Your Place or Mine marks return of ‘rom-com royalty’  

MANILA, Philippines —  When Reese Witherspoon shared a teaser of her latest romantic-comedy movie Your Place or Mine with Ashton Kutcher on her Instagram, not a few celebrity friends and followers expressed excitement, with one comment perhaps summing it best: The return of rom-com royalty.

In this Netflix film, Reese and Ashton play bestfriends for two decades, Debbie and Peter. She is a practical, single mom and accountant living in Los Angeles, while he is a high-flying brand consultant and somewhat of a serial dater based in New York. She likes rules and routines, he likes novelty and spontaneity. Their friendship, which has withstood the test of time, distance and even their personality differences, develops into something else or rather, something more, as they discover new things about each other when they trade homes for a week.

During a virtual roundtable with Filipino press, including The Philippine STAR ahead of the film’s global premiere tomorrow (Feb. 10) on Netflix, the two stars who, individually, have had topbilled some of the most unforgettable romantic-comedy films that had ever graced the big screen, spoke about what made them say yes to Your Place or Mine. The film marks the feature film directorial debut of Aline Brosh McKenna after building a career as a hit-making rom-com writer (The Devil Wears Prada, 27 Dresses, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend).

“I think it’s a great time to have a movie like this in an environment where there’s so much bad news and there’s so much that the human spirit is dealing with, you know,” Reese said in response to a question from this paper during a virtual interview about her decision to return to the rom-com genre. “I think we’ve had years and years of, you know, a really hard time. So, I think a little lightness, a little hope for the future is something that people are really craving right now.”

Ashton couldn’t agree more. “I agree with my co-star Reese Witherspoon’s answer to that (laughs). You know, I never have ever stopped loving rom-coms. Like, I’ve never stopped loving.”

Nevertheless, the actor suggested that rom-coms or any movie for that matter, whether it’s in line with the times or not, should be well-made for it to be worth-watching.

“I think sometimes in the film industry, there are these types of movies that kind of come in and out of… you know, a fad. You get a couple of good ones made and they do really well and then the market get saturated with other ones, because suddenly somebody or some executive goes, (changes tone of voice), ‘These are the kinds of movies that we can make money off of, so that’s what we need to make.’ And then they make a bunch of them, then they become less interesting or they get rushed or whatever it might be,” he said.

“Or else, they go, ‘These are the kinds of movies that don’t make money and we can’t ever put them out again.’ And then they kinda ebb and flow. And I don’t know who that person is, that voice (I’m mimicking now), it’s like the Wizard of Oz (saying), ‘Don’t look behind the curtain, I’m dictating whether or not we’re making these kinds of movies.’ Let’s just put back the curtain and be like, people like these movies, let’s make good ones, and if we make good ones, people will watch them and do that,” he said.

On the subject of good rom-coms, on the other hand, Reese and Ashton willingly offered some recommendations when asked during the virtual chat. They named Overboard, Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, Pretty Woman, You’ve Got Mail and The Apartment.

It must be said though that their film Your Place or Mine is highly recommended to audiences in their middle age and above, or as its director puts it, people who have accumulated life experience. It sends a message about second chances and that no matter what age you are, we all crave for human connection.

Reese said, “There’s scientific study about how important connection is, particularly post-pandemic where we’re all so isolated. I think this is a great time where people are looking for community, looking for love. I think it’s a rebirth sort of time for society in general.”

“We’re really based on Maslow’s hierarchy for needs, right? When we come back to it, like having a human connection with other people and that sense of care — that to me is like the essence of man. To me, every film is about that,” Ashton added.

“What I love about this film is this notion that as adults and grownups, so many romantic movies and romantic comedies are about people finding love for the first time. But what I love about this movie is that it insinuates that the first time you find love is not the last time you find love. And I think there’s a beautiful undercurrent for that in this film that makes this film special, differentiated and unique.”

Another thing that makes this film unique is that the two leads were barely in the same room together but primarily seen via split-screen throughout the film. In a separate virtual presscon, Ashton admitted that it was very tricky filming their scenes and there were times they were acting against a video of each other.

Nevertheless, when asked how they were able to build their chemistry despite such challenges, Reese revealed: “Well, we decided probably a month before we started shooting (to build chemistry). I had sort of a little panic attack because we didn’t know each other.”

In Your Place or Mine, she and Ashton are paired for the first time on screen. The actress further shared that prior to filming, they only had fully met each other at a party and even then, the encounter was “weird.”

All these they fondly recalled via a little banter during the presscon.

Ashton: “And I was sharing a cooler…”

Reese: “And he was weird.”

Ashton: “And she thought that I was quirky.”

Reese: “I said, ‘quirky,’ but I really thought weird.”

“Anyway (laughs) I’m kidding. I’m kidding. We were quirky. And then, so about a month before, I was like, ‘I don’t know this guy, and we’re supposed to be best friends for 20 years.’ So, we started sending each other videos every day,” Reese further said.

According to Ashton, they would send back and forth videos asking each other, “How’s your day going? What’s going on? What’s happening with you? What are you afraid of? Who’s your best friend?”

Reese: “And it was good. It was really, actually kind of fun. And then our kids would get in the videos and our dogs… You met my dad on my video.”

Ashton: “I met your dad. We hung out on your porch quite a bit… And then, by the time we started shooting it, we were sort of used to communicating this way. And so it felt really natural to communicate that way.”

Reese: “We should, like, put a little compilation video together of all our videos.”

Ashton: “We should.”

Reese: “It would be funny.”

(Your Place or Mine also stars Jesse Williams, Zoë Chao, Welsey Kimmel, Griffin Matthews, Rachel Bloom, Shiri Appleby, Vella Lovell, with Tig Notaro and Steve Zahn.)