HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman team up on the big screen this weekend in the Miramax Films comedy, The Switch.
Kassie (Aniston) is a smart, fun-loving single woman who, despite her slightly neurotic best friend Wally's (Bateman) objections, decides it's time to have a baby–even if it means doing it by herself... with a little help from a charming sperm donor. But, unbeknownst to her, Kassie's plans go awry because of a last-minute switch that isn't discovered until seven years later when Wally finally gets acquainted with Kassie's precocious – though slightly neurotic – son.
The Switch is based on the short story Baster, written by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jeffrey Eugenides, author of The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex. Screenwriter Allan Loeb discovered the story when it was originally published in The New Yorker in 1996 and believed it would be a great premise for a film. Loeb subsequently developed the screenplay with producers Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa of Bona Fide Productions.
"This movie, and particularly the character of Kassie, will be very familiar to audiences," Berger says. "She's going through a classic dilemma that women face these days. She has a career. She is very well educated. She has been in relationships that haven't exactly panned out for her. She very much wants to have a child and to find the right balance between family and career, so she goes ahead and does something about it. That go-at-it-alone quality is something that people will really relate to."
Aniston, empathizing with her character, explains, "When we meet Kassie she's at a time in her life where she's just ready to have a child. She alerts her best friend that she's going to sort of do this on her own because she really feels she wants a child more than she needs the man, which I found quite interesting. I don't know if I would do it that way, but anyway she does, and there are a lot of women out there who do, so I think it's great to represent."
Also see: The Switch Premiere Red Carpet Photos
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