Ocean’s 8 (2018)

Cate Blanchett as: Lou Miller

Directed by: Gary Ross
Selected Cast: Sandra Bullock, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Sarah Paulson, Rihanna, Awkwafina, Mindy Kaling, Richard Armitage, James Corden
Written by: Gary Ross and Olivia Milch
Release Year: 2018
Genre: Crime | Action | Comedy
MPAA Rating: PG-13

Five years, eight months, 12 days…and counting. That’s how long Debbie Ocean has been devising the biggest heist of her life. She knows what it’s going to take—a team of the best in their field, starting with her partner-in-crime Lou Miller. Together, they recruit a crew of specialists: jeweler Amita; street con Constance; expert fence Tammy; hacker Nine Ball; and fashion designer Rose. The target is a cool $150 million dollars in diamonds—diamonds that will be around the neck of world-famous actress Daphne Kluger, who will be centerstage at the event of the year, the Met Gala. The plan is rock solid, but everything will need to be flawless if the team is going to get in and get away with the ice. All in plain sight.

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Behind the scenes; On set

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Quotes from Cate Blanchett

“Women are over half the audience and have been for decades and decades and decades, and I think there’s a critical mass of women working in the creative industries now, and not just in front of the camera, but behind the camera. I think that there’s much more collaboration, proactive collaboration happening, rather than a passivity that perhaps was there before, thinking that if women worked within the system as it was, that somehow we could reach audiences and our work would be recognized. I think that time has long passed, and it’s so exciting to see in so many different countries, across so many different media, women finally sort of sitting in the hot seat and putting themselves on the line. And I think it really pays off, because women want to see stories about women, and so do men. The cast was the huge draw for me; I mean, it couldn’t have got a greater bunch of women. We didn’t have a female director, but you know, Gary [Ross] loved everybody, and we’ll see what happens. There was a great energy on set. I would do anything with those women.” (Los Angeles Times, September 2017)
“You don’t read the script cold. You read it with the pedigree and legacy. Me, I have a working relationship with Soderbergh, knowing Sandy was going to be in it, I could already see the tone. Then the first question is, who are the other ladies going to be? Gary laid forth his A-team, which he got. In the end, the script, it’s a malleable thing; there were a lot of changes. We made changes, it happens all the time, not just in this movie. It’s all about the ensemble. Once I knew who the other women where, and the franchise, such a McDonalds term to use for the movies. I just felt it would be a great, fun thing to do. It’s a risk. It’s a risk worth taking.” (CineMovie, June 2018)
“This is not a niche film, it’s a great, funny, entertaining tent pole. It’s a heist movie, a caper movie, for men and for women. And so I feel like I have hit the jackpot. And I hope audiences feel the same way.” (Emmanuel Levy, May 2018)

Quotes from Others

Gary Ross:
— On the film: “That actually was me, that person [who came up with the idea]. I mean, I wasn’t really a director for hire on this. It’s just something that I originated and created, brought to the studio, and worked for five years to get made, so… it really was a personal movie in that respect, even though it’s derived from another franchise. Steven Soderbergh’s a good friend of mine, and we’ve collaborated informally over the years on many things. He was a producer on Pleasantville. I helped him on Che at times. He shot a day of second unit for me on Hunger Games. I had helped him on the previous Ocean’s movies. So we’ve had this kind of an ongoing conversation for like 20 years.”
— On casting Cate Blanchett: “Cate [Blanchett] we wrote – Sandy was already attached…Cate we wrote for Cate, to the point where we actually used her name in the screenplay, and then Cate gently let us know one day that maybe we should not name the character for her – like it should not be an eponymous situation, and we [said] okay, we’ll call it something else.”
— On how the eight characters came about: “The eight was sort of Soderbergh’s idea, actually. Instead of getting into fourteen or fifteen, sixteen and get unwieldy, why don’t we go backward? I will say that I had the luxury of only dealing with eight characters, and Olivia [Milch] and I were able to write to people who were specific, with a little bit more room than Ocean’s Eleven or Twelve had, because we had more real estate to be able to deal with the characters individually.”
Olivia Milch:
— “The Ocean’s franchise is so incredible. Those are classic films, and, of course, there is the original Ocean’s movie as well with the Rat Pack, which is wonderful. One of the joys of those movies is the camaraderie and the sense of cool, breezy intimacy between these men and what they’re building together and pulling off. One of the things in Ocean’s 8 that was really wonderful was getting to build a little bit more of the backstories between the women. A lot of the women on the team actually know each other. Debbie Ocean, Sandra Bullock’s character, and Lou Miller, Cate Blanchett’s character, have such a steady [relationship]. They ground the movie in a similar way. When you’re with women like these actresses, they bring their own flavor to it. I think a part of what audiences are so excited for with this cast, is getting to spend time with these women. It’s an Ocean’s movie, certainly, and there’s definitely that relationship, but really it’s a group of badass, excellent women who are really good at their jobs and really good at being on the team together.”
— On Cate Blanchett: “Cate’s a goddess and she brings to the role a cool, badass rock ‘n’ roll chic.”
Sandra Bullock:
— “It felt like it was a long time coming. Too long if you ask me — which you did — but I’m just so grateful that it happened. It felt like we had all been kept in solitary confinement from each other. Kind of like an ‘actress quarantine’ and when we all found ourselves like sardines in the trailer that first day, it was like the dam burst and we all made up for lost time.”
On Cate Blanchett: “My partner, my ally, my equal. She is my right hand, I am her right hand. I’m so pleased that I was able to work with her at this time in our lives, because I think we both needed each other, and quite a lot. I learned a lot from her, and I’m very lucky.”
— On working with the female cast: “I saw a group of women support each other in the most humbling way. Everyone wanting the other to ‘have their moment.’ Early on in the shoot we started reading stories that we were at each other’s throats, but the opposite was true. A lot of film was wasted on laughing fits that usually resulted in makeup having to be redone and a little snot being removed.”
Anne Hathaway:
— “You can’t underestimate the power of visual representation. To an eight year old girl, we’re not saying go have a life of crime. We’re saying go do what you want. There’s space for you. There’s space for you to do it with your friends. I think that films that have an everybody in message, for people who have been historically excluded, that’s a great thing.”
Mindy Kaling:
— “Debbie Ocean and Lou — played by Sandy [Bullock] and Cate [Blanchett] — are very cool characters. But off-camera, they are warm and goofy and loving. They set the tone for the set.”
Sarah Edwards (costume designer):
— On working with the female cast: “It was a total pleasure — I love them all, and we had so much fun making the movie. It’s true that they all have their own unique personal style, which I think is a part of collaborating on a character. I incorporated each of their own unique personalities within their wardrobes for the film.
For me, it’s always a collaborative process, part of my job is not only working with the writer and director, but also working with each actor to help them find their characters and to give them the skin — to design the character as much as designing the costumes.”
— On Cate Blanchett’s costumes: “[Cate Blanchett’s velvet suits in the film came courtesy of Burberry] which was amazing – the brand made them on such an incredible timeline. Her style is a real mix of everything – found items, designer items and inexpensive items that you can buy at the Army Navy store.”
— “Lou owns a nightclub in New York. She’s a very chic kind of character, coming from a rock ‘n’ roll past. It was important that she had a bit of a history — we wanted it to be a mix of old and new and vintage. We wanted her to have a lot of small detail items like jewelry, scarves, that she would have collected over time. A lot of those things she had were just pulled from all over. We worked with Burberry to make three-piece suits that were based loosely on Keith Richards in the early ’70s. We took things from all over to create her character, but it was a cool, rock ‘n’ roll reference that we were taking from to do her character.”
— On Sandra Bullock’s costumes: “We really wanted Debbie to be cool, calm and collected, because she’s behind the heist and she’s been in prison for five years planning it. There’s a stillness about her, so there’s a lot of clean lines and controlled colours in her wardrobe. She’s the polar opposite of Lou, because it’s an opposites attract kind of thing.”

Trivia & Facts

The film premiered on 5 June 2018 in New York.
The film grossed $298 million worldwide against its $70 million budget.
Cate Blanchett’s character Lou [Miller] was written for her to the point that she was originally named “Cate” in the first draft of the screenplay but was changed at her request.
Anne Hathaway replaced Jennifer Lawrence for her role in the film.
Matt Damon and Carl Reiner were set to reprise their respective characters Linus Caldwell and Saul Bloom, but their scenes were cut.
Richard Armitage replaced Damian Lewis as Claude Becker.
At one point Elizabeth Banks was attached to the film but dropped out.
Sandra Bullock has the most outfit changes with 65, followed by Cate Blanchett with 40 changes.