Bringing out baby

>> Director Jason Reitman on his
tender-hearted indie favourite Juno

by MARK SLUTSKY

This year’s indie breakout feel-good hit looks to be Juno, a charming and playfully idiosyncratic comedy written by up-and-coming screenwriter Diablo Cody and directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking). Canadian Ellen Page plays the title character, a teen who gets knocked up after sleeping with her best friend (Michael Cera) and decides to go ahead and have the baby, and to hand it off to childless couple Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner.

With a supporting cast that also includes J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney, a soundtrack dominated by the Moldy Peaches and indie faves like Belle and Sebastian and the Velvet Underground, and Cody’s crackling absurdist dialogue, Juno is a tender-hearted and goofy rom-com that’s eminently likeable.

The Mirror spoke to Reitman at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, where the film had become a festival hit.

Mirror: Did you have an idea of the cast right away?

Jason Reitman: Ellen was basically an immediate thought, and I just started filling it out. J.K. I’d already worked with on Thank You for Smoking, Allison I was already a big fan of, and Michael Cera—I was a huge fan of Arrested Development and I thought Michael was just perfect. Everything fell into place very quickly. Everyone kept on saying yes, which was helpful.

M: It’s great to see Jason Bateman and Michael Cera in the same movie together.

JR: No kidding! The temptation was to put them in the same scene together. You want to do that so badly but it would’ve just been wrong, particularly in this movie, where the father and son from Arrested Development are oddly fighting over the same girl!

M: The movie’s dialogue is so great and particular; did you have an idea of how you wanted the actors to play it?

JR: The trick is keeping it as honest as possible. Diablo is so articulate and creates these expressions you’ve never heard before, but you always understand what they mean. The trick was making sure that the actors seemed honest and that they didn’t sound like they were trying to be cute.

M: Did the cast take to the script right away?

JR: Absolutely. That’s why we chose the cast that we did, because they were people who could deliver this dialogue in an honest way. Particularly Ellen, who had the toughest job, but she makes it look easy.

M: She’s amazing.

JR: She’s so talented it’s frightening.

A musical mix

M: Tell me about soundtracking the film.

JR: It’s a mix of a lot of our tastes. Diablo had a lot of songs that were written into the screenplay right from the beginning, it was a very musical movie. Then the big thing that affected this movie was that I asked Ellen at one point, “What do you think Juno would listen to?” And she said, “The Moldy Peaches.” And I went and looked them up, and she showed me a couple of songs specifically that I fell in love with, and then I got in touch with [Moldy Peaches] singer Kimya Dawson, and she sent me all her solo work, and it became the soundtrack of the movie.

M: It really contributes to the handmade feel of the movie.

JR: Yeah, everything from the opening title sequence to the stuff on Juno’s wall, to our wardrobe, to the songs has a handmade quality which hopefully brings you into this world of sweetness that allows you to enjoy the movie.

M: I like how you handle the scene at the abortion clinic, when Juno chooses to have the baby.

JR: It’s interesting, because this is not a movie about abortion at all. It’s almost not even a movie about pregnancy: pregnancy just kind of serves as the location. My favourite comment is Diablo’s—that if she’d had an abortion, it would be a very short movie! I’ve always felt that people should make decisions for themselves and that’s one of the things I liked about the screenplay, that it really didn’t judge any of the characters for their actions. I thought that Diablo’s screenplay handled the abortion issue perfectly.

M: It’s also nice how the movie resists the temptation to make anyone a bad guy; everyone is somewhat sympathetic.

JR: I agree. They’re real. And that was the trick, finding actors who could be honest. Because if you bring in the wrong actor and they start playing it in one direction or another, all of a sudden they seem like they’re trying to be a hero or trying to be a villain, rather than just being honest. I think you walk away from the film and all the characters have their good qualities and their flaws. They’re just real people.

Juno opens this Friday, Dec. 21