Valentine’s Day follows the intertwining storylines of a group of Los Angelinos as they find their way through romance over the course of one Valentine's Day. We caught up with the filmmaker and some of the all-star cast to get their take on the film and all things romantic.

Garry Marshall

Q. This is quite a straightforward concept... take a film and centre it around Valentine's Day. So, why hasn't it been done before?
Garry Marshall: Because sometimes people don't like straightforward and simple. They think that with this cast we should have done Anna Karina or War & Peace. But we wanted to do a nice love story. At this time in history, when some things are messy out there, I would say it's nice to spend two hours in a nice simple love story with some terrific actors. It leaves you with hope and a good feeling.

Q. How easy was it to get a cast like this together?
Garry Marshall: Well, you start with a script, which was written by Katherine Fugate and other writers, and you don't cast people... you cast couples. In a love story, often people kiss and, at the very least, they look in each other's eyes. So, you have to have people who can do that with each other. So, we tried really hard by reading all the trade papers to discover who wasn't married, or who just broke up... people who maybe liked each other or who would like to meet.

Q. Did you find that you set anyone up on-set?
Garry Marshall: The newest couples were Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner... one's a vampire guy, the girl writes songs. But they'd never met. And when you have young people, in particular, who've never met you start right away with the kissing scene or else they worry about it for days. So, you go right into kissing and they kissed. The girl always likes it because she can say: "The director told me I have to kiss you." So, she's off the hook... she has license. And they kissed... the first three takes were OK, by about the sixth take they started to go together and they were an item!

Q. What's the most romantic thing you've ever done?
Garry Marshall: I think the most romantic thing is we renewed our vows... we'll be married 47 years in March. But we renewed our vows a few years ago. It wasn't quite my idea. The kids decided we'd renew our vows. So, they got the wedding dress my wife wore - and it still fit her. She went out with some friends, they had a few drinks, so she showed up a little tipsy at the renewal. She wasn't sure what was going on. I think it was three years too late - I got on one knee to ask her to marry me, I couldn't get up. There was a whole thing... I have a new hip. It was a little bit messed up bit very romantic and we did renew our vows. And we use that in the movie.

Q. Do you pay much heed to Valentine's Day yourself? And would your partner's throttle you if you forgot? And what are your plans for this Valentine's Day?
Garry Marshall: Yeah, it's alright; it's a nice day. We have another movie they sent me. I'm going to do different holidays, so we're talking about New Year's Day. You didn't know about it but Hector [Elizondo] does... he has a part in it. On Valentine's Day I'll be in Rome with my wife. We'll say: "OK, another Valentine's Day..." We've done a lot of them. We may even go to the movie. She's seen it 150 times, but she'll go again. But I do believe that every time you can you should take a moment to say "hey, I love you" because after all that's said and done those words still have a lot of weight if there's someone you're lucky enough to connect with in life.

Q. Why do you love making films about love?
Garry Marshall: Well, it makes people have a smile very often and it makes them feel good inside if we're successful. Sometimes we blow it altogether and people say: "I don't believe they're in love at all, let's go home and watch something blow up, or blue... Avatar!" I was very sick as a child. Steven Spielberg went around filming his mother in the kitchen; I went around coughing and sneezing and asking for Kleenex from my mother to blow my nose. So, to make people feel good after I felt bad a lot I think is a part of it.

Q. Why do you think people love watching love stories?
Garry Marshall: I think they're writing now that love stories are not good to do because it gives you expectation. You go to Valentine's Day and say: "Oh look, they fell in love..." And you expect to as well and then maybe you're depressed. I don't feel that way. I think you should always have hope, even if it fails you. You've got to have hope.

Q. Are there any great screen moments that you think are great?
Garry Marshall: A Man & A Woman, for me, is one of my favourites because the music kept playing. Breakfast At Tiffany's, Moon River makes a great love story.

Q. Romantic comedies typically follow a set format. How do you feel that the genre has developed since Pretty Woman and is there room for it to be redefined at all?
Garry Marshall: Well, I was talking to someone and I'd say that Chekhov wrote a long time ago that He and She is the engine of all drama. But now I think there's a he and a he, and a she and a she, and there's all different types of love stories that are now allowed to be told. I think that's a good thing. But I think the classic boy meets girl and there has to be a conflict... something has to go wrong. If you have a love affair and nothing went wrong, it probably won't last in my opinion. But you have to, as we say in Valentine's Day, take the good part and the bad part of a person to be in love. This is what takes a moment to find out when you're first dating. You can be so nice... a lot of girls date guys who live out of town because it's more low maintenance; they're not around all the time. There's parts of love you don't like... I know a lot of guys break up with their girls just before Christmas and they go up on St Patrick's Day because then you miss Christmas, Valentine's Day and you don't have to worry about all that. But this is what makes love happen... so, I think that most stories are either Cinderella or The Little Engine That Could, so write that down if you're going to write a screenplay! In Cinderella, what they always forget is the fairy godmother or godfather - Hector [Elizondo] played it in Pretty Woman and George Lopez plays it in Valentine's Day. So, I think the beginning and end of love stories will always remain the same... it's what you do in the middle that makes either a great love story or not. We always try the best we can but sometimes we miss. The second thing that makes the love story work these days, because of the worship of celebrity now in all countries, is the casting. So, if you can get two people you would like to see as lovers, then that's what makes the best love story.

Ashton Kutcher and Topher Grace

Q. What's the most romantic thing you've ever done?
Ashton Kutcher: I think romance is something that you don't clock or keep track of... you don't manage it in that way. It's something that happens in a moment. Usually, it's in a period of time when you put yourself in an uncomfortable position for the sake of somebody else. If you truly did that, and were truly just caring about the other person, you may not even remember.

Topher Grace: I remember one time, and this is in my former life when I was working as a businessman, I found this hooker and I was like this really lonely guy. We spent this weekend together and she really changed my life. I gave her a jewellery box, and I clapped it down on her fingers and she was laughing... she had one of those crazy laughs. But then I found out there was a real person there too. She changed me, I changed her. At the end... it was crazy [laughs]. I drove up to her in this limousine... it was like a fairytale. There was even a guy who worked in a hotel too...

Q. Do you have any advice for men using Twitter about being discreet and sending messages to other girls?
Ashton Kutcher: Boy, I don't know. I don't think people are currently using Twitter for what it was originally intended for. So, I think it's kind of re-defined every day. Do I have any advice? Don't put any naked pictures up there of yourself... it's just weird. It's not a porno environment so let's keep it clean for the kids. There are certain things that don't need to be said in public and certain things that do, so use good discretion and that's all I can say. I don't think Twitter is really a place to pick somebody up.

Q. What did Demi say about you posting the photo of her ironing in her bikini on Twitter?
Ashton Kutcher: Well, she was ironing and she happened to have a bikini on. I have to get picture approval for anything I post. And I think it was that moment that created the picture approval!

Q. Do you pay much heed to Valentine's Day yourself? And would your partner's throttle you if you forgot? And what are your plans for this Valentine's Day?
Topher Grace: Valentine's Day causes me a lot of stress. I've been in the same position that my character is in, in my mid-20s where you're dating someone for a week or two weeks and then this day rolls around when you have to declare how you feel and show your hand in some way. I've been talking about this... there was this one time I just left town. It was a great Valentine's Day.

Ashton Kutcher: Yep, don't forget Valentine's Day... that's not a good thing to do. That's a bad move. If you're single, it's great because it's like a free hall pass day when you get to do whatever you want. Me, not so much. Yeah... this is a day to definitely remember. I think the great thing is that you sort of have all those feelings and all that love inside of yourself, and a lot of times we think that we say the things that we're feeling but generally we don't. They're just in us, so to have a day to commemorate it and manifest all that love that you have inside of you... I looked at it as a great opportunity. Once you've been in a relationship for a while, you sometimes need something to restart the circuitry again. You have to go out of your way to give in a way that you don't usually to sort of re-ignite that giving cycle that takes place.

Q. And this Valentine?
Ashton Kutcher: Well, in addition to promoting this film we sort of knew that we'd be travelling, so my wife and I decided that the best way we could share our love with one another was to share it with other people. So, we set up a foundation called The D&A Foundation to help trafficking victims. There's a group in New York called Jim's Girls... they help these girls get off the street and get their lives back going again. So, we're making the girls from that foundation our valentine's this year and we're going to do something special for them, so they know they can be loved without someone asking for anything in return.

Q. Why do you think people love watching love stories?
Ashton Kutcher: I think love is one of the most elusive things in the world. I don't know that there's a perfect formula for it and that's what makes the stories interesting, because even though we all have an idea of where it's heading in the end, it's how are we going to get there that makes it interesting. When I read this script, I saw a line that my character has, which is: "Love is the only shocking act left on the planet." When I saw that, I really connected with the material because I think when we look around the world it's very easy to imagine hate. It's very easy to imagine greed and destruction. The media makes it even easier to imagine that because the media loves to report on conflict. So, the images that we see daily make it easy to believe that the world could be destroyed in the push of a button. I was looking on Facebook and there's a page - Facebook.com/peace - and it's a real-time poll that's polling people on whether or not they believe that world peace can exist. It breaks it down country by country and I think Hungary is the highest - I think 30% of the people from Hungary believe that world peace could exist. America is one of the lowest. So, anytime that you can make a piece of art that you can put into the world that can hopefully inspire people to believe that it can exist, even if it's just for a moment, maybe we can break that 50% threshold and turn something over in the world that makes people believe that it's out there for them - that love is out there for them and that there is somebody else in the world that can matter to them as much as themselves.

Topher Grace: I also love films where I get to make out with girls that are better looking than me [laughs]. So, that's also a plus as well as world peace.

Q. Why do you think people love watching love stories?
Emma Roberts: I love love stories. Who doesn't? I think it's nice to watch a movie... even if it doesn't have a happy ending. A real ending is just as good. Being in love is such a nice feeling, so to be able to see that feeling on-screen is just nice, especially when it's a great story.

Q. Are there any great screen moments that you think are great?
Emma Roberts: For me, my favourite is Roman Holiday. I just love Audrey Hepburn and I think it's such a beautiful story.

Jessica Alba: I remember The Way We Were. It's so sad, but it seems real. I cry every time.

Q. Emma, what's your idea of love?
Emma Roberts: Love is not necessarily about grand gestures. It can be the little things, like someone knows you like a certain food so they pick it up for you. Stuff like that is sweet. It's little things that are nice and thoughtful that you can do every day.

Q. Jessica, how has marriage changed your life?
Jessica Alba: Marriage and kids... I kind of did it all at once. Love is ever evolving and it takes compromise, work and patience. Right when you think you have a grasp on how to love your partner, everything gets turned upside down and you have to step up your game and evolve together. That's something I didn't know until six years later. As far as being married and what it means to me... it's nice knowing that I have a partner in life and that someone's got my back. Your husband or your wife is the only person you can really choose to be your family and to have unconditional love with them.

Hector Elizondo

Q. As the Garry Marshall veteran, how has it been working with Garry over the years? Has he changed?
Hector Elizondo: Working for Garry is... we do films together in between playing softball and basketball. We believe that the game - whether it's ball kicking, hitting or shooting - is a metaphor for life. In between, we do movies. Other than that, I don't think we've played much basketball but he still hits the right field very well with men on bass. That's important. We always have fun while we're working in spite of the long hours.

Q. Were the two of you friends before you worked together?
Hector Elizondo: We really became friends... he met me before I met him. He saw me on stage in New York 400 years ago. We actually became friends after I accidentally... I didn't know who he was but I was invited to his basketball game - a famous Saturday morning basketball get together. I remember that someone was defending me... this tall gentleman who was strapped up and who had very fast hands. I flipped a past behind my back to my player but Garry's mouth was in between them - my pass and the other fellow - and he sank to one knee, checked his teeth to make sure they were there and everybody was silent. Everyone took a deep breath. I was like: "What's the matter? It was an accident!" And he says: "Come over here..." I thought this was going to be a long afternoon. He was still on his knees. So I asked what was wrong and he replied: "You're a terrific actor but a lousy passer... I think I've got a movie for you." So, that's the way it started. We did our first movie together shortly afterwards.

Q. What's the most romantic thing you've ever done?
Hector Elizondo: I suppose spending part of my honeymoon at Joshua Tree national park. It's a desert. But coming from New York City, it was my first exposure to the desert and it was spring-time, so there was a carpet of flowers... and great colour.

Q. Do you pay much heed to Valentine's Day yourself? And would your partner's throttle you if you forgot? And what are your plans for this Valentine's Day?
Hector Elizondo: Every day is Valentine's Day! I'm a hopeless romantic. It's not a special day for me. Would I get throttled if I forget? I don't think so, no. But I do get fed very well.

Q. Why do you think people love watching love stories?
Hector Elizondo: During the darkest periods in recent history, of course, the most subversive things you could do is think, read if you can get the material and remind yourself that love exists. That's why Chopin exists...

Q. Are there any great screen moments that you think are great?
Hector Elizondo: A Man & A Woman is one of my favourites, and Il Postino I liked very much.

Q. How has marriage changed your life?
Hector Elizondo: Well, after you free yourself from the incredible expectations of love through the media from the time you were so high, you realise that it's the spaces between the notes that make music. It's the strings vibrating at the same time but separately that makes a good marriage. It messy, it's complicated and it's quite wonderful. To find out whether somebody has your back, that's a big test... and whether or not you help someone paint their apartment with gloss paint! That's difficult to do. Or help them do their laundry, or bring chicken soup preferably when they're sick. That's the detail of it... that someone has your back always.

European Premiere Footage