long way along the way. But this lady here was just on it and she had it right away. That’s why it came alive, because to be honest if I was dancing with somebody who wasn’t that great, it would have been a disaster. Katie was on it and I wasn’t. Her process is good and mine is bad. I had months to prepare and I still I still forgot my lines But then again, I had a lot to say. In my defense I never fucking shut up in this movie. ‘Blah, blah, blah…’ and then ‘blah, blah, blah…’
HEIGL: “What was so awesome is that you nailed every joke. It came off effortless. That is just awesome. He is super fun to watch. You’re just good.”
When you are talking to each other, face to face, how tough was that and were there a lot of takes for those scenes where you have to use the language? Was it tricky?
HEIGL: “For me, I kind of talk like that all the time anyway, so it wasn’t hard. I try to actually reign that in a bit. So that was very freeing for me. I could just kind of be me. I love raunchy humor, I just do, and I don’t know why. I don’t know why. I should probably get a little more sophisticated but I just think it’s hilarious and it’s what makes me laugh the hardest and the most. I’m not terribly precious about that sort of stuff. Unless you’re going really far, and then it’s still funny.”
Was it awkward doing the cleaned-up, PG-13 versions of the film for Delta and American Airlines?
HEIGL: “Yeah, that was weird… ‘What can we say here?’ Penis? Noodle? That was a big one.”
Gerry, was it hard for you being the Scottish guy?
BUTLER: “I was in heaven. Back home. It was one of the main reasons I ended up doing this movie. I was doing another action movie where I was very dark and brooding. But at night I would go to dinner with Gary Luccesi and Tom Rosenberg from Lakeshore and tell dirty jokes. I’d be vulgar and they kept going The Ugly Truth! and I had never read the script. I finally read it and I go ‘Okay, I get it.’ The weird thing is that it took me a couple of days to find my rhythm. The first day, playing the American accent and that kind of character, I was really nervous. I kept forgetting my lines. Every time I would turn to Katie and had to play with her hair, I was so nervous. Once I grabbed her breast. In the middle of a take I said ‘Did I just touch your breast?’”
HEIGL: “He just put his hand down, one of those accidental brushes, and it was like…”
BUTLER: “It was kind of a Mike Chadwick move. I guess it was pretty method. Every time I went to grab her hair, I forgot. And it was because I was really pretty nervous about it, because she’s such a charismatic woman.”
You could say this movie is silly and great fun, but is it really saying something about men and women today?
HEIGL: “Hmm. I don’t know? I would hope that it’s an exaggeration of where men and women are at. I can’t speak for men because I haven’t been around a lot of men who act like Mike Chadway. I’ve been around a lot of men who joke like Mike Chadway, but don’t actually believe that. If they do then they are very good actors and are much more romantic, and much more sympathetic and all those things he sort of lacked. But I know for me, Abby is only a small exaggeration of women now, at least me and my friends. I definitely went the whole make a list, I’m definitely a little OCD, I’m particular about how I like things, and how I want things, and the whole seventh floor room, facing the sun rising, I get that — I get that, deeply. I don’t know, maybe it is sort of talking about the differences, but I also think the most important part of the movie was talking about compromise. Despite those differences you can compromise. You don’t have to necessarily completely change who you are to be with someone you want to be with, but you do have to compromise a little bit. You have to let go of a little bit of yourself. There is that fine, fine line between desperate and honest.”
BUTLER: “I have to say that Katie is deeply flawed in her misunderstanding of the truth of what goes on in a lot of men’s minds. I think that was a way more sophisticated breed of male than I am, which wouldn’t be difficult. We never know, as guys, what the hell women talk about when they go to the restroom. They always go to the restroom together. Likewise, women never really know and I think this is the first movie that really brings it up and strikes to the heart if it, how guys really think. I swear, I know I’m going out on a limb here and ending my career, but it’s almost impossible for a guy to go ‘You know what? There are times when I just turn around and look at an ass.’ We do that stuff. Now, we are much more complicated that than as well, and at the end of the day that’s what is beautiful and where the redemption is in the movie. We all, at the end of the day, through our games and our weaknesses and our flaws, are after the same thing. We all want a partner, we all want companionship and we’re all beautiful and we’re all over the place. It comes together really well. I think that the battle of the sexes is the battle of the audiences in this movie. Because it’s so great. It really expounds both values. I think when this stuff is thrown out there it’s so shocking and unexpected. The guys are like ‘Oh, thank God somebody said that.’ and the women are like ‘You know what? I knew it! I bloody well knew it!’ That’s why it’s a huge relief that this stuff is put out there…But it’s great the way we play with it here. I have to tell you the script was so phenomenal. That’s another reason it wasn’t hard to just climb into this and do it. It was just there.”
Heigl: “It was super funny on the page, too.”
R-rated comedies are becoming bigger and more reliable box office success stories for Hollywood. This is your second one, Katherine. You’re now the woman who is exemplifying these things. Can you talk about that trend from an actress’ point of view?
HEIGL: “I actually have a really strong opinion about this, shockingly enough, but I gave it recently and it sounded really dumb. So you tell me if this sounds stupid, but I feel like I’m a 30-year-old woman, and as much as I love that younger audience, and as much as I love those kind of movies, I loved 27 Dresses, I had a great time making it, I love watching those kinds of things. I still feel like I want to tell a real story to people my age, to my generation. We throw ‘fuck’ around a lot, when you have to censor so much for that ‘PG-13’ rating it starts to get a little cute. It starts to feel a little fantasy. And yes, all romantic comedies have that element of fantasy but the thing I love the most about this movie is that they do end up together. Who knows if they end up happily ever after together, but they do end up together, but it didn’t feel like the fantasy. It felt like real life. It felt like two people who actually were really sexually attracted to one another, and ultimately emotionally attracted to one another, came together in a world that is a grownup’s world. Not the cartoon version. It’s not that I always want to do ‘R’ rated movies, or that I feel like they are the most honest movies out there, but there was something about this. The ability to be crass, the ability to drop the f-bomb on occasion, the ability to say ‘cock.’ That felt real to me. It felt like the world I actually live in with my friends and my family. Maybe that sounds bad.”
Katherine, you are working with (director) Robert Luketic again for the movie Five Killers. Can you talk about how quickly you decided to do this? Don’t the two of you live in the same neighborhood?
BUTLER: “Alright, alright. I’m a neighbor, too.”
HEIGL: “When have you invited us over Gerry? We want to see the media room. God!”
BUTLER: “I’ve invited you a hundred times. For this movie I was trying to break into Katherine’s genre and now she’s like slapping me in the face and getting into my genre. ‘I’ll show you!’”
HEIGL: “What is tragic is that I’m sure you look awesome as an action person. I look like a moron. That is good because I was supposed to be in this particular movie, I’m not supposed to be good at it, but even when I wasn’t trying to look dumb, I look dumb. I run like this. I will never be an action star, that’s for sure.”
BUTLER: “That’s good, because I look like a moron in this movie, so it’s perfect.”
HEIGL: “No, you don’t. You’re a genius.”
Following up on the R-rated issue. There wasn’t many bare body parts shown onscreen, and I wanted to ask about that. And Gerard, I wanted to ask about the “full employment for Scots” policy that seems to be in the film? What’s the challenge of working with Craig Fergeson and maintaining your American accent?
HEIGL: “You’re saying there were no boobies. The Jell-O Twins should have been topless.” [Laughs]
BUTLER: “I don’t think you needed it. I think you had it in the language. If there is one thing that is classy about the movie it’s that. The one thing.”
HEIGL: “One thing.”
BUTLER: “No, just the ideas and the values are so clever and controversial, unexpected, and surprising and hard-hitting. You don’t need to see tits and vag. It’s not necessary. There’s enough going on. This movie is so hilarious it works from the guys and girls perspectives. I think in an actual fight none of this feels gratuitous. They are all ideas we react to, we love, and we hate. You have a pretty strong reaction to both sides of the coin. I think the rest would have been gratuitous. Working with Craig, I love Craig. Even saying the work ‘Craig’ was a big thing, because I was told it was ‘Kreg’ - ‘K-R-E-G’. I was like ‘No it’s not ‘Craig’ [in a Scottish accent]. And even he would say ‘Craig.’ I had to go ‘Kreg’ - ‘I made it on Kreg Fergeson’ and then of course you meet him and he goes [in Scottish accent] ‘Alright, Gerry boy. How’s it going? Haven’t seen your for awhile.’ Trying to keep my American accent was a nightmare. I was speaking to his producer yesterday because I’m actually going on his show tonight. I’m always on his show and he plays my best friend in a DreamWorks movie I’m doing now. It’s called How to Train your Dragon. Normally that would sound way more innocent than it sounds during this press conference. It’s a DreamWorks animated movie for kids. But maybe it isn’t, I haven’t seen it animated yet. It might be a huge con. ‘Oh, that’s what that meant?!’ He plays Gobber. I had a great time doing that scene but it was actually a challenge trying to keep the accent. And doing it in front of a guy who’s going — Listen, It’s a Scots person, and there’s nothing worse than being a Scots guy with an American accent. ‘Are you fucking kidding me? What the fuck’ I remember once years ago going back to Scotland after spending a summer here, and I was a law student at the time. And I go back after being here for a few months and nobody could understand a word I was saying. Here I would go ‘Do you have the time?’ and they would go ‘The time? What?’ “No, time.’ I went back and suddenly I was going ‘Time.’ I remember being in this bar and I was speaking to this guy and he went ‘You’re a fucking Yankee. What the fuck is that?’ That’s very much the Scots attitude. I was home recently and I said soccer instead of football. I kid you not, I was flush red for a day after. ‘I said soccer. I said soccer. They are going to kill me.’ They will crucify you for that, so I’ve got Craig looking at me… Anyway, I’ll shut up.”
Gerard, are you playing a dragon in the DreamWorks movie?
HEIGL: “Or a penis?”
BUTLER: “Uh, no. I play a Viking. It’s actually about Vikings. It’s actually about Vikings fighting dragons.”
Would you be involved in a sequel to 300?
BUTLER: “I don’t know? I don’t know what’s planned. I don’t know what’s going on with that. I hear rumors but other than that I can’t say anymore. I thought I died!”
The Ugly Truth Blu-ray & DVD Bonus Features: Six (6) deleted scenes, two (2) Alternate Endings, a Gag Reel, select scenes with commentary from director Robert Luketic and producer Gary Lucchesi and two (2) featurettes. BD-ONLY: MovieIQ via BD-Live and a Digital Copy.
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