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Interview with Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
Interviewed by Elliot V. Kotek 

Moving Pictures: Welcome to the Motion Pictures Media Studio. I’m here with Jason Reitman, no stranger to Toronto and showing your films up here. What’s it like this time? Do you feel different being up here?

Jason Reitman: I know a little bit of the drill now, having been to Toronto a few times. But it’s still exciting every time you come.

MP: Your film is very timely with the current unemployment situation in the world, and especially in the U.S., but you must have been working on it prior to everything going belly-up. So is this a case of life imitating art?

Reitman: No. When I started writing “Up in the Air,” we were actually in an economic boom. Things were actually going pretty well, and I wrote it more as a satire. But the world changed and so my screenplay had to change, too. And I had to take things a little more seriously.

MP: You have had amazing people around you in terms of your team of actors, working with a new corps on this film – George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick. When did you first meet them and did you give them any sort of package of music?

Reitman: No. I’m not that guy. I don’t like write a dissertation or send someone an album. I send them my screenplay and I think they speak for themselves.

MP: In terms of their actual working relationship among themselves, do you just let them do their thing?

Reitman: I trust them to know what to do. I mean, I direct them. It’s not as if they have complete free will, but I don’t rehearse. I like to get their natural response to the dialogue on camera.

MP: Your life must have a lot of these systemized greetings, traveling around the world and showing your films. Is it a lifestyle that you have accepted?

Reitman: Oh, yeah. I’ve always enjoyed travel. I think it’s actually one of the few places anymore that we get to be alone and alone with our thoughts. So, actually, I get a lot of joy from walking through an airport, being on an airplane, meeting a stranger. Sometimes it’s easier to talk to a stranger than it is to talk to someone that you know very well.

MP: So you feel surrounded rather than isolated?

Reitman: Oh, I definitely feel surrounded rather than isolated.

MP: If you could spend more time on the road or more time at home working, which would you choose?

Reitman: You know what? As a filmmaker, I get a real healthy balance. When I’m writing, I’m alone in a room. When I’m directing, I’m out surrounded by a hundred people. When I’m promoting, I get to see the world. I feel very fortunate to do what I do. I like things to stay fresh and different. And as a director, every year I get to explore a new world.

MP: In terms of source material for “Up in the Air,” when did you first become aware of Walter Kim’s novel?

Reitman: I found the book in 2002 in a bookstore. And, really, there was a quote on the cover by Christopher Buckley, who wrote “Thank You for Smoking,” and I figured, well, if he likes it I’ll like it too.

MP: So you were just following a Christopher Buckley guide. Is there any else he’s recommended for you?

Reitman: Yeah, seriously, I should really look at his New York Times book reviews because that should be my next movie.

MP: Although, of course, you took a break between “Thank You for Smoking” and this film to make with “Juno,” which came straight from a screenplay.

Reitman: Well, every once in a while you read a screenplay like “Juno” that’s just so damn good that you can’t say no.

MP: In terms of the last couple of years of your life, have you managed to take stock of all that’s happened or do you just keep moving?

Reitman: I just keep moving. I think it’s dangerous to take stock a little too much because you become frozen and it becomes harder to make your next choice. So I always like to know what my next movie is.

MP: If men mark their territory by putting their name on stuff, do all the credits you have on this film mean you’re winning?

Reitman: Winning what? The game of life? … I’m happily married. I’m a proud father. And in that sense, I think I am winning the game of life.