Debbie Ocean has been released from prison after doing a five year sentence. Debbie is the brother of Danny Ocean, a professional con man who is now dead. Debbie meets up with an old friend, Lou, and they plan to steal a $150 million diamond necklace. First thing they need to do is put together a team because they can not do this alone.
Blaine: “The Hunger Games” had an impact on girls after seeing a protagonist like Katniss Everdeen. That gave director Gary Ross an idea that there should be an ensemble of women coming together. And then he thought about it being an all female “Ocean’s” movie. Gary met with Sandra Bullock, she had just done “Gravity” and she told Gary that George Clooney and her had a brother sister relationship on set. That gave Gary the idea of Danny Ocean having a sister. Gary is good friends with Steven Soderbergh, who had directed all three of the “Ocean's” movies, and he told Steven the ideas he had for an all female “Ocean's” movie. Steven was ok with it because he was done with the franchise, so he said do whatever. Gary spent four years developing “Ocean’s 8” and trying to get permission to have it made. Gary knew he couldn’t do this project alone, so he asked screenwriter Olivia Milch if she could help him write the script. Gary and Olivia developed a great partnership while putting together the script. They thought about who these characters are, what story they wanted to tell and they had fun with it. They sat next to each other in front of the computer typing away. They gave each woman a specific skill.
Sandra Bullock didn’t think the project would work or get made when she heard about it, but she thought the idea sounded fun. Plus Sandra gave the idea of Danny Ocean having a sister to Gary. Sandra always wanted to be apart of a movie with an ensemble of women, but she hated that she had to wait so long for it to come. Still she was grateful that it happened. Sandra felt she was getting an education out of “Ocean’s 8” from the script. Her character, Debbie, is a pro at stealing stuff and sneaking her way through without getting caught. Like at the beginning of the movie, after she gets released from jail, she manages to pretend she is returning perfume and exchanging it for new ones. Then she manages to get a free hotel room by saying she was the person who just checked out and needs the room again because whatever she was doing got canceled. That gave me a concerning feeling, but I was more impressed that she got through all that. Sandra Bullock said Debbie Ocean is a mastermind because it’s in her blood and she has a passion for it. She doesn’t have all the talent, which is why she can’t do this alone and both her and Lou manage to bring together a team of talented women. Debbie lets her team do their job because she knows they can do it.
Cate Blanchett was curious to know who the other characters were going to be played by after reading the script. Like Sandra, it was all about the female ensemble to Cate. She did ask herself if a project like this was worth doing, so she was taking a lot of risks for herself. Cate has been wanting to see more movies done by female directors, but she thought it was nice that a man wanted to direct a movie about women. One of the characters, Amita, had to go through some changes. Gary learned that at Jackson Heights there’s a thriving Indian American Community that has a large jewelry industry and he felt it fit the character wonderfully. And when Mindy Kaling was hired to play her she had some ideas for the character. “Ocean’s 8” was a challenging movie for Mindy because she had never seen any of the “Ocean’s” movies and it made it a little difficult for her to understand if this one had any connections with the original films. Mindy had to learn Hindi just for one scene where she and her mother get into an argument. Sarah Paulson’s character, Tammy, is the only one with a family and that’s what makes her so different from the others. Tammy has boxes of stuff in her garage like a warehouse and that’s what Sarah found most interesting about her. Debbie shows up at Tammy’s place and pulls her back into the game. Sarah Paulson would play around with the character a lot to try and figure out what kind of personality she should have. Olivia had done a movie with Awkwafina before and she wrote the part of Constance, the girl with sneaky fingers, for her. There’s one scene where she is in the women’s restroom and she moves on the floor like a spider.
A lot of cameos didn’t make it into the movie. Matt Damon was rumored to make an appearance, but he never did. So that rumor was false. However, Elliott Gould, who was in the original “Ocean” films, made an appearance for when Debbie Ocean visits her brother’s grave. Gary and Olivia were able to keep the story going after the girls successfully steal the necklace and replace it with a fake one. There’s an investigation now that the necklace has been identified as a fake. Anne Hathaway was a fan of the “Ocean” movies Steven Soderbergh had done and like everyone else she was very excited to be apart of an ensemble of women. She understood the type of character Daphne Kluger was because she was described well enough in the script. Daphne is the type of character who is glamorous, a fashion snob, is obsessed with herself and she’s not that smart, but she is also not stupid. The girls set her up to be responsible for the necklace when it goes missing, but she was smart enough to notice the girls were up to something. And then she joins their group after the necklace goes missing, which was a twist. Now that she is apart of the team, they need a new person to take the blame for the necklace. Lucky thing for them, Debbie knows the perfect guy. Claude set Debbie up and got her throne in jail, and what better way to get payback than to frame the guy who got you throne in jail. Another thing that was very unexpected was that Debbie and Lou had more than once diamond necklace in mind to steal. Lou and a friend of her’s were stealing the Crown jewels while the gala was being evacuated. Lou bought this remote controlled toy boat and I completely forgot about it until they showed how they were able to steal the other jewels.
My rating on “Ocean’s 8” is five out of five stars
