The Ocean's Twelve Interrogated
By: Andrew Weil
Source: comingsoon.net

The gang is all back for Ocean's Twelve, and there's some new additions as well. ComingSoon.net got a chance to talk to George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Don Cheadle about the anticipated Warner Bros. sequel directed by Steven Soderbergh. The film picks up three years after Danny Ocean and his crew robbed Terry Benedict's Las Vegas vault, but now he's after them, and he's not the only one looking for Ocean's Eleven.

CS: What was it like working with director Steven Soderbergh?
Don Cheadle: Steven set the tone and I loved this film, he could've been really safe and tried to do the same thing over again but this film was a complete departure and a lot more fun I think and a lot more cinematic. He just opened it up and I think it's a testament to his talent that he can do that and he's not scared to do that… For me it really allowed me to trust him because I know that he's not sitting forty feet away looking at a 4½" monitor trying to decide if you really hit what he asked you to hit. He's right there, and suddenly he'll put the camera down, say something to you, and go again, it's really intimate. I really like the way he shoots.
Matt Damon: Eight or nine months out, Stephen sent us all a script with a note attached saying call me with ideas, suggestions. And Stephen's environment is incredibly relaxed so it's kind of fair game that you take a shot with stuff and see if you get a reaction from him and if he starts chuckling, then you stay with it. And if not, you go running back with your tail between your legs to the script.

CS: The film makes reference to you being 50 years old; how did that come up?
George Clooney: We put that into the script because I was in Italy last year and some younger girl said to me, "Georgio, how old are you?". And stupid enough to ask the question that you should never ask which is, "Well, how old do you think I am?". And she said, "Fifty". I mean, "You think I'm 50 years old?". She said, "51". So Steven thought it would be funny to put it in the film.

CS: What are the dangers of doing a sequel like Ocean's Twelve?
Clooney: The truth was, we didn't start the first one with the idea of doing a second, so the second one came about organically. We were literally in Rome and Steven, who had never been to Italy before-- we were sitting in a restaurant and he looked up and said, "I've got an idea for a sequel." The film hadn't opened, or maybe it had just opened, I think. We were doing the press tour for it. So, you know, the truth of the matter is we wouldn't have shown up if Steven hadn't had an idea, a different way of telling the story, you know. The problem with sequels, as we all agree, is that it's usually just a sort of rehash of the film before it, and trying to take the things that work and Steven had a way of saying, well, let's mix up what just happened in the first one and really throw these guys off. We thought, well that's a really interesting idea and a reason to do a sequel. There are a lot of pitfalls in it, you know, one is that we had to work with Jerry (Weintraub) again.

CS: How was receiving a larger part this time around?
Damon: Actually I asked for a smaller part. I wanted to just do less and work less. I was pretty tired. But (Soderbergh) gave me a bigger part anyway.
Clooney: You know he shows off, he's like, he's got a big hit sequel hit coming out already. I think I should have a bigger part, so we gave it to him.
Damon: I don't know how Linus the character ended up being such a kind of bungler in this movie, and I think it was a reaction to doing the Bourne Supremacy, and I was just so sick of being right in everything, that I wanted to play a guy who wasn't right very often.

CS: What is the project Syriana about?
Damon: If you saw Traffic, it's written by Steve Ghagan who wrote Traffic. And Gaghan is directing. George and Stephen Soderbergh are producing it. Structurally, it's really similar to Traffic in that it's four or five different storylines converging around one topic, but in this case the topic is oil instead of drugs. So it's structurally similar to Traffic and it's a big directing job for Steve Ghagan. Hopefully, so far, so good.
Clooney: Yeah, it's going great and Jeffrey Wright's in it. It's a great cast and it's about corruption. It deals with oil in some of the same ways that Traffic dealt with the war on drugs. So if we don't screw it up, it's a really interesting premise and a really interesting movie. We'll see. We've got our fingers crossed.

CS: What were your reaction to your parts in Team America?
Damon: That's I think the fourth or fifth movie George and I have done together.
Clooney: And we've always wanted to be a puppet, so I must say that I would have been offended if I wasn't into it. I was thrilled. Don, you were upset that you weren't in it. But those guys are friends of mine. I helped them get their show on the air and was Sparky the gay dog and was in their movie. So part of the fun about being up here is that we get to be object in that as well. So it's fine.
Damon: Neither of us take ourselves too seriously. Plus, if you're friends with people who are comedians, you can always count on a comedian to throw you under a bus for a laugh whenever they can. It's what they do.

CS: How was it to have a relationship with Catherine Zeta-Jones in the film?
Brad Pitt: It's pretty well flushed out in the script. We were just excited to get Catherine first of all because she brings this great elegance to it and a lot of the film was going to be focused on her own and she was going to have to carry that thing and would have to be someone who could carry that kind of weight…The great thing about Catherine is there is this great beauty and elegance but at the same time, she'll drink any one of you under the table. So it was pretty much automatic as well.
Catherine Zeta-Jones: We wanted to make them different from Danny and Tess. She's loving this guy so much and having to be dumped by him and then the relationship sort of comes together and she's so happy. Knowing the love of her life is one of these men of the gang. I bet I'm hated by women around the world for having to kiss this guy. My husband would say to me "What are you doing today honey" and I'd say "Oh, I'm kissing Brad on a bridge." The next day "Oh I'm kissing Brad in the car or someplace". It was a tough job, but somebody had to do it. We had a lot of fun. I'd love to do another movie with him in a different connotation…
Pitt: I'm thinking musical.
Zeta-Jones: I think so. He can dance.

CS: How was it to work with this ensemble cast?
Zeta-Jones: I don't know about my humor, but god, we have a good laugh when we hang out and the guys are funny and it's just contagious. I'm intimidated every day I go on the stage and every day I go on a movie set. It's terrifying and I always want to reshoot the first day or the first week. I'm so terrified. Like I said earlier, when meeting them altogether for the first time, it's such a powerful force. All these guys together, you know, and it was just easy and simple and they welcomed me in with open arms. I had to leave my prissy girly-ness at the door, just join in and it was great. But I get terrified every day I go on sets. And kind of the ice is broken, you're not going to be sacked; they're not going to replace you and you start to enjoy it.