Director Jason Reitman’s Love Letter to ‘Saturday Night’

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Lemonada Media

Society & Culture, Film Interviews, Tv & Film

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2024

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Since his directorial debut in 2006, Jason Reitman has made the kind of films they say Hollywood doesn’t make anymore.

Today, we sit to discuss his latest project Saturday Night (9:09), the influence of 1970s movies like Michael Ritchie’s The Candidate (12:46), and the details Reitman and his co-writer Gil Kenan collected from dozens of interviews leading up to production (17:45). Then, Jason describes the dynamic between Lorne Michaels and his father, the late director Ivan Reitman (21:55), his formative years at the movie theater (25:50), and the filmmakers that shaped his early work: Alexander Payne, Kevin Smith, Spike Jonze, and Richard Linklater (31:03).

On the back-half, we talk about Reitman’s debut film Thank You For Smoking (39:06), the collaborators that shaped Juno (42:50), his personal connection to Up in the Air (43:10), and lessons from making Young Adult (49:43) and Labor Day (51:08). To close, a story about fatherhood (53:00) and the joy of directing (58:58).

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Transcript

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0:00.0	On Notes from America, we have conversations with people across the country about how we can truly become the nation that we claim to be.
0:09.0	Each week we talk about race, our politics, education, relationships, usually all of them, because everything's
0:16.2	connected and you, our listeners, are at the center of those conversations.
0:20.6	I'm Ky Wright, join me on Notes from America wherever you get your
0:24.1	podcasts. Pushkin. This is talk easy. I'm San Fr writer director Jason Wright. Today I'm joined by writer-director Jason Reitman.
1:15.0	Since his 2006 director directorial debut, thank you for smoking,
1:20.0	Reitman has made the kind of films they say,
1:22.0	Hollywood doesn't make anymore.
1:23.6	Small personal stories led by big, bankable movie stars.
1:28.0	Up in the air with George Clooney,
1:29.7	young adult with Charlie Tharran,
1:31.8	Labor Day with both Josh Brolin and Kate Winslet.
1:35.6	The list goes on.
1:37.3	After a string of successes both critically and commercially, Wrightman received a kind of benediction, a four-time Oscar-nominated filmmaker
1:46.4	anointed as the next big thing. But there was a price to pay for that praise.
1:51.6	After all, the only thing this industry seems to enjoy more than building someone up
1:57.0	is tearing them down.
1:58.8	We talk about that swing in this the manic 90 minutes that led up to the very first broadcast of Saturday Night Live.
2:15.0	Here's a clip from the trailer.
2:17.0	Do we go again?
2:19.0	Good actors on their boat.
2:20.0	My name is Lauren Michaels. I'm the producer and creator of Saturday night.
	...

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