The Right Men: Ivan and Jason Reitman
By Andrea Simpson, Special to Hollywood.com
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Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Ivan Reitman: The screening really rocked and Thank You For Smoking became the center of a bidding war and it was quite famous there. One evening Paramount was very clear about buying it, but they didn't actually close the deal. Meanwhile Fox Searchlight came about that same evening and stole the movie away about four o'clock in the morning. It became the story of the festival and an interesting start to your film career. So why Juno?
Jason Reitman: I was writing my next screenplay when a buddy of mine called me and says I've got a great script for you to read. It's a teen comedy written by a former stripper… Usually most screenplays aren't very good, but 10 pages in I was like, ‘This is good, I'm actually going to enjoy this.” Page 30, I was like “This is great!”… I thought if I don't direct this, I’m going to regret it for the rest of my life. And then they hired a different director and for about a year he was going to direct the movie and I was truly heartbroken. It's very hard to decide what movie you should make and what movie you shouldn’t. If it makes you sick to your gut to think about someone else directing a movie, that's the movie you need to direct. It's like a girl… when you think about a girl with another guy and it really upsets you, that’s a girl worth keeping (laughs from audience). It broke my heart that I couldn’t direct it, and Brad [Silberling] and the producers went their separate ways and when they called me and said, “Do you want to direct this?” I was so excited to get that call.
Ivan Reitman: Were you surprised by its success?
Jason Reitmen: Absolutely! I knew people would like it. I remember saying this is a charming movie, it's funny, it's going to make people laugh. Everything that has happened has been a surprise—what happened with the music, what happened with the awards, what happened with the box office. The greatest moment, and I don't think I'll ever have another one again like this, was… I consider film festival audiences my audience. You always told me that you understood how the summer crowd thought. What I think about the film festival audience, I feel like I know them. I may be wrong everywhere else, but I know what’s going to make them laugh. So we brought it to Toronto and we got a standing ovation in Toronto.
Ivan Reitman: It lasted five minutes.
Jason Reitman: It went on for a while. It was so wonderful. You always know when you move people and that was the moment I realized when I moved this crowd and that was I think the most fulfilling moment I've had as a director.