An all-star ensemble cast will get you in the mood for love in Garry Marshall’s V Day romcom Valentine’s Day.
By Terry Ong

How do you actually put together a bevy of beautiful A-list Hollywood actors in the same movie—names such as Julia Roberts, Patrick Dempsey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Alba, Ashton Kutcher, Eric Dane, Jennifer Garner, Bradley Cooper, Jessical Biel and Jamie Foxx—and pull it off without actually having to deal with all the ego trips and star tantrums usually associated with said stars? Well, if your name is Garry Marshall, then it’s easy.
This veteran director and actor, who first put Julia Roberts on the international box-office map with Pretty Woman, and is the man behind hits such as The Flamingo Kid with Matt Dillon, Frankie & Johnny with Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer, and Beaches with Bette Midler and Barbra Hershey, has managed to pull off one helluva of an ensemble cast for once again his latest film, Valentine’s Day. After all, Marshall is also known as one of the funniest and most easy-going directors working in Hollywood today (every actor in Valentine’s Day that we spoke to whilst on a press junket for the movie in the City of Angels said so themselves).
“Julia Roberts is nice enough to come back, along with some older friends like Hector Elizondo, who is in all my films, as well as some newer actors too,” says Marshall. Added to the already jam-packed list are veteran greats like Kathy Bates, Shirley McLaine and George Lopez, along with hot young things like Emma Roberts, Taylor Lautner and singer Taylor Swift.
It also helps that feel-good romcoms are all still the rage after all these years—witness the success of films like The Proposal, He’s Just Not That Into You and The Ugly Truth from last year—and drawing in a famous cast for the fail-safe genre is probably a piece for cake. I-S speaks to the cast, takes you through the multiple stories in the film and tells you why Valentine’s Day is this year’s Love Actually.

Relationship(s) 101
A bunch of Los Angelinos’ lives get inadvertently intertwined on V Day, among them Reed (Kutcher), owner of a flower shop and café who realizes that his workaholic long-time girlfriend Mackay (Alba), may not be “The One” for him after all—after he proposes to her. News of Reed’s engagement is also met with skepticism by his best friend Julia (Garner), who’s just got involved with dashing doctor Harrison (Dempsey, channeling his inner doctor role again from Grey’s Anatomy).
Then there is anti-Valentine’s Day sports publicist Kara (Biel),who works for Sean (Dane), the latter whose career might be coming to the end of the line. The usually bitter Kara may soon get her fair share of all things amore when sports reporter Kelvin (Foxx) gets assigned to cover Sean’s last playoff and is smitten with her.
Teenage love also gets represented in the form of hotshot athlete Willy (Lautner) and Felicia (Swift), the latter whose best friend Grace (Emma Roberts) plans to lose her virginity on the big day of love.
And then there is the (almost) romantic interlude shared between complete strangers Kate (Julia Roberts) and Holden (Cooper), both who are stuck on a long flight, the latter who provides Kate with a shoulder to sleep on and a good ear. All this among a multitude of other subplots and stories.
“I love to tell stories. I’ve done quite a few in my life … and I have many sisters and daughters whom I hear stories from everyday. All their stories about romantic entanglements and heartbreaks … inspire what you see in the film,” says director Marshall.

Let Love In
For New York native Marshall, his latest labor of love is also one of his ambitious yet, with scenes and location shoots taking place (and sometimes even recreated from his earlier films) all across downtown LA, Malibu, Hollywood, Venice, Burbank, San Fernando Valley and Beverly Hills (including at the Wilshire Hotel, where Pretty Woman was shot). “I’m originally from New York, but I’ve been here a long time, so this was my love letter to Los Angeles,” he says. “I ask a lot of questions, improvise with actors and take scenes from their real lives and incorporate them into the film … and make a lot of references along the way.”
Which explains the use of the Wilshire Hotel, which is quintessential for Marshall. In Pretty Woman, Marshall had created a bus stop bench in front of the hotel for a scene shared between actors Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. After 20 years, Marshall was adamant to film at the exact same spot. “But there is still no bus stop there, so we made it up,” he says. “There’s no bench, nothing. So we figured we made it up once, we can make it up again.”
Despite its fun and sometimes lofty ambitions, however, Valentine’s Day remains a simple and old-fashioned movie about love in the modern world, just like the equally beloved Love Actually, with multiple characters and subplots overlapping one another.
“I grew up in the ‘50s, and the notion of love was definitely more traditional then. The ways that we communicated was different—there was no email, no laptop … we had to actually ‘speak’ (laughs). These days people fall in and out of love just like that … and relationships don’t last very long and are extremely complicated.”
“That said, love may be very different today, but the pains and joys that we go through when we are in love—that doesn’t change,” he adds. “We hope that this movie inspires some people to take a chance on a relationship and maybe even fall in love. If you’re in love it can be a wonderful thing; it’s really nice when somebody needs you. Valentine’s Day is a good day to give it a shot. But whether you’re in a relationship or not, Valentine’s Day can be stressful, so get ready.”
Valentine’s Day opens Feb 11 islandwide.

Love Bites
Garry Marshall and the stars in his film let us further in on what they really think of the holiday of lurrrrve.

Ashton Kutcher
What do you make of V Day?
Personally, I can’t stand it. It’s been exploited by so many people in so many ways that it’s gone overboard! But hey, I’m still a romantic heart … fact is, everyday’s a V Day for me.

Garry Marshall
Do you believe in love or V Day?
My definition of love is a little boring as I’ve been married to the same woman for 46 years! But guess what—it all worked out.

Patrick Dempsey
I think Valentine’s Day is actually a very unromantic day because you can’t really force romance. It just has to happen naturally. There is so much pressure to make that day special and have a good time, it’s virtually impossible to have one.

Taylor Swift
What advice would you give your best friends for V Day?
If you have a special someone, make a big deal out of the day. But if you don’t, don’t psych yourself out; just think of it like any other day.

Jamie Foxx
Are you into V Day?
It’s always fun to see who’s thinking of you during V Day and the different types of text messages that you get. Personally, I’m more into the old-school type of romance where I’ll serenade a loved one with a song or two.

Jessica Biel
Do you get a little crazy during Valentine’s?
It’s a fun holiday, but I won’t say that I’ll go crazy over it … although I love chocolates, it makes me happy. I’d rather hang out with my girlfriends and check ourselves into the spa and have fun among ourselves, actually…