Lighten up and laugh, 'Smoking' director says

Jason Reitman is un-PC and unapologetic.

"Thank You For Smoking," a tobacco-industry satire that opens Friday in Austin, is Jason Reitman's first feature film, but he's already an old hand at interviews.

"I always get basically the same questions," the 28-year-old writer-director says. Those include:

Rodolfo Gonzalez/Austin American-Statesman (enlarge photo) Jason Reitman, director of 'Thank You For Smoking,' during an interview in his Austin, Texas, hotel with the Austin American-Statesman. Reviews of "Thank You For Smoking"

•Do you smoke?

•What does your father (director Ivan Reitman) think of the film?

•And, of course, what's with that Katie Holmes business? When "Smoking" screened at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, a sex scene with Holmes and co-star Aaron Eckhart was missing, causing rumors that Holmes' fiancé, Tom Cruise, had demanded the scene's removal. The real explanation: a projector problem.

The answers are:

•No.

•Dad, who directed such comedies as "Ghostbusters" and "Stripes," loves "Thank You For Smoking."

•"The only thing that makes me feel bad is that I feel awful for Katie because I really like her," Reitman says. But, "it's great for the film. If I walked out on the street right now and asked someone 'Have you heard of "Thank You For Smoking"?' they'd say 'Yeah, it's that film with that Katie Holmes sex scene.' As much as I'd like them to say, 'Yeah, it's that brilliant satire,' I'll take it."

Reitman screened "Smoking," sex scene and all, for a turn-away crowd at the Alamo Downtown during the South by Southwest Film Festival earlier this month. Based on the novel by Christopher Buckley (who has a cameo in the movie — he's the man reading a newspaper and shaking his head), the film stars Eckhart as smooth-talking tobacco spokesman Nick Naylor. It boasts a supporting cast that includes William H. Macy, Robert Duvall, Rob Lowe and Maria Bello.

"I still look at the poster and can't believe I directed this movie," Reitman says.

These days, Reitman, who first made his mark with short films, is busy with another white-collar comedy as well as a company he co-founded to nurture independent comedies. You can read more about that project — and see pictures of the barbecue Reitman enjoyed during his Austin visit — on his blog at http://thankyouforsmoking .typepad.com.

Before that Salt Lick trip, Reitman sat down with us to get the usual questions out of the way — and move on to different ones.

On audience reaction to "Thank You For Smoking": "I expected people to be mad. I've had very, very few people be mad. I think most people are fed up with being told what to do, are fed up with both sides trying to parent people. . . . There's this generation (of college students) that people say doesn't get their news from The New York Times anymore, they get it from 'The Daily Show.' And I think that's wonderful because it's the only place on television where there is no punditry going on. They're just holding up a mirror to both sides and saying, 'Look how ridiculous you are. Stop trying to tell me how to live.' "

On his spin-doctor main character: "He wouldn't have persuaded me because I feel like I'm immune to spin because I know spin is happening . . . But I love Nick, and I think he's actually kind of virtuous. People often ask me if he's an antihero, and I disagree. I think he's a hero. I think he's teaching his son to be an independent thinker, and that's really responsible."

On what not to do if you're an aspiring filmmaker: "Don't make a short film until you've gone to a ton of film festivals and seen what the market is out there. Too many filmmakers go make a short film, having never gone to a film festival. I mean, you would never write a book having never read a novel."

On being un-PC: "I think political correctness has prevented us from being humorous. We're so worried about offending people that we're not funny. We're so safe. I love to make movies that are dangerous. . . . We're all too oversensitive. We've got to chill out. You look at the films that were nominated for Oscars and they're all incredibly earnest movies. . . . So I think that attitude of my movie, and it's my attitude personally, is that we need to relax. That we're all a little too sensitive and we're in need of a good laugh."

On why comedies don't get their due: "I think there's this assumption that comedy is easy, when the reality is comedy is very tough. If you want to find out how hard comedy is, just go look at some of the great American filmmakers that do dramas and see (what happens) when they try comedy. . . . I think there's a presumption that if you laugh, you somehow didn't go through a moving experience. . . . In an era where political correctness is at an all-time high, when we're basically in a mania, comedy is the only way to talk about things in a real way. Like, if you look at my film, if I brought up any of the social ideas that I brought up in this film without humor, it would be hated, but because there's comedy, and you feel like you're allowed to laugh . . . all of a sudden, you can have a conversation. . . .

"I'd love to make the great terrorism comedy. . . . It's time to laugh. It's time for 'Strangelove.' . . . I'll probably make a movie that gets me killed. If it's true, you'll have a great article."