Jason Reitman – 22 Quotes

22 Quotes by Jason Reitman

Can you design a Rorschach test that’s going to make everyone feel something every time – and that looks like a Rorschach test? It’s easy to show a picture of a kitten or a car accident. The question is, how abstract can you get and still get the audience to feel something when they don’t know what’s happening to them?

– Jason Reitman

When characters change on screen, it makes you feel better about yourself. You think, ‘Oh I change too, I’m constantly becoming a better person.’

– Jason Reitman

I really enjoy theater. I just went to see ‘Death of a Salesman,’ and it knocked me on my ass.

– Jason Reitman

I’d done table reads for my own screenplays, and I always thought they were so much fun. Why couldn’t we do these for other classic screenplays and bring them to life? You can experience live theater, where you get to see plays produced by different directors and different casts, but there’s really nothing like that for movie scripts.

– Jason Reitman

Selfishness, narcissism, being uncomfortable in your own skin, not feeling connected to the world around you, feeling dislocated from family and youth, having a strange relationship with your childhood – all those things feel really true to me.

– Jason Reitman

I hear the way people talk about the children of famous people. They’re not treated very well. The presumptions are usually quite awful. So I tried to establish myself with a couple of movies. After ‘Juno’ I thought: ‘I think I’ve defined myself enough as my own director that I’d love to work with my father.’

– Jason Reitman

I’ve been very, very lucky in my career, in my life – from day one. When aspiring directors say, ‘What’s your advice?’ first I say, ‘Be born the son of a famous director. It’s invaluable.’

– Jason Reitman

It’s funny, I can sit through the worst horror film ever made but even a quite good romantic comedy can drive me nuts.

– Jason Reitman

I don’t want to make films that give you the answer. If there is a message to my films – and I hope there isn’t – it’s to be open-minded.

– Jason Reitman

When you’re young, you want to make every kind of film: musicals, Westerns, horror. Slowly you begin to hear your own voice. I hope people receive what I do as small, personal films that are somewhat contrarian about their main characters.

– Jason Reitman

As far as writing, I like watching bad movies. Nothing stops me in my tracks more than watching a great film like ‘The Godfather’ or ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ or ‘The Graduate.’ You watch one of those, and you never want to write again. Whereas with bad movies, it makes you think, If that counts, I certainly could write.

– Jason Reitman

Being the son of a filmmaker, you are aware of a career as a director. You don’t think of it as just movies, but as a life.

– Jason Reitman

I hate movies that tell people what to think. I’m proud that Democrats thought ‘Thank You For Smoking’ was their film and Republicans thought it was theirs. I’m proud that pro-choice people thought ‘Juno’ was their film and pro-life people thought it was theirs.

– Jason Reitman

I think romance is a tool, comedy is a tool and drama is a tool. I really just want to tell stories that challenge the viewer, move people, make you laugh, perhaps push an idea about being open-minded but never settle on a genre or an opinion. I hate genre. I like movies that are original in their approach.

– Jason Reitman

I want my movies to be audience experiences. As much as I like Michael Haneke, I’m not going to make a Haneke film. That’s just not in my DNA.

– Jason Reitman

I’m not going to have a perfect career. It’s better to be Billy Wilder and make lots of movies and have five or six great ones than to make so few movies that when you make a bad one it crushes you.

– Jason Reitman

I’m not Michael Moore. I think Michael Moore wants to tell you how to think. He wants to give you answers. I make movies to raise my own personal questions and not to give answers.

– Jason Reitman

I’m trying to figure myself out through my movies. Whether it’s big stuff like what we’re doing here, or little stuff like, ‘Why aren’t I happier?’ With every film I feel like I’m apologising for something. I feel I’m most successful when I’m looking for something that embarrasses me about my character that I’d like to expose.

– Jason Reitman

There are only so many movies you can direct. And yet there are movies that I want to make sure make it to the screen in as honest a way as possible.

– Jason Reitman

There certainly is no secret in that there are plenty of people who don’t like plenty of my movies. Each one of my films is personal each one of my films is emotionally autobiographical. And I like directors who do that. With each one of my films, I’m exploring one of my own issues and I try to expose myself a little in the film.

– Jason Reitman

Well, Toronto, I consider to be the birthplace of my films. I’ve made three films and this is the third one to premiere here in the same theater on the same day at the same time – they are my audience. They’re the people that I think about while I’m writing, directing, and editing. I specifically make movies for them.

– Jason Reitman

I’m equally guilty of using technology – I Twitter, I text people, I chat. But I think there’s something strangely insidious about it that it makes us think we’re closer when in fact we’re not seeing each other, we’re not connecting.

– Jason Reitman