Thank You For Smoking - Jason Reitman interview
Compiled by Jack Foley
JASON Reitman talks about the challenge of adapting Thank You For Smoking on the big screen, as well as the care he had to take given its sensitive subject matter…
Q. Did you have to be careful in striking the right tone with your lead character, Nick Naylor, given the message he is purveying?
A: To be honest, I agree with almost everything Nick has to say. He’s never pushing cigarettes, he’s pushing the freedom to smoke and that’s something I could get behind. If this were a movie about someone actually trying to get people to smoke I’d have had a lot harder time making it. It would be a very tricky role for me to write. Then you’d have this guy who was incredibly charming all the time who was actually doing something despicable. But since he’s a guy who believes in the freedom of smoking – I know that seems like semantics – but for me that actually gives me the distance to say this guy has a point. I do believe that everyone should have the right to smoke as long as they understand the dangers. They shouldn’t be tricked into smoking. There was certainly an era in which people were, but at this point it’s hard to imagine an adult who doesn’t know the dangers of cigarettes.
Q. What has been the reaction to the film in the States?
A. Lobbyists are big fans of the book and really like the movie. But on the other hand, I’ve spoken to very liberal people who like the film just the same. I did a college tour with the movie where I went right across the US. I would go city by city, and I thought I was going to get to a lot of colleges where the students were really liberal and they’d have a hard time with this. I thought they were going to want restriction, to see these as dangerous vices. I was really surprised by how much they accepted and took ownership of the movie, and I think it’s because they’re the children of the hippy generation. They’ve gone through an education system that’s really liberal and because of that they feel they can relax and use common sense and take personal responsibility for their actions.
Q. There’s a line in the film where Nick argues that cholesterol is a bigger killer than tobacco isn’t there?
A. That’s the issue I have, with these arguments. If we were simply going after products that were dangerous, then there’s fast food restaurants we should go after, which are far more dangerous. It’s far more addictive and they’re targeting children but no one cares. All their commercials are directed at addicting children from an early age, selling them cheap, fast food that’s awful for them. As opposed to cigarettes which are under complete restriction because we’ve basically vilified smoking.
Q. Did the cast respond positively to the material straight away, or did they need gentle persuasion?
A. All the people who signed on to the film agreed with the film’s politics fairly strongly I think. One of the greatest compliments the book ever got was that Republicans thought it was theirs and Democrats thought it was theirs. You look at the cast and you can see that. Robert Duvall is a staunch Republican, while William H Macy is a liberal. They both loved the book and the screenplay and they’re both really happy with the movie. And I think that’s because these libertarian ideas ring true to both sides of the aisle. The movie doesn’t speak dishonestly about the dangers of cigarettes but, on the other hand, it’s asking for everyone to be treated fairly. I think it deals with ideas that everyone can agree on.
Q. Movies adopt a strange double standard to smoking don’t they, when it seems anything goes in terms of sex and violence and yet actors cannot light up in character?
A. That’s true, but the more important double standard right now is the violence versus sex issue. There’s such scary violence that happens on screen, I have to put my hands in front of my eyes and wait for it to end. The sex is so tame, and yet we’re so scared of it.
Q. This film speaks to those particular contradictions, doesn’t it?
A. I see this as a film about common sense. I see it as a movie that’s constantly saying: “Why aren’t we just relaxing for a second and using common sense and being rational about the situation?” That doesn’t happen enough.