Jason Reitman - Why Diablo Cody was Right (again)
Jason Reitman - Why Diablo Cody was Right (again)
The producer of Juno and Jennifer's Body talks high school vixens and villains.
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Jennifer’s Body Set Visit from 2008, Staci Layne Wilson reporting
Q: So why the decision to produce, rather than direct, the Diablo Cody script this time around?
Jason Reitman: God, I never even really considered directing in this movie. That was never really in the cards. I've been writing my next movie for a few years now and I'll hopefully direct it by the end of the year. So when Dan Debiecki, my producing partner and I read Jennifer's Body, the idea was always just for this to be the first film that Hard C, our company would produce. We just fell in love with the script which we do with everything that Diablo writes. It was never a question of "Am I ever going to direct this", as it was "Who is the perfect director for this". In meeting Karyn Katsuya, it was just a match made in heaven. I mean, here is a woman who kind of had a similar birthplace to me, we both came out of the Sundance Film festival, and she just seemed the perfect fit.
Q: What was it about the material that you responded to? This is kind of a campy horror comedy so then that's a hard thing to take a crack at, isn't it?
Reitman: I've always been a fan of horror films and I've probably seen more horror films in the theaters than I do comedies. I always found that horror and comedy are almost siblings. They are absolutely related. They both come from storytellers who want to elicit a specific reaction from the audience. It's not drama where a film can simply wash over you. The storyteller that makes a comedy or makes a horror film wants the audience to do specific things at certain times. I've always loved both and in this film particularly, A: Diablo wrote it and I adore that woman. Everything she writes is genius. And it made me laugh and it scared me and I just saw the story and I dug it. It was a script that took teenagers seriously. And there was warmth to it. I remember specifically the first time I saw A Nightmare on Elm Street, there was warmth to those 80s horror films that somehow has been lost in the last 10 years. I feel like recently most horror films I see fall in two categories, either gore and decimation or this world or very cold horror films that have sprung from The Ring. The Ring spawned a whole series of films, whether American or Japanese, that are cold and speak of loneliness. This was a very warm teenage horror film that reminded me of the stuff that I watched as a kind and I really wanted to make.
Q: How does it compare, say, to Scream?
Reitman: Scream was a really sophisticated film and certainly if we could say that we made the Scream of our generation then we'd be thrilled. I would say that the difference is that Scream was very 90s in that it was very self-aware, while the 80s horror films weren't self aware and even in Diablo's writing, there is kind of a self-awareness to it, because it kind of acknowledges iconography and advertising and all of that the emotions are in the moment and real. It is same way that I think of 80s horror films.
Q: The last outing with Diablo [Juno] is obviously a success on every level. How much did that contribute to your decision to return Vancouver to shoot?
Reitman: That actually had nothing to do with it. I started shooting in Vancouver 7 years ago when I started making commercials up here and my wife is from here and my producer/partner Daniel's wife is from here. I love this city and we're up here whether we are shooting or not. I just really like shooting here and it provides a fantastic crews, fantastic cast, great background. Juno and Jennifer's Body both happen to be movies where nature was very important and the great thing about Vancouver is that you get a variety of nature. Juno is a film that took place over multiple seasons and we were able to get snow and we were able to get trees and we were able to get fall colors. All sorts of the cherry blossoms. There are so many things that Vancouver provided for Juno and Jennifer's Body is the same. There are scenes that take place at waterfalls and in the forest there are all sorts of stuff that we can get here that we couldn't get anywhere else.
Q: When did you read the script in comparison to Juno? Was it during the shooting of that or was it after that finished?
Reitman: It was right before Juno went into theaters, I think. It was the end of last year when I read this for the first time.
Q: Diablo has done a few scripts hasn't she?
Reitman: She's a very busy girl. I've read the pilot that she did for Showtime [United States of Tara]. And I could have sworn that I've read something else that she has written but it's not coming to mind right now. I think I have read something else of hers but I can't think of it right now.
Q: How do her scripts generally read? Does she write a lot of detail in them?
Reitman: Oh yeah, she is a very specific writer. I feel bad for the film audience because they never get all of that wonderful description. Her descriptions are just as funny as her dialogue and they are very accurate and very funny. There is a lot of precision to her writing.
Q: She's got this thing that most writers don't have, in that she's a writer that people recognize. Most people have no idea who most writers are until they become personalities for some reason. What do you thing that she has that a lot of other writers who are doing great scripts don't have?
Reitman: There is a combination of things. She has an unbelievable name just to start with. I remember the first time I told Christopher Buckley, the author of "Thank you For Smoking", the book, when I told him that I was doing a movie with Diablo Cody, he was like, "Oh what a fantastic name!" He just loved it. And then her history is really interesting. The fact that she went from a blogger to a screenwriter. The fact that she won an Oscar on the first thing that she ever wrote. No, the first thing ever produced… but the first thing she ever sat down and wrote won her an Oscar. There is so much to her. Her look, she wears leopard print every single day. And also because she is so damned charming and so funny. Most writers like myself become writers because we can't express that type of charm and humor in our public self as we can on the page. Given the opportunity we could sit down and write and be very funny, but in person much less so. She is someone who is just as quick wit and just as interesting in person as she is on the page. And because of that, she has become an icon.
Q: You mention that you are a horror fan. Could you see yourself writing or directing one at some point?
Reitman: I actually wrote a horror film. There was going to be two films that were going to be my first movie. One was Thank You for Smoking and the other was going to be this horror film that I wrote. I'm not as good on horror as Diablo is. Particularly in the older stuff. But I just love the genre and I would one day love to do a horror film.
Q: How is it, balancing the horror with the comedy?
Reitman: Well, the film is not cut yet. I think it will be a more interesting balance when it comes to editing. When you shoot gore, or at least for us when you are shooting gore, we shoot different amounts. We'll shoot a version that is pretty gory and then we will shoot a version that is fairly tame. And that is just because you have to figure out the film tonally in the edit and see what the audience is prepared for. The film kind of finds itself in editing. I've always found that during editing the film starts telling you who it is and then you have to kind of start listening to that. So I'm not really worried about that. Karyn is so smart. She understands this film explicitly. Plus she understands most, that what is very important is character. Who these kids are, what their relationships are. And everything kind of builds on top of that and she'll know the exact amount of gore to put in.
Q: What made Karyn want to direct? It is very different to the films that we've seen from her before.
Reitman: When I think of Girl Fight, the film that portrayed teen-aged girl relationships in a way that I really hadn't seen in any other film. So in that sense she was kind of perfect. And when I started talking to her about the look of the film and she started pulling out these tearsheets from magazines and artists that were just perfect. She just understood the film.
Q: Even though you say that you weren't ever interested in directing this project, is it difficult for you on set to step back and allow someone else to do it?
Reitman: You know, a little bit at first. You can't help it. I'm sitting there on set and my inclination is to hop out of the chair and go talk to the actors, and you have to just hold yourself back a little. It reminds me of on Thank You For Smoking, my father would come to the set and my producer Dan would have to stop him from coming to talk to me and talk to the actors. But for me it's actually very easy [to step back] because she is so damned good. And she gets it so well. After awhile, I just start to kind of relax and enjoy Craft Services. It's finding a whole new role on set! [laughs]
Q: What kind of impact has that new role for you had in terms of your working relationship with Diablo?
Reitman: Oh, that is interesting. It's hard to make a comparison because Juno was her first film so everything was still a discovery process for her as far as filmmaking went. On Juno… now she has a pretty good idea on how things work and she is a producer on this. We are collaborators. In that sense it's the same. We were collaborators on Juno and we are collaborators on this.
Q: Are you hands-on producer then? Are you always on set?
Reitman: I was on set quite a lot. I left in the middle of it because I've actually been writing and I'm finishing my own screenplay. The first three weeks I was there every single day and after awhile I realized that this is going great. I have no concerns. Everyone here is perfect.
Q: How is your own screenplay coming along? Because there is a lot of pressure on this one. You did quite well with the last one.
Jason Reitman: I guarantee this new one will be considered a failure in my dream.
Q: Can you tell us any details about it?
Jason Reitman: I can tell you nothing about it.
Q: It's based on a book, isn't it?
Reitman: It's based on a book. It's much more like Thank You For Smoking than it is Juno. And it probably won't do very well. It won't do very well in a sense that it'll do business like Thank You For Smoking. Juno was supposed to be one of those films and then an accident happened and it made a lot of money and won a lot of awards. Fortunately I grew up in the film business, so I understand that life has various moves to it and you really never know when your success or your failure is going to happen. You just have to keep on making movies, and that is all that there is to it.
Q: Ratings play a big part in a lot of the genre these days. Are you going for the PG-13?
Reitman: This is an R film, with no NC-17. As written, it's an R. We all know we're making an R, but there is nothing in it that will put us in danger of being unreleasable.
Q: How early on in pre-production were Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried's names being tossed around for the cast?
Reitman: Megan was immediately. Amanda shortly thereafter, as soon as we started looking for Needy. We were all fans for hers and all fans from different things. Some of us from Mean Girls. I was an Alpha Dog fan. Others were fans of the Big Love show and it was just kind of clear.
Q: Did you get any advice from your father on career moves, post huge success?
Reitman: Yeah, he said don't worry; you will have failure so just keep on making movies.
Q: How often do you two talk about the business?
Jason Reitman: Every day. There is something to talk about every day. I hope that never changes.
Q: Do you call him for advice?
Reitman: Oh, yeah. Of course, on everything. From the tiny details to the biggest stay up at night questions. We have a great relationship. The fun thing is that he calls me about stuff too now. He's got stuff in production and he shows me screenings and I talk to him about his stuff and its fun.
Q: Are there any talks of grooming Diablo along in terms of letting her take a crack at directing?
Reitman: Oh I'm confident that she will be directing sooner than you think. And she won't need my help.
Q: So you guys won't do a role reversal where you can write and she can direct?
Reitman: I think if she is directing it will probably be something that she writes. It takes me too long to write. She writes things in a matter of weeks and it takes me years. She would have to wait a long time. She would be too old by the time I was done!
Q: So where do you feel more comfortable — behind a typewriter or on the set?
Reitman: In the editing room is where I feel comfortable. I don't feel really comfortable writing or directing. I like editing. I think writing and directing are two necessary evils to get you to editing. By the time I had made my first feature, I had been doing commercials and short films for so many years that there was a certain confidence in that I knew what I was doing. After I made one feature that seemed to work, there was confidence in the second one. You have to have a plan, [but] you have to go by your gut and not worry too much about it. I tend not to over-philosophize the ideas. I really go from my gut. I just trust that and I know that sometimes there is going to be some right and some wrong, and I just go with it. And that's why I make movies.
Q: Would you ever be up for a blockbuster, like Favreau's done — from the indies to the big budget?
Reitman: I want to stick with these films for awhile. Someday I can see myself doing a big film. But it's not the kind of films that are generally in my heart. I have been offered a lot of opportunities to direct big movies and none of them really interest me. I like to make small movies. I have many more ideas for smaller, stranger films than I have for bigger affairs. I have one idea, I have my Ghostbusters idea and one day I'll direct it and I think it's pretty cool. It's a big sci-fi comedy, but that's not what I think about most. But like if I could only make one more movie, and it was either my big sci-fi comedy movie or like the weirdest of my weird ideas like to remake Pretty Woman shot for shot with a real hooker in the role of Julia Roberts, I probably would do the Pretty Woman. That is kind of where my heart is. Those were the films that got me excited about making movies. In the 80s when I was a kid I was a film fan. My parents would drop me off at the Cineplex, I would go and see big movies and I loved them and then the moment I decided to become a filmmaker was when I started seeing these movies coming out of Sundance. My dad had a laserdisk of Slackers. And I said, "What the hell is this?" and I put it on and I said, "Whoa!" And I went to the lovely Sunset 5 in L.A. and I saw Clerks and I saw Bottle Rocket and Citizen Ruth and a couple others and I thought: this is my voice, this is what I want to do. I remember I told Kevin Smith that and he said, "You grew up on the set of Ghostbusters and you had to see my little 16 mm movie that I shot at Red Bank New Jersey to realize that you wanted to be a director?" I am like "Yeah... that was the moment for me."
Q: Would you ever consider making a superhero film?
Reitman: No, I mean If I was going to make a superhero film, I would want it to be hyper-real. I thought a little bit about what superhero stories could be told that way and right now the greatest success seems to be with these marvel films. I like them, I like them a lot, but I just can't imagine myself making one of those. But if there was kind of a hyper-real version of one that I could do, that would be a lot of fun. I would probably consider it.
Q: Is it difficult to direct your own writing?
Reitman: Only in that you are always wondering, "Is this any good?" When you're directing somebody else's writing, you can hold onto that gut feeling. Kubrick developed the idea is that you harness the reaction you had the first time you read a piece of material and every day you are trying to achieve that. Just remember that because that is what you want your audience to feel. If you originate something yourself, you're going off of a gut. That movie Baby-Mama had a decent joke about how you wake up in the middle of the night and you have this thought that comes out of a dream and you write it down and the next day you say, "What the hell was that?" You just never quite know. But everything I've written so far, except for the horror film was an adaptation in one way or another. I usually go off my gut reaction to a book or something like that.
Q: Is it important for you to go from one project to another project that is very different from the previous one?
Reitman: I don't know, I haven't made enough movies to figure that out yet. I've only made two moves. They were pretty different. The next one is kind of similar to Thank You For Smoking. I'm too young to answer that properly.
Q: You mentioned very briefly early on that she came up immediately when you were thinking of people for the lead in this: Megan Fox. Why was it her name that came up?
Reitman: That came up prior to me to be perfectly honest. Mason Novick who discovered Diablo was the producer on this movie from day one. The packaged it with Megan Fox and then Dan and I came on after that. The great surprise of Megan Fox was how funny she is. I had seen her in Transformers, and then met her in person. This girl is absolutely beautiful. She was great in that movie, but this is a movie that had a lot of comedy and I knew nothing of her ability in comedy. A great discovery for me on this has been that she is really funny. And not like, "Oh look she can be funny", but real-deal funny. She reminds me of Rachael McAdams in Mean Girls.
Q: Does she know what film this is inspired by? [80s horror] She was probably too young to be around when a lot of them came out.
Reitman: I've never gone through a list and said, "What are your thoughts on this film?" I've never given her like a pop quiz. She's very well read and very hip. She's no dummy and she suffers no fools. She knows exactly what she is doing here.
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