Birth of a film
It's expected to earn an Oscar nomination
or two. Not a bad effort given Juno
is the first feature film by screenwriter Diablo Cody and the
second one for director Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking).
The film screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and
was an instant success, which is what sparked the Oscar rumours.
The film stars Ellen Page (X Men: The Last Stand) as
a sassy 16-year-old who becomes pregnant after her first sexual
encounter and decides to seek out the perfect pair of adoptive
parents (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner). While the plot might
sound so so, what distinguishes it, is the whip smart dialogue
and the brutally honest characters. Gaynor Flynn caught up with
the writer and director at Toronto, and here's what they had to
say.
How
did you find the writer-director relationship?
Diablo Cody: As a writer this was an incredibly
unique experience because Jason is so respectful to the material
and such a generous, gracious wonderful person. I just could not
have been luckier.
Jason Reitman: [laughs] It's all true.
Diablo Cody: Writers typically are not treated
with that level of respect on a film and I was allowed to come
to the set I was able to give input and I know that's a really
rare situation so I'm really grateful.
Jason Reitman: This was a script I fell in love
with but I could not even pretend to understand what was going
through the mind of a pregnant 16-year-old girl and most often
I'd be asking Diablo as well as Ellen (Page) what would the character
really be feeling here. Why are they saying this or why are they
doing this or I want her to go down this hallway and why would
she do that and they brought incredible insight and I'm thrilled
that Diablo is able to spend as much time as she did with us.
What appealed about the story particularly?
Jason Reitman: You know what I loved about it?
It was similar to Thank You For Smoking, it was a tricky subject
matter, it was teenage pregnancy but obviously it wasn't an after
school special. This story took a very enlightened view on the
subject and was a story that allowed all the characters to react
in a very original way. It was a screenplay that every time a
decision had to be made a line of dialogue to be said, it was
unpredictable.
Can you talk about casting Ellen Page?
Jason Reitman: I hadn't met her before but I'd
seen her in Hard Candy and like everyone fell in love with her.
What was it about her?
Jason Reitman: She's just honest, she's real. I
mean what I look for in an actress isn't there ability to be dramatic
or their ability to be funny I just want honest performances and
if you look across the board everyone in this film is just very
real and very honest and this is not a script that was filled
with jokes it's a script that's filled with very human moments
and it was going to be funny as long as the actors performed it
real. And I look at Ellen and that's what separates her from every
other actor of her generation is that she's just real and she
brings honesty to every moment and this is beyond the fact that
she's so talented and when I met her in person it was even more
so it was like meeting Juno.
I understand you connected on the quirky music
level?
Jason Reitman: Yeah I'm a big music fan but I'd
never heard of the Mouldy Peaches until Ellen introduced them
to me and that became the soundtrack of the film.
The original dialogue is one of the talking
points in the film. Did you do the Cameron Crowe thing where you
went undercover?
Diablo
Cody: You know what I didn't. I'm notoriously lazy about research.
I usually just dive into something and just hope that I don't
make an ass of myself. I didn't talk to any teenagers, I always
feel as an adult I've had a weird ability to be able tap into
youth culture, I just think I'm immature. But I was a little nervous,
I didn't know how this was going to be received by young people
but the teenagers I know that have seen it thought it sounded
authentic. Its obviously a little heightened you know its not
verity but I think it worked out.
You said at the press conference that you know
someone that became pregnant as a teenager. Who was that?
Diablo Cody: I had a friend when I was a teenager
who got pregnant and that situation kind of inspired this in a
way because I went through that experience with her and as a teenager
who is unexpectedly pregnant is obviously going to react in a
very different way than a woman who's in her 30's and has been
trying and gets this baby shower and its this joyous occasion.
For us it was this very surreal, weird experience and we acted
like teenagers throughout he process and I just wanted to capture
that feeling.
In the press notes you say you worked as a
phone sex operator, was that a joke?
Diablo Cody: No it's true. (laughs) I have a very
sordid past.
You've obviously had an interesting past.
Diablo Cody: That's very nice of you to say and
I do think it's important and I'm in no way denigrating other
writers here but I think if you live a sheltered experience in
Los Angeles and you sit at the Coffee Bean all day and write and
have development deals, I don't know how creative you can be.
You have to stay in touch with reality and I was a stripper as
well and I've had a lot of crazy experiences as well and it definitely
helps me in terms of the creative process.
How did you get into writing?
Diablo Cody: I mostly wrote on line. I was pretty
much an unpublished writer and working as a stripper and blogging
about my adventures in the skin trade and one day I got an email
from Hollywood and it's a guy who is now my manager Mason Novak
who is also a producer on the film, and he said to me, you should
try writing a screenplay. And I wasn't an idiot and I thought
this is probably just some huckster trying to take advantage of
me and so I ignored him for quite some time and then finally he
got to me and I sat down and wrote Juno. And I never ever imagined
would come of it, certainly not like this, its been a dream.
Jason, what's surprised a lot of people is
that given your background you have turned out to be talented.
Jason Reitman: Its' a surprise isn't it? It is
always a huge surprise. Most children of directors are just drugged
out and a waste of time.
How influential was your upbringing with your
dad and having so much film in your life growing up?
Jason
Reitman: I grew up in a wonderful family with a lot of love and
unlike most parents in Hollywood my parents have been together
for over 30 years and really sheltered me from a lot of what I
heard the movie business can be and really the only aspect of
the film business they opened up to me was to become a good story
teller. My parents are both directors they've taught me to be
a good story teller and its funny I actually was scared of becoming
a director because I thought really I don't stand a chance if
I become a director I'll always be compared to my father and I'll
never have any success of my own.
What's your relationship with your dad when
you're directing?
Jason Reitman: He doesn't come to set. (laughs)
Was Jennifer Garner an obvious choice for you?
Jason Reitman: Not until I met her to be perfectly
honest. I've always been a fan of hers but it was when her and
I met each other that I realised she had many similar characteristics
to Vanessa and then it was impossible to ignore. She's one of
the sweetest human beings in Hollywood. I've honestly never met
a nicer actor in my life and she's a very devoted mother and when
we started talking about our children, we were both new parents
when we met it changed everything all of a sudden it was like
talking to Vanessa when she would talk about her daughter and
that' what we would talk about on set.
What's next?
Jason Reitman: She's talking to Spielberg its much
more exciting.
Diablo Cody: I have a pilot that I wrote for Steven
Spielberg that just got picked up by Showtime it's a half hour
comedy, a dark comedy about a mum that has multiple personalities.
Is it The United States of Terror, is it still
being called that?
Diablo Cody: As far as I know yes.
Jason Reitman: Rain Wilson from The Office who
did a cameo in this film he and I have developed a comedy that
has going to star in and I'm going to direct which is basically
Midnight Cowboy with a Ninja in the San Fernando Valley and he
is the Ninja.
Gaynor Flynn
