Reitman Interview (cont.) (Essay)

On casting for Up in the Air:

I asked Reitman if he casted people like Jason Bateman (again) and Zach Galifianakis in order to draw the college-humor crowd, in order to expand his viewership beyond white-haired women in shalls. To this Reitman reacted strongly, saying he had casted Galifianakis long before The Hangover debuted, long before college-America knew of the actor/comedian. He said he likes writing for/casting people he genuinely likes and genuinely wants to work for, and expressed his frustration with the archetype that was created for Galifianakis, one that he does not fit in Up in the Air. It seemed he was saying Galifianakis' assumed character type was a detriment to his part in Up in the Air, rather than something positive he purposely set out to accomplish (as I had thought). Where audiences may expect Galifianakis to “say something stupid,” he said, they are instead met with a more or less sympathetic and straightforward character [who is only a part of the film for 60 seconds or so—JB].

Up in the Air and Jason Reitman (Essay)

NOTE: This is an article I wrote for my college newspaper after talking with Jason Reitman at the Grand Hotel in Minneapolis a few weeks back. Further, less formal/cohesive posts will soon follow detailing other things that came up in the interview I found interesting. My review of Up in the Air is also forthcoming.

For someone who makes films for a living, it might sound disconcerting that Jason Reitman finds no answers in the language of the big screen—only questions.

“I don't think there are answers,” Reitman said, his knack for philosophical discussion as apparent as it is in his films. “The only thing I'm fairly confident in is that life is infinitely complicated.”

Coming off of the success of cult comedy Thank You For Smoking and international film sweetheart Juno, Reitman's new picture, Up in the Air, which he both wrote and directed, aims to pose equally challenging questions about love, home, belonging and self in a similarly entertaining, non-aggressive, comical manner.

A story about a man who travels two-thirds of the year for his career, played by George Clooney, Up in the Air is as personal a film to Reitman as it could get.

“I really cherish my time in the air,” he said after rattling off more than two-dozen cities he's traveled to in promotion of the film.

Starting as a commercial director and transitioning into feature productions, he said he's always been accustomed to traveling, and that the detached, stringless lifestyle represented by the main character is something he can very much relate to.

Based off of a novel of the same name by Walter Kirn, Up in the Air is an adaptation that Reitman tried to keep as close to the original as the new medium would allow, taking into account the differences between the two.