Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler go head-to-head in The Ugly Truth. Xtra-vision chats with the cast and crew of this hilarious, spirited romcom.

The battle of the sexes heats up in The Ugly Truth, a smart, sexy comedy about men, women and the giant abyss that stands between the ways we each think about, fantasise about and try to seduce the other. Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler throw sparks as Abby and Mike, two co-workers destined to despise one another. She's out to find a sophisticated dream partner. He's on a mission to tell women to get real. But when he decides to help her get what she wants, they both learn something unexpected about how powerfully even the most defiant opposites attract.

"I think we're all starting to realise that men and women are wired differently and it's liberating to be able to play with that in a movie that's honest and frank, but also outrageously irreverent, about what makes us different and what brings us together," says director Robert Luketic. "We are certainly all equal but the ugly truth is that there are things men need and there are things women need - and sometimes they clash, and yet it's that difference that makes romance so exciting and wonderful."

"I like that this movie is a chance to chill out and laugh over this stuff," continues Luketic, director of Legally Blonde, Monster-in-Law and 21, "because at the end of the day, when you strip away all the myths and all the posturing men and women take so seriously, both sexes keep falling in love in spite of it all."

The Ugly Truth began with three women screenwriters, Nicole Eastman and the high-energy team of Karen McCullah Lutz & Kirsten Smith. Eastman, who makes her screenwriting debut, says she was inspired by the idea of writing about two people who think they despise each other, but as their battle wages, are horrified to find they might also be magnetically drawn to one another.

"It's really about the two most unlikely people in the world to fall in love, and what happens when they accidentally do," Eastman explains. "Abby and Mike have a lot of resistance to each other. She's the opposite of the brainless bimbos he says men want, and he's nowhere near the Prince Charming she says she's always wanted. Yet you end up rooting for them to come together because you can see underneath they both have similar vulnerabilities. What I love is that they're definitely not your cookie-cutter comedy characters. And what makes this story different from typical romantic comedies is that the obstacles that stand between them aren't external but internal. There are a lot of layers to what's really going on."

All of those layers were inspired by the actions and interactions of real men and women Eastman had observed. "I based Abby on someone I know who is great at her job but terrible at dating," she explains. "Mike was a completely fictional character I wanted to be as obnoxious and rude as possible, so I can't believe how much men say they relate to him!"

To play Abby, the filmmakers were looking for a leading lady with the smoldering silliness of a classic screwball comedienne, a kind of 21st Century Carole Lombard or Lucille Ball, able to deliver a crackling one-liner while simultaneously possessing a vulnerable sensuality and a slapstick sensibility. Such actresses aren't a dime a dozen, so the list of contenders was short and quickly narrowed down to one name.

"One day one of the writers asked, Recalls Gary Lucchesi, 'Have you thought about Katherine Heigl?' The moment I heard that, that was it. It was a great idea, we knew she was right and we pursued her vigorously."

Heigl, an Emmy Award winning actress for her role on the runaway hit television series Grey's Anatomy, has recently come to the fore in a number of screen comedies, most notably taking the lead in Judd Apatow's critically acclaimed Knocked Up. The entire creative team thought she had just the right qualities to make Abby as believable as she is blundering.

For Heigl, taking up arms in the battle of the sexes was an irresistible proposition. "What I loved about the script is that it provides insight into what men are really thinking and why women get it wrong, and the other way around. We've all seen the standard romcoms, and I think there's always a place for them because I'm a big romantic comedy fan. But I like that The Ugly Truth takes that and brings a new edge to it. There's a lot of raw honesty in the story but instead of taking it too seriously, it lets you laugh and enjoy the absurdity of the dynamic that goes on between men and women."

Heigl doesn't hold back when describing Abby. "She is a pretty uptight chick. She's super organised, very on top of things, totally in control in every aspect of her life and frankly, it makes her a little scary. As a date she's a nightmare because she's overwhelming. She's bossy and she talks too much. But to be honest, it was really super fun to play that, probably the most fun I've had!"

The greatest joy of all for Heigl was verbally jousting with Gerard Butler. "I have a real love of that sort of old Hollywood repartee that you don't really see much anymore," she says. "Gerry and I found that fast-paced, sparring dialogue so much fun. Even in your regular life, if you're out with another couple and they've got that great witty thing going, it's the most entertaining thing to be a part of. And it kind of just happened seamlessly between us."

In the midst of all this, Heigl had one major comedy mission: cracking the director up. "For me, the best feeling was to be in the middle of a take and to see Robert trying very hard to giggle without making too much noise. All I ever wanted to do was to make him laugh," she says.

Luketic says she did that, and much more. "Katherine is a breath of fresh air. She can be dramatic, she can be funny, and she's always very, very appealing. She's a wonderful actress and she'll have a place in my heart forever."

Squaring off with Katherine Heigl on the other side of the sexual skirmish line is 300's Gerard Butler, who took on a role for The Ugly Truth that he's never been seen in before - an unapologetically caddish relationship expert with a tongue like a Ginzu knife.

"Gerry's always been a larger than life character, says producer Gary Lucchesi. "And he's also very funny. But what really convinced us is that when he and Katherine Heigl met, the chemistry between them was obvious."

Butler was attracted right away by the screenplay. "The dynamic between men and women in this story is a little more outrageous than we're used to seeing and what really hits home is how truthful it is," he says. ""It's very honest, in an outlandish way, about what goes on in relationships between men and women. That's what got me excited about it. It allows the characters to say the kinds of things that make people think, 'I can't believe he just said that,' followed by, 'but it's so true.'"

The challenge to the role was in keeping Mike overtly brash and bawdy without ever losing that underlying charm that keeps Abby coming back for more. "The trick to portraying Mike was keeping some sense of his humanity because it is a love story as well," explains Butler. "Mike has an enormous amount of dialogue, probably 10 times the dialogue I've ever had in a film, because he has an opinion or a smart line for everything. So that was an interesting experience, too. I took inspiration from Spencer Tracy and Cary Grant, the way the words are always flying in their films, and hopefully some of that kind of feeling comes across."

"Here we had this character who could just be a foul-mouthed shock-jock who says outrageous things," says Luketic, "but Gerry found a way to make the character not only sympathetic but disarming, good natured and attractive. He really captures that undeniable connection between the bad boy and the guy that women can't help but be attracted to."

"I think what sets this movie apart is that it isn't just a few funny moments inside of a romance like a typical romantic comedy," explains producer Tom Rosenberg of The Ugly Truth, available now on Blu-ray and DVD from Xtra-vision. "It is one funny scene after another with two leads who have great chemistry."

"Making a comedy is a wonderful thing," concludes Lucchesi . "People com to work ready to play and work hard, hoping they can make people laugh – and in this case, I think we've done it."