merciful gaile: 'What To Expect When You're Expecting' Doesn't Exclude The 'Dudes'

Saturday, April 21, 2012

'What To Expect When You're Expecting' Doesn't Exclude The 'Dudes'

'We were really keen that the film should tell the story of guys and girls going through pregnancy,' director Kirk Jones tells MTV News.
By Kara Warner

Anna Kendrick and Chace Crawford in "What To Expect When You're Expecting"
Photo: Lionsgate

Before MTV News' Summer Movie Preview Week wraps up, let's take a look at the very star-studded ensemble romantic comedy "What to Expect When You're Expecting." Although inspired by the very popular nonfiction book of the same name, the movie revolves around five very different couples and the hilarious highs and lows they experience during pregnancy.

The cast includes the following actors as couples: Elizabeth Banks and Ben Falcone, Dennis Quaid and Brooklyn Decker (the joke about their age gap is in the film, don't worry!), Anna Kendrick and Chace Crawford, Cameron Diaz and Matthew Morrison, and Jennifer Lopez and Rodrigo Santoro. Plus a lot of entertaining banter from the "dudes club," consisting of funnymen Chris Rock, Thomas Lennon, Rob Heubel, Amir Talai and Joe Manganiello.

And no matter what you might think about romantic comedies or movies about pregnancy, director Kirk Jones ("Everybody's Fine," "Nanny McPhee") promised us there's something for everyone in this film.

"We were really keen that the film should tell the story of guys and girls going through pregnancy," Jones told MTV News recently. "That's what really interested me in the original script. We hoped that the final film would appeal to guys, and what's really encouraging is that I think our final preview scored almost as high with guys as it did with girls," he revealed. "What's great about the guys in the movie, the 'dudes club' headed by Chris Rock, Tom Lennon, Rob Huebel, Rodrigo Santoro and Joe Manganiello, those guys talk openly and honestly about their worries and their fears and their experience of pregnancy."

Which, according to Jones, included the good, bad and ugly when it comes to physical and emotional changes involved with being pregnant.

"If someone throws up, they're not throwing up because it's a cheap gag in the movie," he said. "They're throwing up because that's the reality of being pregnant."

In looking at the massive cast Jones had to work with, one might assume scheduling his actors was the most difficult aspect of the shoot, but that award goes to baby wrangling, not people wrangling.

"For every child we cast, we cast twins. If I was shooting three scenes, the first scene with a 3-month-old, the next a 6-month-old, the next a 9-month-old, that means I had seven sets of [each set of twins]," Jones recalled. "You do the math. I think one day we had 32 babies in 100-degree heat being kept cool with air conditioning."

Speaking of the heat, Jones and his cast and crew braved shooting in Atlanta in the middle of the summer. "I think our hottest day was 117 degrees. It was difficult for these very gorgeous women to look their best in those conditions, but every one of them were great."

Manganiello of "True Blood" fame got off a little easier than the rest of the cast because his character appears shirtless in a lot of the film, which, according to Jones, proved to be a distraction.

"Joe was great. He's got a phenomenal body and I say that as a straight guy," he admitted. "I looked around on set and the guys were just obsessed with staring at his chest. I don't know he does it. It looks like someone sculpted his chest."

"What to Expect When You're Expecting" opens everywhere May 18.

It's Summer Movie Preview Week, and MTV News will be bringing you exclusive interviews, clips and photos for the most anticipated summer movies. Get ready to gorge on inside looks at "The Avengers," Robert Pattinson's "Bel Ami," Kristen Stewart's "Snow White," "The Amazing Spider-Man" and more!