I think it’s a mistake for young filmmakers to just buy digital equipment and shoot a feature. Make short films first, make your mistakes and learn from them. – Jason Reitman
‘Juno’ really changed things for me and I get a lot of screenplays come in now, but I like to self-generate and I like to kind of pursue my own ideas. And I think the more personal the better. – Jason Reitman
I laugh a lot in horror films. If I’m scared in a horror film, I try to think about what’s scaring me… particularly, if it’s a bad movie, but something they’re doing still works. It’s the same way I look at comedy. I’ve always had an intellectual view of comedy, and what makes people laugh, and how does it work. – Jason Reitman
I think, through comedy, sometimes we’re allowed to discuss things that you’d never be able to talk about in a drama. – Jason Reitman
I’m equally guilty of using technology – I Twitter, I text people, I chat. But I think there’s something strangely insidious about it that it makes us think we’re closer when in fact we’re not seeing each other, we’re not connecting. – Jason Reitman
I’m not Michael Moore. I think Michael Moore wants to tell you how to think. He wants to give you answers. I make movies to raise my own personal questions and not to give answers. – Jason Reitman
I hear the way people talk about the children of famous people. They’re not treated very well. The presumptions are usually quite awful. So I tried to establish myself with a couple of movies. After ‘Juno’ I thought: ‘I think I’ve defined myself enough as my own director that I’d love to work with my father.’ – Jason Reitman
Unlike with any other art form, filmmakers have this unique web of festivals. There are hundreds. It is a democratic system in which you submit films, and if they are good enough, they play. The only barrier to entry is the submission fee. – Jason Reitman
Filmmaking is a completely imperfect art form that takes years and, over those years, the movie tells you what it is. Mistakes happen, accidents happen and true great films are the results of those mistakes and the decisions that those directors make during those moments. – Jason Reitman
Everyone wants to be loved; everyone wants to know where they’re going in life; everyone wants to have a sense of direction and feel the next day is going to be better than today. We just all deal with it in a different way. – Jason Reitman
I want my movies to be audience experiences. As much as I like Michael Haneke, I’m not going to make a Haneke film. That’s just not in my DNA. – Jason Reitman
There are only so many movies you can direct. And yet there are movies that I want to make sure make it to the screen in as honest a way as possible. – Jason Reitman
Most people are nostalgic in a way that they’re fond of the past, but they still are happy that they are where they are now. You know, when you say, ‘Oh, high school was this or that,’ you don’t want to go back. No matter how much you loved high school, you don’t want to actually be back in high school. I certainly wouldn’t. – Jason Reitman
My high-school years were so mediocre – I moved out when I was 16 and started living with my girlfriend who was 10 years older. Apart from that, I was just a video nerd. – Jason Reitman
‘Election’ is a movie I’d give a leg to cross the director’s name out and put mine in. – Jason Reitman
I think romance is a tool, comedy is a tool and drama is a tool. I really just want to tell stories that challenge the viewer, move people, make you laugh, perhaps push an idea about being open-minded but never settle on a genre or an opinion. I hate genre. I like movies that are original in their approach. – Jason Reitman
‘Looper’ is about what your 55-year-old self would tell your 25-year-old self over a cup of coffee. It’s about finding love in the third act of your life. It’s about overcoming trauma and the idea of true sacrifice. – Jason Reitman
People want to know if I have a moral standpoint that they should be picking up on, and the truth is, I don’t. I don’t want people to think that I’m trying to tell them to feel a certain way. I think that’s cheap filmmaking. – Jason Reitman
I don’t want to make films that give you the answer. If there is a message to my films – and I hope there isn’t – it’s to be open-minded. – Jason Reitman
When characters change on screen, it makes you feel better about yourself. You think, ‘Oh I change too, I’m constantly becoming a better person.’ – Jason Reitman
As far as writing, I like watching bad movies. Nothing stops me in my tracks more than watching a great film like ‘The Godfather’ or ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ or ‘The Graduate.’ You watch one of those, and you never want to write again. Whereas with bad movies, it makes you think, If that counts, I certainly could write. – Jason Reitman
I’m trying to figure myself out through my movies. Whether it’s big stuff like what we’re doing here, or little stuff like, ‘Why aren’t I happier?’ With every film I feel like I’m apologising for something. I feel I’m most successful when I’m looking for something that embarrasses me about my character that I’d like to expose. – Jason Reitman
All the airports kind of feel and look the same now. Some are more beautiful, some are less beautiful, but for the most part you’re going to find a Starbucks in every airport. You’re going to get your coffee and the ‘USA Today’ or ‘New York Times’ in every airport. – Jason Reitman
I’d done table reads for my own screenplays, and I always thought they were so much fun. Why couldn’t we do these for other classic screenplays and bring them to life? You can experience live theater, where you get to see plays produced by different directors and different casts, but there’s really nothing like that for movie scripts. – Jason Reitman
What I do feel is that ‘Up in the Air’ is the most indicative film of 2009. It is the portrait of 2009. – Jason Reitman
Being the son of a filmmaker, you are aware of a career as a director. You don’t think of it as just movies, but as a life. – Jason Reitman
And I certainly like being on a plane, next to a stranger, having conversations that you’d never otherwise have. You’re unplugged, your phone doesn’t work, you’re not online. – Jason Reitman
