There’s no pat Hollywood ending here. At least, not if Reitman has anything to say about. Having a famous director (Ivan Reitman) as a father, the young director is no stranger to the biz but even with some notoriety behind him, he still had a tough time trying to get his little comedy made–sans the “happy” conclusion. Reitman chatted with Hollywood.com about his adventures making the film, his hilarious blog page (http://thankyouforsmoking.typepad.com)—and, of course, Ms. Holmes’ infamous missing sex scene.
Hollywood.com: I just have to know the genesis behind this movie.
Jason Reitman: Well, its based on this book [of the same name] by Christopher Buckley that I just fell in love with. It was given to me as a gift, and the person who gave it to me said, “This book was written for you.” And she was right. I read the first line and it was like love at first sight. I fell in love with the characters, the political attitude, the sense of humor. It was the first time I ever thought, “I need to make this as a film.” So I got the gig in late 2000 from Mel Gibson’s production company, Icon Films, who owned the book. And I pitched them a smaller version of the book. They were trying to make this big, broad comedy but in doing so, they were softening the book. And nothing’s good about soft satire. It needed to be a film that didn’t apologize for itself and has to be cheap enough that its ballsy. So I pitched my version, wrote it in four months and they loved it. Didn’t make one note. I swear to god, they didn’t want to change a word!
HW: Did that scare you?
JR: No, not really. When someone has no notes, it kinda feels like they are genuinely interested. In fact, I actually got a call Mel Gibson who said I finally captured the tone and biting humor of the novel and he was thrilled. But then we went around to the studios and no one would touch it. No mini-majors wanted to make it. These new independent companies with private financing, they didn’t want to make it either. Yes, even when your father’s a famous filmmaker, it’s hard. They all sort of had the same problem with the film: the third act. The main character never apologizes for himself, never sees the “right of way,” puts tobacco behind him and goes to work for the Red Cross. That’s Hollywood for you. So four years go by, I’m directing commercials and I’ve pretty much given up on Thank You for Smoking. But then David Sacks, one of the creators of PayPal, came in, loved the script and the film was finally made. I think it just goes to show you, you have to work on what you believe in and have to be in it for the right reasons.
HW: Speaking of your dad, has it been hard living with the whole “famous dad” association?
JR: Actually, Christopher Buckley–whose dad is William F. Buckley–and I joked about it. Both of our names, well, mine specifically, should read, “Jason (son of Ivan) Reitman.” That’s how it always appears in print. I’ve actually thought about changing it legally to that.
HW: Did you feel blessed with such a top notch cast?
JR: I did. Aaron was first onboard but when Robert Duvall signed up, it pretty much changed the landscape for us. Our producer, David Sacks, knew that Robert Duvall loved tango, so David got this tango book, had it signed by all these great tango dancers and sent it to him with the script. Robert is a fairly conservative, politically, and I think he liked the libertarian attitude to this movie. It’s really crazy, we’d send out the script saying, “Well, Robert Duvall’s in it” and it makes people read it. People loved the words, which I attribute to Christopher Buckley. Actors want to say great words. They want to seem smart, say funny things and Christopher Buckley gave them that opportunity. I loved adapting it. I got to take all the glory for someone else’s genius. This is just a book that really spoke to me. It felt like Christopher Buckley put into words a lot of things I’d been feeling for a long time. So to get opportunity to look at his book and get to type out those words as my own was wonderful.
HW: It is great to see Aaron Eckhart get a chance to shine like this. Did you know you wanted him from the beginning?
JR: I had Aaron in mind from pretty early on. When I met him it sort of sealed the deal. He just smiled and I said, “Oh yep, there’s Nick Naylor!” You know, I talked to a lot of people who are fans of his and they say this is the role they’ve been waiting for him to play since In the Company of Men. I think a lot of people wanted to see him be that charming guy. Use all that talent and good looks to do that. [In Company of Men] he can say what he wants and get away with it. Very few people have that ability, and I think he shied away from that at first, that he was embarrassed with that gift. But in [Smoking], he rises to the occasion.
HW: Cameron Bright, as Nick’s son, is also wonderful. He always plays such creepy kids in movies like Running Scared and Birth, but finally gets to play normal for once.
JR: [Laughs] He IS a normal kid, a very sweet young man, who loves paint ball and soccer. And he’s perfect for this film because he has that incredible ability to be honest. The same reason he gets picked to do those other kind of movies–those incredible eyes of his–is the reason he was able to deliver very adult dialogue in [Smoking] with honesty. [The relationship between father and son] is the foundation of this film. Aaron and Cameron would come over to my house where I have this air hockey table and they would just sit there, playing, doing their lines. They built this wonderful kind of familiar relationship between the two of them and I think it really shows on screen.
HW: And of course, there’s Katie Holmes and the sex scene, which was fun, I admit. I’m just not quite sure what all the hoopla was about…
JR: The hoopla is the hoopla! You’re a journalist, you know how it goes. The scene was missing and the L.A. Times wrote an article saying, “Was it the Mormons or the Scientologists?” and it took off from there. Look, if I went outside right now and asked someone on the street, “Hey, have you heard of the film Thank You for Smoking?” they’d say, “Yeah, that’s the movie with Katie Holmes’ sex scene.” And that’s good and that’s bad. The bad is that I wish they were saying, “Yeah, it’s that fantastic political satire!” But the truth is, they are aware of the film. She put the film in the public consciousness–and I guess, I have to thank her for that. Or at least the projectionist [who accidentally cut the scene]. She’s great in the film! She took on this role, I love her to death, thought she was great to work with. I think its just a shame she keeps on getting hammered like this.
HW: What kind of reactions have you been getting with the film? Has anyone taken offense?
JR: I’ve been screening this all over the country, mostly at colleges. We screened at Berkeley and I thought, “OK, this is a very liberal crowd and this is not a liberal-minded movie…this is a movie that says ‘Stay out of my business.’” And I thought the students would take offense, but they loved it. There was the one woman in the audience, though, who was a little older, very liberal. She got up and started accusing me not going after the real issues, not taking on tobacco, that our country is beholden to all these corporations, this and that. She’s going on and on–and the whole audience started to boo her. They booed her until she shut up and this one kid in front yelled, “Aw, get over yourself!” It’s been such a huge lesson to me traveling across the country, showing this in completely different environments–from Berkeley to Phoenix to Boston to D.C. Very different college audiences but they all seem to feel the same thing. This is The Daily Show generation and their attitude is, “Stop telling me what to do.” It’s something I’ve always felt but I wasn’t sure if I was alone so it’s exciting to show the film and feel these young adults taking ownership of this film.
HW: You think the movie is conservative?
JR: Not conservative, no. I just don’t think its Democrat–and that’s what makes it unique from Hollywood. In a Hollywood film, the main character two-thirds through would realize what he was doing was wrong, shun tobacco and go work for the Red Cross. And it would have this happy liberal ending like A Civil Action or an Erin Brockovich or an Insider, even Liar, Liar has that kind of ending. But that’s not what this movie is about.
HW: Tell me a little about the process of getting a distributor.
JR: Very scary. We got our distributor at the Toronto Film Festival last year. There were 300 movies there–and GREAT movies. The Squid and the Whale was there; Brokeback Mountain was there; Good Night, and Good Luck was there. On top of the 50 wonderful movies you don’t even know about. Very tough competition. I could have easily been one of the films that didn’t get bought. But I was. I was sweating bullets when the film screened but it got a great reaction and our sales agent came up to me afterward and whispered in my ear, “They’re all interested.” A few days later Paramount and Fox both claimed to own the film. And for a week, neither one of them let up. They both said, “No, we own it!” “No, we own it!” Finally, we got the word out that Fox really owned the film. So it created a lot of publicity from the get-go about this film and made people think it was needed to be seen.
HW: Wow, that must have made you feel pretty good!
JR: It was a great experience. Although its intimidating now because when critics see it, there’s the aura around the film that two distributors fought over it. I’d much rather they’d come in thinking, “OK, it’s a comedy” and they go see it and they like it versus here’s a film two studios fought over and then they’re like, “Well, it’s just a comedy.”
HW: I found it interesting that no one actually ever smokes in the film.
JR: No one smokes in the film, that’s absolutely right. I didn’t want anyone to think this was a pro or anti-smoking movie. It’s neither. It’s a film about talk, about spinning. And if there were people smoking, everyone would miss the point. They’d just walk away thinking this was a movie about cigarettes when it’s a movie about more than that. It’s about freedom of choice. It’s a movie about taking responsibility for your actions. It’s about spin culture as a whole.
Thank You for Smoking opens in limited release March 17.
