The 10 Most Monstrous Jason Reitman Quotes From One 10-Minute Conversation with Roger Ebert

Until today, I'd somehow and quite miraculously managed to avoid any direct contact with the solipsistic bore that is Jason Reitman, confident in the knowledge that he was already well taken care of by the cadre of sycophantic film bloggers curled obediently at his feet, content to snatch up whatever pie-chart crumbs or slivers of contemplative self-regard should happen to tumble from his constantly moving lips. Well, that was nice while it lasted. Roger Ebert has just posted a series of short video conversations with Reitman -- in Chicago for his aggressively tweeted audience with Queen Oprah -- and while the legendary film critic assessed the Up in the Air director as "forthright and thoughtful," I probably would have gone with very different adjectives. Here then, in no particular order beyond that of awfullest to awfullest, are Reitman's ten most monstrous quotes.

1. "This movie that I'm writing right now -- I know what actors I want for it. I'll be able to go to them easily, and presumably it will be easier to greenlight than my first movie, or my second."

2. "It's easy to get caught up in a moment and think, 'Oh, I've been offered some giant studio film or a superhero franchise or some actor wants to meet with me about a project they want to do.' And it's easy to get caught up in a moment because it's flattering. But you can't do a movie because it's flattering. You have to do it because it's in your bones."

3. "My personal gut test is when I think about the movie that I'm considering, if when I think about someone else directing that movie it feels worse than that same director having sex with [my wife] Michelle, that's how I know I need to do this movie."

4. "The thing I'm writing right now, if someone else made it? I'd want to kill them. If someone else made Up in the Air or Thank You For Smoking or Juno, I would have wanted to rip their head off. I need that same sort of passion for every project I take on."

5. "Hopefully I will carry that fire as long as possible. It seems that most directors don't. For whatever reason, most directors don't."

6. "I was talking to Cameron a little bit ago, about how the tentacle in The Abyss was the first step of an evolution that led to the character in Terminator 2... I feel as though Thank You For Smoking was the first step to making Up in the Air."

7. "I needed to go through a three-film journey to make Up in the Air, that said so much of what I wanted to say about the politics of this economy, the politics of midlife crisis, and female midlife crisis vs. male midlife crisis, and the complex identity crisis that working women go through. All these ideas, and they kind of [began in] Thank You For Smoking and built to Up in the Air."

8. "Everything I've wanted to turn into a film becomes something new and different when it becomes a movie...Each time I work with an author, I say to them, 'A book and a movie are different things.'"

9. "I had a take on Confederacy of Dunces, for example. But I've never had a take on Catcher in the Rye."

10. "What I do feel is that Up in the Air is the most indicative film of 2009. It is the portrait of 2009. And when you look at this State of the Union that happened a couple of days ago, that was all about unemployment being at its highest since 1983, and all about job creation, and you realize how this film is kind of a portrait of America right now...I hope that doesn't come off arrogant. I really don't mean it that way."

· Jason Reitman in conversation [Roger Ebert's Journal]



Comments

  • The Winchester says:

    "But I’ve never had a take on Catcher in the Rye"
    Please tell me Diablo Cody does, though! Honest to blog!

  • Snarf says:

    He's very annoying and probably a dick. Unlike most of Hollywood.

  • jfromp says:

    I don't expect anything relevant to come out of the mouth of a Hollywood-type. They have their bubble, which grows exponentially along with their ego, and the whole world is filled with pricks dying to burst these fragile constructs. Some German misanthrope wrote a whole book about it in 1962, "Das Haupt Vom Maus-Konig" I believe it was called.

  • Cinesue says:

    It would be nice if someone would explain exactly why there's so much hatred for this guy rather than "he's a jerk". Did he kick your dog or something? This is the first time I've ever heard anyone talk about him like that.
    I've known a lot of indie directors, and they all feel like whatever film they're doing now is the most important thing ever. You have to, because production companies aren't exactly throwing money at you, so you have to fight for everything you want. Reitman still has to convince producers to let him do things like shoot on multiple locations rather than a set. It's not like he's James Cameron...yet.

  • Brian says:

    I don't understand the hate - he seems like a pretty normal guy in most of the interviews I've heard with him. Sure, he knows he's talented, but I don't see what's wrong with that.

  • NoWireHangers says:

    For a minute there, I was afraid you'd gone soft on us.

  • NoWireHangers says:

    I'll just ominously add that some people believe that the ghost of John Kennedy Toole haunts and destroys anyone who ever attempts to breathe life into A Confederacy of Dunces film.

  • Max says:

    The Oscar smear campaign has started early this year.

  • Maxim says:

    "Until today, I’d somehow and quite miraculously managed to avoid any direct contact with the solipsistic bore that is Jason Reitman, confident in the knowledge that he was already well taken care of "
    Here it is, the most "mosterous" self-absorbed quote of them all.
    At least Reitman ACTUALLY makes well received movies, what have you got?
    Fucking tools.

  • Michael Strangeways says:

    Are you kidding me? He's the King of Pretension and the movies are hacky, coyly banal and overly twee.

  • thigh master says:

    he makes DUNCES and I'll slit my own eyes out repoopulous, then slit Diablo Cody's mouth and fingers, and then take a time machine and destroy Ivan Reitman's penis

  • Tamar says:

    There are a ton of successful industry people who went to USC, who are mostly not film royalty progeny; the school has nothing to do with the conceit of some of its graduates.

  • Michael F. says:

    This is just a vile nasty post that serves no purpose. You don't like Jason Reitman's films, well that's okay. But this personal attack on Reitman is pathetic and unwarranted, and totally unprofessional.
    Movieline should be ashamed of itself for running this.

  • I agree that these are not monstrous quotes, but anybody who doesn't see the arrogance is blind.
    James Cameron is also arrogant, but at least he made it on his own and wrote/directed Terminator/Aliens/Terminator 2. He earned the right clobber us with Titanic and Avatar.
    I find it telling that most of Reitman's defenders here say they didn't like Juno, think Up in the Air is "okay," and Thank You for Smoking is "cute."
    So...you don't really like any of his movies then? Yet you are defending him as he blathers on about his holy trilogy that holds a mirror to our complicated society? Spare me...
    The problem with all three movies is that the direction was AWFUL--the stories had great potential, the actors were well-chosen and talented...but ultimately everything fell victim to an obtrusive and talentless puppeteer with no style.
    Bottom line: If it weren't for Ivan, Jason would be a career director's assistant--a talentless sycophant to the end, constantly pestering people at parties to read his 'awesome script' that sucks.

  • Tony says:

    Most comments for weeks. Nice job you fucking sheep. Candy from babies eh Seth?

  • stolidog says:

    double sided, back handed, 3 full rotations slap down, but a slight step on the landing.
    just in time for the olympics.

  • Anya says:

    I love you for this comment.
    Did anyone here see his thing at the WGA where he talked about his "struggle"? I mean, before he did Juno, people were offering him projects that he just didn't want to DO! Yes, indeed, what a struggle, to be offered work. You've really got your pulse on the finger of the American worker, Reitman.

  • SunnydaZe says:

    I always love the above thesis.
    Translated> "You have never made a well-received movie or any movie for that matter; so keep your pie-hole shut! Only famous film-makers are allowed to have opinions!"
    Roger Ebert is one of the most trusted film critics of all time and he never directed a movie. (now, quick> someone tell me how he wrote "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls")

  • SunnydaZe says:

    Hey, you are comment number 42! What does that make you??

  • TButterfield says:

    ARTICLE AND COMMENT RECAP:
    Reitman: Blah blah cinema blah directing blah blah.
    Abramovitch: It is important that people know I think Reitman is not important. I could either not cover this story at all, or make fun of him. I choose the latter.
    Comments: Yeah, he totally sucks. No he doesn't. You haven't made any movies. Think of the children.
    100 years from now: Crickets chirping.

  • SunnydaZe says:

    Hey, you are comment number 45! What does that make you??

  • Anya says:

    Cultural commentary may be transitory, but a) that's the nature of culture, and b) Reitman is being vaunted as the second coming of cinema/the voice of our generation, when in fact his work is for the most part unapologetically whitebread, overrated, and hacky. I for one am happy to find someone else who says that that Reitman doesn't speak for him, much less the unemployed, the disadvantaged, or god forbid, the modern working woman.

  • DarkKnightShyamalan says:

    Wow. It takes so little to get a ton of backlash these days. This guy made three films that tons of people love, he's been incredibly open to fans and interviewers, and he doesn't hate on other filmmakers.
    What does it take to be liked by the snarkosphere? Seriously. I want to know. I guess you have to make a movie more like "In the Loop," which I found insufferable after about the 35-minute mark but which tons of others seem to have fallen head-over-Chuck-Taylors for.
    But if "In the Loop" had been nominated for everything and made tons of money and the director was doing lots of interviews and tweets? He'd have been torn to pieces.

  • SugartitsMcFirecrotch says:

    Well, one man's "Monstrous" is another man's "forthright and thoughtful" . . . frankly, considering most of the talentless, hack douchebags in the industry, I don't find Jason to be all that irksome.
    Is it a bad thing when the backlash is so predictable that I don't even get a crick in my neck (much less whiplash)?

  • dave says:

    Reitman,
    Thanks for letting everyone know that you were offered Spider-Man before Marc Webb. Classy.
    P.S. It's not Juno hate that you and Diablo experience. It's your whole, "I'd rather be the guy that sneaks up on them." No, you wouldn't, or you wouldn't do every single interview thrown at you, or Tweet incessantly, etc. It's not selling the movie. And Diablo, Jesus, give it a rest. Your interview with Peter Travers was nauseasting. "I'd rather not do all the red carpet stuff, but you have to sell the movie." No, if you'd rather do all that, you wouldn't have hired a publicist. And stop rolling your eyes when people ask about the stripper stuff. If not for the stripper, yes, you wouldn't be getting interviews, and you wouldn't have written a script in general. Sex sells, and that's the reason people even ask you the same question over and over again. When you're 70, people 40 years younger than you are going to be snickering how your old-ass used to dance in strip clubs. There won't be any taboo around it, but it'll still be annoying, and get snickers because, you know, you'll be old. Some of us get acclaim the old fashioned way, and give interviews as well. But we don't say, "No one else has ever done what I've done."
    Yeah, still Jenny Juno, and then claim it was original. Thief.