Ocean’s 8 comes out on June 8th. I just realized that: the EIGHT comes out on the 8th. Smart branding. So, we have a few more weeks to go, and I actually think this might be one of the few movies I actually go to see in the theater. Part of it is me just wanting to support an all-female cast. But there’s another part of me that just wants to see this movie because it looks like glamorous fun.

Anyway, the ladies – minus Rihanna and Helena Bonham Carter!! – got together for a photocall in New York yesterday. Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway and Mindy Kaling all gathered for a photocall at… The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Get it? Because their heist takes place at the Met Gala. The ladies also did their first press conference as a group, which is how we got major Hollywood actresses suggesting that little girls can and should dream of growing up to be jewel thieves.

Midway through Ocean’s 8, there’s a scene where Sandra Bullock’s exquisitely coated Debbie Ocean faces a mirror and reminds herself why she’s decided to rob the Met Gala: not for man, not for herself, she says, but for the 8-year-old girl out there who could be inspired to lead a life of crime. At an extravagant press conference for Ocean’s 8 held next to the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art today, one reporter asked the cast if they really were trying inspire 8-year-old girls with their work. What effect would these “strong female roles” have? “Encouraging children to crime,” Cate Blanchett deadpanned.

Mindy Kaling then took the conversation in another direction, pointing out that the film provides positive representation of another, noncriminal sort in the fact that the characters are “orchestrating a crime, rather than fighting over a man.” Sandra Bullock pointed out that there is a man the characters in Ocean’s 8 fixate on, but more because he’s a target, not a love interest. The film aces the Bechdel test and probably earns a heap of extra credit on the assignment. “Our conversations are not about that man, and I think that’s very exciting,” Kaling said.

Really, being a criminal is just another form of self-actualization. “To an 8-year-old girl, maybe we’re not trying to say, ‘Go have a life of crime,’” Anne Hathaway added, “But we’re saying, ‘Go do what you want, there’s space for you.’” She commended it for having a “everybody in” message, and for showcasing a variety of perspectives.

[From Vulture]

If the women had taken the reporters’ questions seriously, I would hope that at least one of the women would say “we don’t have to be all things at all times, you know?” Why get pearl-clutchy about “what will the children think?” about a glamorous movie about glamorous women going on a jewel heist at the Met Gala? Did people worry that Ocean’s Eleven would encourage little boys to want to grow up to rob casinos?

Some fashion notes: Cate Blanchett’s purple suit is Salvatore Ferragamo (and I kind of love it). Bullock’s jumpsuit is Elie Saab (great color). Sarah Paulson wore Michael Kors, Anne Hathaway wore Maticevski and Mindy Kaling wore Stella McCartney (HATE IT).

Photos courtesy of WENN.