Valentine’s Day – Julia Roberts and the other female stars on that ‘special day’

Set in Los Angeles, an all-star ensemble comes together in Garry Marshall’s Valentine’s Day, which follows the intertwining storylines of a diverse group people as they navigate their way through romance and heartbreak over the course of one Valentine’s Day.

At the press conference for the movie in LA, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba and Shirley MacLaine talked about love and that ‘special day.’

This film is kind of a love letter to Los Angeles. What do you love about LA?

Julia Roberts: I love the weather.

Jennifer Garner: Farmer’s Market.

Jessica Biel: Real Foods Daily.

Jessica Alba: The mountains and the ocean.

Shirley Maclaine: I haven’t had my Visa renewed for Beverly Hills in 20 years!

I love the idea that the right person could be your best friend that’s been there all along. Was there a moment you realized this friendship became more?

Jennifer Garner: Somewhere around the second kid I thought, “This is turning into something.” (laughter)

Jessica Alba: I married my best friend.

How do you find time for romance with kids at home?

Julia Roberts: My kids go to bed at 7:30.

Jessica Alba: Mine goes to bed at 7 but I’m usually too tired, unfortunately.

Jennifer Garner: You change the definition of romance. I mean, romance is romance, but in addition, romance can just be breakfast over the tops of heads. Just getting through the day, you’ve just got to create that way to be romantic.

Any Valentine’s Day plans?

Jennifer Garner: I think most of us will be promoting a movie. That’ll be romantic.

Jessica Alba: We’re pretty spontaneous; we try to squeeze in a smooch here and there, a little card, just a note to say ‘I love you.’

Julia Roberts: For Valentine’s Day, we’re just gonna be makin’ out. The full 24 hours.

What’s the key to a successful relationship, especially in LA?

Jessica Biel: Laughing, fun, definitely. Right? Just being able to laugh, not taking things too seriously.

Jessica Alba: I think communicating. I don't know.

Julia Roberts: I think it’s the same in any city. L.A. isn’t distinctive in its uniqueness to what makes a relationship work. Two people who work at it in any town you go to, that’s what works.

Shirley Maclaine: Coming from a long line of Valentine’s Days and also a long line of cities where I experienced Valentine’s Days, and also a long line of partners, I would say that the key to a good relationship if you’re married is a husband that looks the other way. (laughter) But mostly to have a successful Valentine’s Day in a successful city and a successful marriage and relationship is that you know who you are. Everything goes from there. We’ll have the next seminar in two hours!

This film makes use of LA but it’s universal, not just an LA film don’t you think?

Jennifer Garner: What’s great about the way Garry uses LA in the film is that it’s just a city. It’s not celebrity-centric. It’s not about Hollywood. It’s a city and you never see it that way. You always see it as the backdrop for some other world and glitz and glamour. This reminds you that this is just a city full of people going through the same kinds of little triumphs and tragedies in their love lives as anyone anywhere else in the world.

How does it feel to be reunited with Garry Marshall and Hector Elizondo from Pretty Woman all of these years later?

Julia Roberts: Well we have a lot of Pretty Woman people. That sounds funny. That sounds grammatically incorrect. Our D.P. Chuck Minsky shot Pretty Woman and our prop department. We laughed about a lot of things—particularly how old we’ve all gotten in twenty years.

Every ten years we do this. We did Pretty Woman and then ten years later we did Runaway Bride and then ten years later Valentine’s Day. So I will see all of you back here when I’m fifty-one.

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