Warner Bros. Pictures/Village Roadshow Pictures(LOS ANGELES) — The heist is on: Ocean’s 8 hits theaters today with an all-female cast led by Sandra Bullock.
The film, a spin-off of the Ocean’s 11 movies starring George Clooney, follows Bullock’s Debbie Ocean, sister of Clooney’s Danny Ocean, as she recruits a team of women to help her rob the fashion event of the year: the Met Gala.
Her fierce team of con-women are played by Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter and Awkwafina.
At a recent press conference at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the actresses expressed that making a film with a diverse all-female cast was both a joy for them personally – they remain close and still chat with each other on group text — and on a deeper level as well.
“I didn’t care about the heist as much as I cared about how [the women] treated each other and how they lifted each other up,” Bullock says.
Hathaway, who plays actress Daphne Kluger in the film, adds, “We’re getting to see that representation…you get to see not just archetypal, reduced, reductive, flat female characters. You’re getting to see how distinct and complex and nuanced the possibilities are. And that’s I think what really matters, especially to young women.”
Awkwafina, who plays pick-pocket Constance, agrees.
“The important thing about the characters in this movie — especially the people of color in this movie — that’s not defining our characters,” she says. “In the movie, I’m a New Yorker from Queens. That Asian-ness has nothing to do with it and I think that’s representation…I think this movie is going to be a step toward a right direction in that case.”
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