Patton lifts 'Baggage' with new insights about marriage

Tony Rivetti Jr.

Paula Patton travels the country as a flight attendant in pursuit of marriage in 'Baggage Claim.'

Paula Patton’s new film, “Baggage Claim,” is a classic rom-com that comes with a happy boy-meets-girl ending. But the wife of Miley Cyrus’ twerk toy Robin Thicke warns it’s not all roses just because you find your Prince Charming.

“Marriage is not what you call a sprint, it’s a marathon,” Patton tells The News. “The funny thing about fairy tales is, they end when people get married. They never go after that. That would be a different story.

“Not everything in life is going to be perfect. You can’t expect perfection from anyone.”

The 37-year-old actress’ own marriage has gotten a lot of attention since Cyrus grinded against Thicke onstage at last month’s “MTV Video Music Awards” in Brooklyn.

In “Baggage Claim,” in theaters Friday, Patton stars as Montana, who starts getting pressure from her family to get hitched. Patton believes that her character symbolizes many modern women who feel forced into settling down before they find the right one.

“I’m not a traditionalist,” Patton says. “I’m not going to sit here and say marriage is the only way to define you. But when people bring up a super-successful woman, it’s like, ‘But is she married? Does she have kids?’ We need to stop being so hard on women, like you’re not enough unless you’re married.”

In the film, co-starring Derek Luke, Taye Diggs, Adam Brody and Jill Scott, Montana arranges to “run in” to all her ex-boyfriends across the country, making use of her job as a flight attendant. Along the way, she discovers something other unlucky-in-love characters like Carrie Bradshaw, Cher Horowitz and Anna Karenina did long before her — that you have to love yourself before someone else can.

“Until that happens,” says Patton, “you can’t force that timing. As women, we like somebody if they look good on paper. We try to push this round ball into a square of a man we want him to be. But if there’s no chemistry, something’s missing.”

Surprisingly, Patton credits her own parents’ tumultuous marriage as the reason she’s so confident in her current no-settling philosophy.

“My parents are divorced and it was a very rocky marriage,” she says. “They tried really hard for 27 years. They gave it a shot ... So I kind of made up my own fairy tale for myself.”

While Patton puts her own spin on the romantic comedy heroine, director David E. Talbert says he’s proud to deliver a film that strays from traditional rom-com casting.

“The stories that are now being told are mainstream stories that just happen to have African-Americans in the leads,” says Talbert, who says he grew up watching Nora Ephron classics like “Sleepless in Seattle.”

“I always pull from Meg Ryan,” says Talbert. “She allowed herself to be silly and hopeful with so much heart. I wanted to create a heroine like that, and the fact that she just happened to be black didn’t matter.”

In fact, the only time race is acknowledged in “Baggage Claim” is when Diggs’ buttoned-up political aspirant faces Ned Beatty at a fund-raiser, and Beatty compares him to Tiger Woods. Awkward hilarity ensues.

“I like social commentary in a setting you wouldn’t expect,” says Talbert, who says the Tiger Woods scene is his favorite in the film. “The audience is on pins and needles when [Beatty] starts talking. It’s like, ‘Oh my God, where is this going?’ ”

Patton points out that, despite this past year being a high point in African-American-themed films (including “42,” “Fruitvale Station,” “The Butler” and “12 Years a Slave”), roles like Montana are still hard to come by.

“It’s a love story, a romantic comedy that has no race,” Patton says. “The honest truth is, there aren’t a lot of opportunities that are given to black [actors] to tell these stories and have it not be about race.”

As for Patton, she proves that playing the “Meg Ryan type” has less to do with blond hair and more to do with clumsiness. It took a lot of training for her to nail one dance scene.

“I was sweating in between every take,” she says. “New Edition makes it look easy.”