Like the rest of us, Sandra Bullock remembers all too well the nonstop stream of sexism faced by the cast of the all-female reboot of Ghostbusters last year—but she and the rest of the women of Ocean’s Eight are ready to defend themselves and their movie from any criticisms the trolls throw their way. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Bullock explained why she, Rihanna, Mindy Kaling, Cate Blanchett, and the rest of the cast of the new installment of the (previously all-male) Ocean’s Eleven series won’t be fazed by misogynistic attacks.
Bullock, who plays Danny Ocean’s (George Clooney) sister Debbie in the upcoming film, said that she’s “still trying to figure out why” Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon were the targets of so much criticism before Ghostbusters had even arrived in theaters. “Forget what the final product was! There were four or five of the most talented comedians in that film. Everyone should’ve just taken a breath and said, ‘Let’s see what happens,'” she said. “It doesn’t take just five people to make a movie. It’s pretty much like around 300. So I keep reminding everybody, if you hate my film, remember there’s another 299 people all around me.” She continued, “We’re not a reboot. We’re just a ‘this is what’s happening in 2017.’ It’s not even a passing of the torch. It’s a parallel story of another family member that was raised in the same family Danny Ocean was, and what happens when Debbie steps out of jail with all of these amazing, powerful women.”
Bullock said that the Ocean’s Eight cast has already faced “some” sexism, “but boy, I mean, I’ll tell you, we’ve got some feisty women that will fight right back.” She added, “It’s like, let’s just take a breath and let’s just see if we come up with something fun. There should be a moratorium. There should be a rule: You’re not allowed to say anything nasty until after it comes out. Obviously, that’s never going to happen.”
The Oscar winner also talked about the collaborative environment of the Ocean’s Eight set. “If there’s ever more than two women in the film there’s rumblings of, ‘Oh, they’re having cat fights,'” she said. “[But] there was nothing, because, I think, because of the unique situation of this, and because we all are trying to achieve the same thing, we bonded pretty quickly out of necessity, and just because we like each other.” She continued, “I realized as women we have been isolated for a while. I don’t even want to touch on that other subject, but women are now taking care of each other. We all were like, okay, let’s just take care of each other for these six months and relish this opportunity we’re being given. But we don’t want it to be just for women. This is not a man-hating. We love the men. There’s men in this movie. We love them. But this one heist needs women.”
Ocean’s Eight hits theaters on June 8, 2018—but the first full trailer is rumored to be released sometime this month.
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