The Ugly Truth Production Notes Information
"I know how men operate."
-- Mike Chadway
"I love how you assume all men are as perverse as you are."
-- Abby Richter
The battle of the sexes heats up in The Ugly Truth,
a smart, sexy comedy about men, women and the giant abyss that stands
between the ways we each think about, fantasize about and try to seduce
the other. Katherine Heigl (Knocked Up, "Grey's Anatomy") and Gerard Butler (300)
throw sparks as two co-workers destined to despise one another. She's
out to find a sophisticated dream partner. He's on a mission to tell
women to get real and admit that men have just one thing on their
minds. But when he decides to help her get what she wants, they both
learn something unexpected about how powerfully even the most defiant
opposites attract.
Abby Richter (Heigl) is an
ambitious morning talk show producer on "A.M. Sacramento" who prides
herself on being able to find an instant solution to any problem - any
problem that is except her own unhappily single status. When it comes
to dating, the always-in-control Abby has a flawless track record of
failure.
When her show suffers a ratings slump, Abby is forced to team with the newly recruited special correspondent Mike Chadway (Butler), a man who couldn't push more of her buttons. His "The Ugly Truth"
segment promises to spill the beans on what makes men really tick. But
his outrageously racy, gleefully chauvinistic, "shock jock" style rubs
Abby in all the wrong ways and to make matters worse, becomes an
instant ratings bonanza, sealing his network status.
Then Abby meets Colin, her neighbor,
and he's a single doctor! He's everything Mike Chadway isn't -suave,
polite, not remotely into jello wrestling -- and this time, Abby
doesn't want to blow it. She hates to admit it, but she needs Mike's
insight into the male mind to make the right moves. Now, as Mike
coaches Abby and Abby puts Mike's provocative seduction theories to the
test, they are both about to discover an ironic truth: as different as
we might be, men and women share some of our most secret feelings in
common.
Columbia Pictures presents in
association with Relativity Media a Lakeshore Entertainment /Steven
Reuther production, a Robert Luketic film, The Ugly Truth.
The film stars Katherine Heigl, Gerard Butler, Eric Winter, John
Michael Higgins, Nick Searcy, with Kevin Connolly and Cheryl Hines.
Directed by Robert Luketic. Screenplay by Nicole Eastman and Karen
McCullah Lutz & Kirsten Smith. Story by Nicole Eastman. Produced by
Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi. Producers are Steven Reuther, Kimberly
di Bonaventura, Deborah Jelin Newmyer. Executive Producers are Andre
Lamal, Eric Reid, Katherine Heigl, Nancy Heigl, Karen McCullah Lutz,
Kirsten Smith, and Ryan Kavanaugh. Director of Photography is Russell
Carpenter ASC. Production Designer is Missy Stewart. Edited by Lisa
Zeno Churgin, A.C.E. Costume Designer is Betsy Heimann. Music by Aaron
Zigman.
The Ugly Truth has
been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for sexual
content and language. The film will be released in theaters nationwide
on July 24, 2009.
The Truth about Men and Women: A Comic Perspective
"Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes.
There's too much fraternizing with the enemy."
--Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
For centuries, great thinkers have
pondered the vast gap that exists between the male way of seeing the
world and the female way of seeing the world and wondered if we can
ever really connect. For Mike Chadway, former cable TV phenom and the
new correspondent on Sacramento morning television, the answer is
really quite simple: don't be an idiot. Of course men and women can
connect... but mostly in between the sheets, and only if women will
finally begin to understand that men are primal, carnal, simplistic
beings who crave constant arousal.
Mike's risqué POV has skyrocketed
ratings but it has also turned up the temperature for his producer,
Abby Richter, a woman who takes the complete opposite position. In
Abby's world, true love is the bottom line and the trick is finding a
man who knows his own heart -- and she's ready to battle Mike to prove
that such a romantically-inclined, knight-in-shining-armor actually
exists in the real world.
But could it be that the real truth
lies in combining Abby and Mike's competing POVs? That's the question
raised with playful provocation and tantalizing results in the comedy The Ugly Truth, which teams director Robert Luketic (21, Monster-In-Law, Legally Blonde) with the tit-for-tat comic pairing of Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler.
Says Luketic: "I think we're all
starting to realize that men and women are wired differently and it's
liberating to be able to play with that in a movie that's honest and
frank, but also outrageously irreverent, about what makes us different
and what brings us together. We are certainly all equal but the ugly
truth is that there are things men need and there are things women need
- and sometimes they clash, and yet... it's that difference that makes
romance so exciting and wonderful."
He continues: "I like that this
movie is a chance to chill out and laugh over this stuff. Because at
the end of the day, when you strip away all the myths and all the
posturing men and women take so seriously, both sexes keep falling in
love in spite of it all."
The Ugly Truth
began with three women screenwriters: Nicole Eastman and the
high-energy team of Karen McCullah Lutz & Kirsten Smith. Eastman,
who makes her screenwriting debut, says she was inspired by the idea of
writing about two people who think they despise each other, but as
their battle wages, are horrified to find they might also be
magnetically drawn to one another.
"It's really about the two most
unlikely people in the world to fall in love -- and what happens when
they accidentally do," Eastman explains. "Abby and Mike have a lot of
resistance to each other. She's the opposite of the brainless bimbos he
says men want, and he's nowhere near the Prince Charming she says she's
always wanted. Yet you end up rooting for them to come together because
you can see underneath they both have similar vulnerabilities. What I
love is that they're definitely not your cookie-cutter comedy
characters. And what makes this story different from typical romantic
comedies is that the obstacles that stand between them aren't external
but internal. There are a lot of layers to what's really going on."
All of those layers were inspired by
the actions and interactions of real men and women Eastman had
observed. "I based Abby on someone I know who is great at her job but
terrible at dating," she explains. "Mike was a completely fictional
character I wanted to be as obnoxious and rude
as possible, so I can't
believe how much men say they relate to him!"
Eastman's initial script immediately
drew Lakeshore Entertainment's interest. "We'd been looking for a
comedy with romantic elements ever since Run Away Bride," says Tom Rosenberg, "and we felt this was it."
Adds Gary Lucchesi: "The concept was
hilarious and topical and we felt audiences would greatly enjoy the
battle between these two characters. The story has a lot of fun with
how men perceive women and how women are aghast by it, and vice versa,
which makes for a terrific date picture. We felt it could be a modern
update of the classic comedy where you have two charismatic stars
butting up against each other in very funny ways - whether it's Hepburn
and Tracy, Gable and Lombard, or Lucy and Ricky."
The Lakeshore team then brought in Lutz and Smith, the writing duo who scored a hit franchise with Legally Blonde,
to add their frank and flirtatious comic touch to the screenplay.
"Lakeshore sent it to us and we thought right away it was a really
funny premise and wanted to work on it," Lutz says. Adds Smith: "They
talked to us about creating a kind of snappy Hepburn and Tracy
repartee, but in an edgy and raunchy way, and keeping Mike and Abby
equally matched all the way to the end. That really attracted us."
They did so by drawing on their own
experiences on the battleground between what men and women want. The
duo especially had fun exploring the 'ugly' side of the male psyche in
crafting Mike's macho, libidinous banter.
"We both know a lot of guys, so we
had that advantage," laughs Lutz. "And Kirsten is single and I'm
married so we've got two different perspectives on men. Both of us
agreed that we wanted Mike to be as strong, brash and funny as possible
- but at the same time, we wanted to make him that kind of guy who,
even if he offends you, you still like hanging out with."
Smith continues: "One of the things
we needed to do with Mike is show how he also has a whole different
side to him than just this tough guy and ladies' man, which you see in
his relationship with his nephew. As for his show, we had fun taking it
to an extreme. I definitely disagree with all his crazy, insane beliefs
- and yet somehow I'm completely tickled by Mike."
The duo also drew on their own
personal knowledge of ambitious and bright but uptight and controlling
career women to create Abby. "We both totally connected with Abby
because we both like to be in control," confesses Lutz, the married
member of the duo. Adds Smith, who is single: "I especially related to
the idea of Abby as a woman who's really got it together at her job but
is a complete disaster in her personal life. I think it's a pretty
common phenomenon in the modern world."
But the biggest challenge lay in
blending just the right chemical mix between Mike and Abby - one that
pendulums back-and-forth between combative and sexy, quarrelsome and
steamy, until it becomes clear the friction between them is turning
into something hotter than either of them expected.
"You start out where she despises
everything he does and he thinks she's way too uptight. But we tried to
build that subtle undercurrent that they are slowly, unbeknownst to
themselves, falling in love," summarizes Lutz. "It turns out in the end
that the real 'ugly truth' isn't that men and women want different
things. The real truth is that we're all flawed, men and women equally
so, but that doesn't stop us from loving one another."
The completed script thrilled the
producers at Lakeshore and quickly drew the interest of Robert Luketic.
"My very first feature was Legally Blonde, so it was
wonderful to have this chance to get back with the same screenwriters
and have that kind of fun again," says the director. "Then I heard that
Lakeshore was talking to Katherine Heigl and I immediately said 'If
she's in, I'm in.'"
Her Side: Katherine Heigl is Abby Richter in search of Mr. Perfect
At the center of The Ugly Truth
is the woman who doesn't want to believe there could be an ugly side to
Mr. Right: Abby Richter, a tough, savvy career woman who has long
approached dating as a job, one which she unfortunately believes
requires checklists, dogged research and a set of standards so
relentless no one has come close to meeting them yet. She would say she
has high expectations - Mike Chadway would say she's a "controlling
psycho" - but somewhere out there she believes there exists a man who
will sweep her off her feet regardless. Who that man actually is,
however, she could never have seen coming.
To play Abby, the filmmakers were
looking for a leading lady with the smoldering silliness of a classic
screwball comedienne, a kind of 21st Century Carole Lombard or Lucille
Ball, able to deliver a crackling one-liner while simultaneously
possessing a vulnerable sensuality and a slapstick sensibility. Such
actresses aren't a dime a dozen, so the list of contenders was short
and quickly narrowed down to one name. Recalls Gary Lucchesi: "One day
one of the writers asked: 'Have you thought about Katherine Heigl?' The
moment I heard that, that was it. It was a great idea, we knew she was
right and we pursued her vigorously."
Heigl, an Emmy Award winning actress for her role on the runaway hit television series "Grey's Anatomy,"
has recently come to the fore in a number of screen comedies, most
notably taking the lead role as the pregnant woman in question in Judd
Apatow's critically acclaimed Knocked Up. The entire creative team thought she had just the right qualities to make Abby as believable as she is blundering.
Karen McCulluh Lutz says: "It just
worked to read the script with Katherine's voice in our heads. Once we
found out she had been cast, there were no adjustments that needed to
be made at all."
Kirsten Smith adds, "As soon as we
started collaborating with her, Katherine really embraced the idea of
wanting to make Abby even more controlling. She absolutely nailed the
comedy of her obsessions and neuroses."
For Heigl, taking up arms in the
battle of the sexes was an irresistible proposition. "What I loved
about the script is that it provides insight into what men are really
thinking and why women get it wrong, and the other way around," she
laughs. "We've all seen the standard romantic comedies, and I think
there's always a place for them because I'm a big romantic comedy fan.
But I like that The Ugly Truth takes that and brings
a new edge to it. There's a lot of raw honesty in the story but instead
of taking it too seriously, it lets you laugh and enjoy the absurdity
of the dynamic that goes on between men and women."
Heigl doesn't hold back when
describing Abby. "She is a pretty uptight chick," she admits. "She's
super organized, very on top of things, totally in control in every
aspect of her life and frankly, it makes her a little scary. As a date
she's a nightmare because she's overwhelming, she's bossy and she talks
too much. But to be honest, it was really super fun to play that,
probably the most fun I've had!"
Still, Heigl does have plenty of
sympathy for Abby's plight as well, especially when it comes to dealing
with Mike Chadway. "The beauty of the story is that it gets to both
sides of the argument," she comments. "Abby is rightfully frustrated by
her relationships with men and rightfully confused and thrown for a
loop when she starts to fall for a guy like Mike who doesn't appear to
have a romantic bone in his body."
The confusion and chaos only
increase when Abby enlists Mike to help her land the man she believes
is going to turn out to be her Mr. Perfect: her dashing new neighbor
Colin. This leads Abby into some rather unusual situations, as Mike
becomes her modern-day Cyrano, advising her on everything from a
titillating hem length to sexually inviting hot dog eating techniques.
But it also leads to an increasingly magnetic attraction.
"In his own way, Mike rocks Abby's
world," Heigl explains. "All her love of order and peaceful calm and
being on top of things, he just throws out the window. She can't
predict what he's gonna say or what he's gonna do next - and since she
is used to always being one step ahead of things, he puts her in this
place where she finally has to throw her hands up and go with the flow.
There's something secretly exhilarating for her in all that."
The greatest joy of all for Heigl
was verbally jousting with Gerard Butler. "I have a real love of that
sort of old Hollywood repartee that you don't really see much anymore,"
she says. "Gerry and I found that fast-paced, sparring dialogue so much
fun. Even in your regular life, if you're out with another couple and
they've got that great witty thing going, it's the most entertaining
thing to be a part of. And it kind of just happened seamlessly between
us."
In the midst of all this, Heigl had
one major comedy mission: cracking the director up. "For me, the best
feeling was to be in the middle of a take and to see Robert trying very
hard to giggle without making too much noise. All I ever wanted to do
was to make him laugh," she says.
Luketic says she did that, and much
more. "Katherine is a breath of fresh air. She can be dramatic, she can
be funny, and she's always very, very appealing," says the director.
"She's a wonderful actress and she'll have a place in my heart forever."
Adds Tom Rosenberg: "As well written
as the screenplay was, Katherine always brought something new to it.
Her interpretive skills are really something."
As for whether there really is an
"ugly truth" about men and women, Heigl muses: "Oh, I think Mike thinks
there's a truth about men that women don't want to face but he comes
from a place where a lot of men come from: he thinks his opinion is
fact!"
His Side: Gerard Butler is Mike Chadway, A Man Who Knows What He Wants... Or Does He?
Squaring off with Katherine Heigl on
the other side of the sexual skirmish line is Mike Chadway, played by
Gerard Butler, who won over audiences as a steely warrior in the action
hit 300, did a romantic turn with Hilary Swank in P.S. I Love You and played an adventurer in the family film Nim's Island.
Here, the Scottish star takes on a role he's never been seen in before
- an unapologetically caddish relationship expert with a tongue like a
Ginzu knife.
"Gerry's always been a larger than
life character, says Gary Lucchesi. "And he's also very funny. But what
really convinced us is that when he and Katherine Heigl met, the
chemistry between them was obvious."
Butler was attracted right away by
the screenplay. "The dynamic between men and women in this story is a
little more outrageous than we're used to seeing and what really hits
home is how truthful it is," he says. ""It's very honest, in an
outlandish way, about what goes on in relationships between men and
women. That's what got me excited about it. It allows the characters to
say the kinds of things that make people think 'I can't believe he just
said that,' followed by 'but it's so true.'"
Mike Chadway also intrigued Butler,
not only because he's such a fun foil for Katherine Heigl's character
but because, beneath his seemingly vulgar exterior he's actually, even
if he would never admit it, quite complex. "You could say Mike Chadway
is sexist or misogynist or any of these things, but he's also very
smart, very funny and there's something about him that's very real and
genuine," Butler comments. "He's certainly very full of himself. But,
as the film goes on, he does change, and I think you realize that he
isn't quite the guy you expect."
Some of those changes occur entirely
because of Abby. "One of the great themes of the movie is that nobody
can quite ruffle Mike's feathers like Abby, which is probably why he
starts to fall for her," Butler explains. "She's uptight, she's prissy,
she's his nemesis and yet... there's this spark where you realize
they're just perfect for each other. Katherine made it easy because
she's so funny and yet she keeps it so real."
The challenge to the role was in
keeping Chadway overtly brash and bawdy without ever losing that
underlying charm that keeps Abby coming back for more advice in her
love life. "The trick to portraying Mike Chadway was keeping some sense
of his humanity because it is a love story within the comedy, as well,"
Butler explains. "Mike has an enormous amount of dialogue, probably 10
times the dialogue I've ever had in a film, because he has an opinion
or a smart line for everything. So that was an interesting experience,
too. I took inspiration from Spencer Tracy and Cary Grant, the way the
words are always flying in their films, and hopefully some of that kind
of feeling comes across."
On the set, Butler had a blast
working with so many skilled comedians and watching Robert Luketic keep
the riotous chaos under control. "Robert keeps a very breezy and fun
atmosphere on the set, but he's also very sharp," observes Butler. "He
has a great sense of pacing and he can take a funny idea and make it
that much more hilarious."
Luketic is equally strong in his
praise for Butler. "Here we had this character who could just be a
foul-mouthed shock-jock who says outrageous things, but Gerry found a
way to make the character not only sympathetic but disarming,
good-natured and attractive," comments the director. "He really
captures that undeniable connection between the bad boy and the guy
that women can't help but be attracted to."
Anchors and Dates: The Supporting Cast
Surrounding Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler in The Ugly Truth
is an accomplished supporting cast made up of well-known comedy
veterans who ratchet up the comic tension in the battle of the sexes.
Chief among these are Cheryl Hines and John Michael Higgins, who play
the unhappily married, perpetually competitive co-anchors of "A.M.
Sacramento," Georgia and Larry, whose love life gets a sudden boost
from Mike Chadway's interventions.
Hines is best known for her role as Larry David's wife on HBO's acclaimed "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and has starred on screen in roles ranging from RV with Robin Williams to the critically praised indie comedy Waitress.
She immediately saw a rich irony in being offered the part of Georgia.
"For some reason I always get cast as someone married to a Larry!" she
laughs. "But I really liked Georgia, and I liked that as a couple,
Georgia and Larry are amusing and silly, yet still not that far off
from what you see out there with real newscasters. Everything about the
film seemed like a lot of fun."
Like Hines, John Michael Higgins is
a familiar face in screen and television comedy. He has been seen in
many of Christopher Guest's popular mockumentaries, as well as several
recent screen comedies, ranging from Evan Almighty to Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
Higgins was excited that he and
Hines had a chance to bring a little improv chaos to the proceedings.
"Robert purposely chose us because he wanted to loosen things up," says
Higgins.
"Cheryl's work on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'
and mine on the Christopher Guest films made it very natural for us to
push the boundaries of the script outwards. We had a blast doing it and
discovered that we are very simpatico as far as the way we work."
The duo's no-holds-barred style
became an inspiration to the rest of the cast. "They're comedic
geniuses who are able to throw out idea after idea that really work,"
observes Heigl. "That to me is what's most invigorating about doing
comedy: it's when people are so on their game and so funny themselves
that they make the characters that much more outrageous."
Butler agrees. "I've never seen two
people make a crowd laugh so much, not on a film set anyway," he says
of Hines and Higgins. "Their imagination and where they would go with
scenes was so entertaining, yet always stayed within the bounds of the
story. I was pretty much on the floor the whole time watching them."
Cast in the straight man role as
Abby's ideal love prospect -- the hunky, refined Colin -- is newcomer
Eric Winter, best known for his role on the television drama "Brothers and Sisters."
Like his co-stars, Winter found the script hard to resist. "It's a
romantic, edgy, in-your-face comedy that takes a pretty realistic look
at dating and love," he says. "It's not a girly story, though; it has
definite male appeal."
As a former pre-med student, Winter
enjoyed the chance to play a surgeon. But he also faced the interesting
task of trying to perfect the notion of the "perfect man." "Colin lives
in a very ideal world," he notes. "He's got a great job, he's very
stable and secure, he's very well put-together and he's a nice,
down-to-earth guy. He's the exact opposite of Mike Chadway. Some people
would find him too perfect, some people would find him boring, but I
think Abby is just motivated by trying to live up to what she thinks
are his expectations."
But in following Mike Chadway's
advice instead of her own impulses, Abby starts giving out some very
mixed signals. "The funny part for me is that while both Mike and Colin
are just being who they naturally are, it's Abby who is not being
herself," says Winter. "Colin and Mike are laying it on the line and
ultimately, Abby has to choose, and figure out what's in her own heart."
Rounding out the cast are a number
of other energized comic performances, including Kevin Connolly, best
known as Eric Murphy on "Entourage," in the role of one of Abby's poor, over-scrutinized dates and Bree Turner (The Wedding Planner) as Abby's assistant, Joy, who has the impossible job of keeping Abby's life in the perfect order she desires.
Sums up Turner: "It was a great team
and I felt so lucky to be a part of it. Michael and Cheryl shine with
improv spontaneity; Katherine's comedy is effortless and an inspiration
to watch; and Gerry is a really funny dude himself. And then it all
adds up to the 'ugly truth,' which for me, is that when it comes to
love, no matter what you believe, you can't control it and you just
have to go with it."
The Look Of Truth: Designing The Film
For Robert Luketic, the look of The Ugly Truth
was just as important to the playful, sexy mood as the unbridled comic
performances. "The visual polish of a film has always been important to
me," Luketic says. "We all appreciate beauty and I wanted this film to
look really good and had some great collaborators."
The team included cinematographer
Russell Carpenter, ASC, who won the Academy Award® for his work on
Titanic and previously worked with Luketic on such films as Monster-In-Law and 21.
"I enjoy working with Robert
immensely because of the atmosphere that he creates on a set and the
level of trust that he places in me, which allows me a freedom to
contribute and express myself," says Carpenter. We've developed a sort
of unconscious communication in that I can do a lot of work off just
very few words from Robert. His very light touch produces a lot of
energy with both the actors and the crew. With just a word or a little
nuance from Robert, communication happens."
He continues: "On this film, it's
really about a fierce battle between these two personalities, about the
way they banter and bristle at each other, so we didn't want to go too
extreme in terms of color or lighting but to really focus on faces.
Katherine is so beautiful and Gerry has such marvelous expressions, so
that's where I found the visual fun in this picture."
Both Carpenter and production
designer Missy Stewart -- another long-time collaborator of Luketic,
who has worked with him since Legally Blonde -- focused on
bringing the world of "A.M. Sacramento" to life in a vividly real
manner. Carpenter used anamorphic lenses to emphasize the vast,
horizontal spaces of the broadcast news world and played with lighting
to contrast the polish of "A.M Sacramento" with the low-tech video of
Mike Chadway's cable show, which catches Abby's eye even before she
meets him in person.
Meanwhile, Stewart transformed a
stage at KCET, Los Angeles's public television station, into a
typically bright and cheery morning news set and used a defunct
Glendale police station to create the network's administrative offices.
"With Robert, we've always evolved
the design from character," says Stewart, "rather than going for the
gag, which I think makes the comedy much funnier. So, for example, with
the 'AM Sacramento' offices we used this very 1960s building that felt
like a classic, professional newsroom but with just a little more zing
to it."
Luketic adds: "A newsroom is a
vibrant, charged atmosphere and a great little pressure cooker to throw
together sexual tension, rivalry and comedy. It's a colorful backdrop
that allowed us to be more outrageous."
Stewart also had a good time
contrasting Abby and Mike's individual homes - his garage apartment is
a chaotic realm stuffed with toys and gadgets, while her courtyard
apartment is course, organized within an inch of its life. "We also
played with color," explains Stewart. "Her environments are all in blue
and blue-gray, very cool colors against which Katherine looks very
beautiful. Whereas with Gerry, we used woodsy, warm colors that bring
out his masculinity and suggest some of the warmth that Mike Chadway
really has inside him. The best part of this project was getting to
play with the battle of the sexes and to show how two people who seem
so real yet so opposite can find a common ground."
One of Stewart's most thrilling sets
to create was the La Noche Cubana Nightclub, where Abby and Mike first
start to think, maybe even fear, that they are far more compatible than
either had anticipated. Unable to find the kind of grand, romantic
space she was looking for, Stewart re-imagined the restaurant in the
entrance of Los Angeles' historic Union Station.
"I'm in love with historical Los
Angeles and I had been wanting to use Union Station for some time in a
film," says Stewart. "The restaurant there is this vast, giant space
with these great bones of arches and a dance floor that I knew would
look wonderful and jazzy in a crane shot. It was one of the first
locations I picked actually, and everything else followed."
The set became the perfect backdrop
to Abby and Mike's unexpectedly intimate dance. Recalls Gerard Butler:
"The scene was one of those where it just all came together and you
could feel the magic on the set. It really took off." Adds Katherine
Heigl: "For me, it was like being on 'Dancing With The Stars' for a day, it was really fun."
Another scene that challenged the
entire production, and pushed the comedy fully into risqué territory,
is that in which Abby experience an unlikely source of titillation
during a business dinner. Explains Luketic: "Dinner scenes are
notoriously hard to shoot to begin with because you have a lot of
perspectives to deal with - and now we add in a woman writhing in
ecstasy at the table! So there we were all gathered around the monitor
to coordinate it, and I had a moment where I thought 'wow, are we
really doing this? This is pretty cool.'"
Heigl found the scene fun but
exhausting. "I love physical comedy and I've never had a chance to do a
scene as elaborately physical as this one," she notes. "We did that
scene 37 times and I left the set so tired."
Logistics were also key to the
sequence in which Mike Chadway provides Cyrano-like advice to Abby via
a hidden head-set while she's on a first date with Colin at a baseball
game. "It was a very difficult scene to shoot," says Luketic. "There
was no real baseball game in town that we could film, so we used a
local field in Long Beach and put together our own team. Then we had to
coordinate all that with the crowd and with what Katherine and Gerry
are doing. It was so challenging I wasn't laughing much at all while we
were doing it, but later it turned out to be one of the scenes that
makes people laugh the most."
For Tom Rosenberg, each of these comic scenes in The Ugly Truth
adds up to a sum greater than its parts. "I think what sets this movie
apart is that it isn't just a few funny moments inside of a romance
like a typical romantic comedy - it is one funny scene after another
with two leads who have great chemistry," he sums up.
Concludes Gary Lucchesi: "Making a
comedy is a wonderful thing. People come to work ready to play and work
hard, hoping they can make people laugh - and in this case, I think
we've done it."
About the Cast
KATHERINE HEIGL (Abby / Executive Producer)
has quickly emerged as one of Hollywood's brightest talents on both the
silver screen and on television. Heigl was recently seen in the
romantic comedy 27 Dresses, co-starring with James Marsden
and Malin Akerman as a woman who has served as a bridesmaid 27 times.
She previously starred in the box office smash hit Knocked Up,
directed by Judd Apatow and co-staring Paul Rudd and Seth Rogan,
playing a young woman who finds out that she is pregnant after a one
night stand. She will next re-team with The Ugly Truth director Robert Luketic for Five Killers.
Heigl is also well known for her role on ABC's popular, critically acclaimed drama "Grey's Anatomy,"
on which she portrays Dr. Isobel "Izzie" Stevens. Heigl earned an Emmy
Award in 2007 as well as a Golden Globe nomination in 2007 for her
performance.
Heigl's previous film credits include the comedy The Ringer, the horror film Valentine, Steven Soderbergh's critically acclaimed depression-era drama King of the Hill, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory opposite Steven Segal, Stand-Ins and That Night. Her first leading role was in Touchstone Pictures' My Father the Hero starring opposite Gerard Depardieu.
On television, Heigl has starred on the WB's sci-fi drama series, "Roswell." Additional television credits include the Hallmark Channel's "Love Comes Softly," TBS' "Evil Never Dies," and "Love's Enduring Promise."
GERARD BUTLER (Mike Chadway) made his mark in Hollywood in 2007 starring as Leonidas, the Spartan King, in Zack Snyder's blockbuster 300.
The film broke box office records in its opening weekend, earning more
than $450 million worldwide. The project solidified Butler as a leading
man. He will next be seen in the futuristic thriller Gamer and is currently filming Bounty for Columbia Pictures.
Butler was most recently seen in the Guy Ritchie feature RocknRolla,
which placed him in the middle of a criminal underworld alongside
Thandie Newton. He also starred in the children's adventure film Nim's Island opposite Jodie Foster and Abigail Breslin. In December 2007, Butler starred in the romantic drama P.S. I Love You with Hilary Swank.
In 2004, Butler won the coveted title role in the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. He earned critical acclaim for his work opposite Emily Mortimer in the independent feature Dear Frankie, which screened at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. He has also been seen in Beowulf & Grendel, The Game of Their Lives, Timeline, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life and Reign of Fire.
In 1997, Butler made his feature film debut in John Madden's award-winning drama Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown, starring Judi Dench. His early film work includes roles in Fast Food, One More Kiss, Harrison's Flowers and the 1999 screen adaptation of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard.
Born in Scotland, Butler made his stage debut at the age of twelve in the musical "Oliver,"
at Glasgow's famous Kings Theatre. As a young man, his dreams of acting
were temporarily deterred and he went on to study law for seven years
before returning to the stage in London. In 1996, he landed the lead
role in the acclaimed stage production of "Trainspotting." He later starred on the London Stage in such plays as "Snatch" and the Donmar Warehouse production of Tennessee Williams' "Suddenly Last Summer," opposite Rachel Weisz.
Consistently delivering memorable performances, ERIC WINTER (Colin) is quickly becoming one of Hollywood's most sought-after talents.
Prior to The Ugly Truth, he was seen on the big screen in Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, the hit sequel to Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
On television, Winter has done arcs on the critically acclaimed "Brothers and Sisters" and the cult vampire drama "Moonlight." Early on he became a fan favorite in his television debut role on the popular daytime soap opera "Days of Our Lives.
His additional television credits include "Viva Laughlin," "Just Legal,"CSI," "Pepper Dennis," "Wildfire" and "Love Inc".
Winter is a graduate of UCLA and lives in Los Angeles with his wife, actress Rosalyn Sanchez.
JOHN MICHAEL HIGGINS (Larry) is known for his diverse characters, from his turn as David Letterman in the highly acclaimed HBO telefilm The Late Shift to his performance as the flamboyant Shih Tzu handler in Christopher Guest's comedy feature Best in Show. A regular member of Guest's improv repertory, Higgins also acted in For Your Consideration and A Mighty Wind. His recent films include Yes Man, starring with Jim Carrey, as well as Jeff Balis' Still Waiting and Will Gluck's directorial debut, Fired Up.
Higgins' other film credits include writer/director Jake Kasdan's Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story from writer/producer Judd Apatow; Tom Shadyac's Evan Almighty starring Steve Carell and Morgan Freeman; Fred Claus directed by David Dobkin and starring Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti; Peyton Reed's The Break-Up, with Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston; Dean Parisot's Fun with Dick and Jane starring Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni; David S. Goyer's Blade: Trinity with Wesley Snipes; Chris Columbus' Bicentennial Man starring Robin Williams; and Barry Levinson's critically acclaimed Wag the Dog, with Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman.
In addition to his film work,
Higgins is a familiar face on television, recently co-starring with
Molly Shannon and Selma Blair in the sitcom "Kath & Kim." On the heels of his recurring role on the critically acclaimed series "Arrested Development," show creator Mitch Hurwitz co-wrote the Christopher Guest-directed TV movie "The Thick of It,"
based on the BBC series, with Higgins in mind as the lead. His other
numerous television appearances include a recurring role on David E.
Kelley's "Ally McBeal," and as the voice of Mentok the Mindtaker on the Adult Swim animated comedy series "Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law."
NICK SEARCY (Stuart),
a consistent presence in television and film for nearly 20 years, has
starred in independent films as well as studio blockbusters, including The Dead Girl, An American Crime, Runaway Jury, Cast Away, Head of State, and Fries Green Tomatoes, among others. On television, he was most recently seen on "Easy Money" and has been a series regular on "7 Days," "American Gothic," "From The Earth To The Moon" and "Rodney." He has also guest-starred on many shows including "The Riches," "The West Wing," "Boston Legal," "CSI, "CSI Miami" and "NCIS" among many others. He also shocked horror fans in the features Deadly End, Timber Falls and Cold Storage. He will also be seen in the forthcoming independent drama Blood Done Sign My Name and starring opposite Timothy Olyphant in the Elmore Leonard FX pilot "Fire In The Hole."Dead Man Walking, for director Tim Robbins; Unstrung Heroes; Ben Stiller's feature film directorial debut Reality Bites; and Closet Land.
KEVIN CONNOLLY (Jim) is currently best known for his starring role in the award-winning HBO comedy series "Entourage."
He recently earned his first Golden Globe Award nomination, for Best
Actor in a Comedy Series, for his work in the role of Eric, the best
friend and manager of a hot, young actor in Hollywood. In addition,
Connolly has received three Screen Actors Guild Award® nominations for
Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. The hit show
is currently in its sixth s