Charlize Theron & Jason Reitman | Interview | TimesTalks

hello everyone I'm Carol Olson day of the New York Times and I am delighted to welcome you to this exciting time stocks we're here live at the time Center in New York and we're live around the world on the web and tonight we are enormous ly pleased to have as our guests two of the most exciting talents working in film today one is an oscar-winning actress and producer known for her portrayals of complex diverse characters like the one she plays in her latest film young adult the film which our other guest splendidly directed got a critics pick yesterday or actually it's in the paper today from Times critic AO Scott who called the heart of the film brilliant brave and breathtakingly cynical you will meet these two filmmakers and hear more about their collaboration from our interviewer you know his byline from the paper and nytimes.com he's our writer at large and his articles appear everywhere from arts and leisure to the book review to the Week in Review to sports for five years he was editor of the book review and before that spent 23 years editing all of the modern writers at the New Yorker last month he interviewed Clint Eastwood and Leo DiCaprio at LACMA in LA for time stocks and for the paper he profiled our guest star and wrote about the new film for our holiday movie issue of Arts and Leisure we're in for a rockin conversation so please join me in welcoming chip McGrath and our special guests Charlize Theron and Jason Reitman thank you I assume that everyone here is familiar with the work of Charlize Theron if you're not you're probably in the wrong auditorium are the guest tonight is not as good-looking as Charlotte but but he is that's not true thank you but he is he is a person of accomplishment all the same that's how one achieves accomplishments by knowing they're not as attractive they're like I better do something we'll get to the to the new movie in a minute but but romics experience you have with beautiful women but where I was going with this was I was thinking this morning that in in some ways you two are complete opposites not only in the obvious ways but but Charlize New York's a tough town Charlie's you are by in movie terms you you are were anyway an outsider I mean you came you came to this country of South Africa when I interviewed you for the paper a few months ago you said you wanted to be a dancer and that what did I say to you when you say it like that it sounds like I was a stripper sorry quickly forget no I'm sorry ballerina ballerina right and and and when you note the Hollywood you said you really didn't know what you were doing that you were kind of making up as you're going on but I want to know and I should have asked you then in a way as that may be an advantage yeah yeah I think my I was young I think there's a naivete that was that played to my advantage I think when I look at what I know now and how I kind of came about where I am now it's that's way more frightening thinking about it as a 36 year old now than it was as a 19 year old definitely to me still is one one performance that leaps out which is your your role and in Monster which still it was amazing to me and and that was your breakout picture obviously and so how did that come about I mean was that remind us was that just luck and how did you find it within yourself to do that well I I was approached by patty Jenkins who wrote monster and she was a first time director she never really directed anything she'd done it 12 minutes short and she begged me not to watch it and and I know that sounds really kind of ridiculous but when I met her there was something about the meeting that we had that that I I respected it I didn't watch the short she wrote it she had me in mind for it she said that she had was writing one night at like 3 a.m. and the television was on mute and devil's advocate was on and she saw it was on mute and she just kind of saw me talk about my losing my ovaries to the devil or something like that and for some reason she just thought that she just obsessed she became obsessed with with kind of chasing me and and it scared me a little bit because I never had a director believe that much in me and I think when if I had just read the script and kind of treated it as a fictional story it might have been different but there was so much footage and documentaries about Aileen Wuornos so the truth was just kind of constantly hitting me in the face of who this woman was her truth what she did what she looked like and telling the story that I didn't quite know if I I mean I think very much like this I did it it walked this very fine line of being incredibly cheesy or being something that could have an emotional punch to it and and so making the film was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had because I got to for the first time in my career play outside of my own comfort zone my own kind of box that I've been allowed to play in as an actor and not only that I was you know usually as an active to kind of fight for that stuff and I was I was encouraged by the writer and the director to to do that to the max and it was the first film I ever did where I felt like a real partnership with the director and I just felt like in a way like you know everything was possible anything was possible and so I think we did a lot of work a lot of research we became obsessed by the story about Eileen and we you know worked our fingers to the bone and I'm very proud of that film and it taught me that after that I wanted to have that experience over and over and over again and that doesn't happen this is the first time it's happened again with Jason really that's the one of the things that that monster made possible I'm guessing was it made possible movies like Italian Job in Hancock how does how do those fit in in your scheme of things I mean those those were big budget big commercial movies successful I mean is that is that something that you need to do to keep a career going or or or have you move beyond that kind of thing or I was doing a tiling job actually while a monster was offered to me oh so he's actually shooting that film when it came to me I like Italian Job I I mean I just I like the original I like the cast that they got together I like I'm not really that much of a snob when it comes to genre I liked how it turned out it was a fun film to be a part of and the same with Hancock I got to work with friends and I think anything I feel like I feel really blessed that I've been put in a position and I think it's the greatest position that you could be in in your life which is not to work because you have to I think it's um it's something to be incredibly grateful for and I don't take that for granted one day of my life just knowing that I don't have to take a job because I have to pay the bills that I really have the freedom to do the stuff that I really want to do and and to have the freedom to not work for three years if I don't want to you know I think in not just in this business I think in in life in any career that's that's a great luxury to have and and I'm very grateful to have that Jason I started to say that you were the opposite and you know far from coming to South Africa you grew up in a Hollywood family your father is a producer and director and having made ghostbusters he's already immortal he does so and we talked about this a little bit backstage in the green what so what what's that like is that is that was that a help was it a hindrance was it neither I mean it is it how weird is it to be so funny I was in a try back a couple weeks ago and the original Ghostbusters firehouse is down there and I was there and I saw people taking photos outside it and it's just it was this crazy reminder of how big that movie is how old were you when it went uh seven and I don't think I'll ever make a movie where people want to go find the location and like no one's outside Juno's house taking a photo in front of it it's kind of unreal and I brought my daughter to see it when I was seven years old Ghostbusters came out in that Halloween every kid was a Ghostbuster but I was the only one who had a real Ghostbuster gun you know as far as my career goes that was my first big break was the moment my dad decided to have sex with my mom you know that Lana Turner got discovered Schwab's yeah my dad my dad met my mom in the house party in Montreal and then hours of labor that later I had a career you lucky bastard yeah I've been very lucky I've been very lucky from day one lucky that I grew up in a Hollywood family but also a Hollywood family that stayed together that encouraged me to kind of do whatever I wanted and and my father had a very key moment encouraged me to be a director I was scared of being a director I was well aware what people thought of the children of famous filmmakers and I thought why would I want to enter a job where the presumption was that I was some talentless spoiled brat with a drug problem yeah and and so I went to college and I went pre-med so that I'll be a doctor no one questions why you become a doctor and and my father came out and visited me and he said what are you doing and I said I'm scared I'm scared of living in your shadow my entire life I'm scared that you know in success I'll be compared to you and failure it'll be a very public failure and he told me a great story you have time for a story yeah all right so my dad I was 17 at the time when my dad was 17 and and you have to understand that my grandparents were Holocaust survivors who came to Canada with nothing in fact they they survived the Holocaust and then we're living in communist Czechoslovakia and which was very anti-semitic and they escaped there under the floorboards of a boat they had a I hired a boat captain they paid him off to lift the floorboards up and literally nailed him down in the bottom of a boat and that's how they got out and my dad was four years old they come to Canada my grandfather was a they managed a dry cleaner and then a car wash and it's 17 my father came to my grandfather said dad dad I just came back from Quebec in Quebec they have the submarine sandwiches they're really popular give me the money to open up a submarine sandwich shop and were to make a fortune and my grandfather said you know I'm sure these sandwiches are really good and if I cave you the money we could make a lot of money but I just don't think there's enough magic in it for you and it was off of that advice that my father was a music major ecology he started a film Club and he became a very successful director so he told me this story and he said look there's no more noble a profession in the world than being a doctor if you became a doctor your mother and I we'd be over the moon but I don't think it's in your heart and I don't think there's enough magic in it for you I think you're a storyteller and no matter how scared you are that you have to follow that and it was off of that advice that I came back to Los Angeles I I walked the head of Admissions at USC to her car and on the way there convinced her to let me into the school ending with the argument helped me come home and and in that in that moment my father became the first Jewish dad to say don't become a doctor be a filmmaker your first movie or you or your first big movie anyway thank you for smoking it strikes me as an odd an ambitious choice for for a first movie I mean it's a it's it's not exactly a comedy it's a satire there's some edge to it I mean why why of all the properties that were around why did you did you seize on that you know I there was a really smart woman that I knew when I was a teenager and she gave me a copy that book the Christopher Buckley book thank you for smoking and she said this was written for you and she was right I started reading that book and it really was my introduction to libertarian politics and and it had a really sharp sense of humor and I just immediately knew this is them this is what I want to start my career with and the tricky thing became I started making short films started directing commercials and and I even wrote a script for that but nobody wanted to make that movie and the trick was that I was I was being offered broad comedies that would have allowed me to kind of follow in my father's footsteps in kind of the genre that he works in but I really wanted to make thank you for smoking and in that time I had also found the book up in the air and I wanted to make that I knew what kind of director I wanted to be but it's very hard to say no to a directing job an opportunity to make a movie that'll come out in the theaters a movie that you can go and buy a ticket for to be on set all of that and I really just kind of stuck you know held on to thank you for smoking it's kind of a Holy Grail and I waited four years until finally one day the one of the guys who created PayPal you know PayPal the you know favor he and his partners had sold PayPal to eBay for one and a half billion dollars and they had some extra spending cash and they they literally they read the script and they loved it and they said we have no idea why this hasn't been made and they cut a check for six million dollars and we made the film Wow question is amazing yeah question I've always wanted to ask you you may get asked this a lot why in the movie does Nick Naylor who's a lobbyist for the tobacco company why doesn't he never smokes and yet we know that he does we never see him light up you know for me that was never a movie about cigarettes and I thought if we have cigarettes in this movie that's all people are gonna see that's all they're going to think about they're gonna talk about and it was very important for me this is that that not be a movie about cigarettes it was a movie about talking hey you know the subject of their talks could have been alcohol drugs guns religion abortion there's a million things that people argue about and the movie was about the conversation and so I never saw need to put cigarettes in that movie and strangely from that moment forward I really never saw a reason to put cigarettes in any of my movies and and I haven't done that as of yet and I I imagine if at some point I make a movie where historically it would make sense I will need to but yeah I really pride myself on not telling people what to think but I don't want to put cigarettes in my movies the the the equivalent of monster for you was Juno movie what you on the map and pregnant lady went on a killing spree is trying to equate yeah I just seen the image of you as a monster next to Ellen with her balance how did that movie come about I mean clearly it besides your direction and Ellen Page it benefits tremendously from Diablo Cody's scripted I did that how did that come to you and I I had made thank you for smoking I was writing up in the air I had intended to make up in the air my second film when one day a friend of mine called and said hey I got this script you need to read I said what is it he said it's a teenage pregnancy comedy written by a former stripper from Minneapolis great send it on over and it's just one of those moments right you know I opened the door and I received this envelope I start reading the script and 15 20 pages later I'm still standing you know at my front door it was a remarkable screenplay and not remarkable for the reasons that any people often tribute to it the language and all that stuff I think what was amazing about it was actually similar to young adult was the third act and the challenging scenes that she included in it most importantly to me was the scene in which Juno went to mark Lauren's house and went down in the basement with him and there's this very uncomfortable scene where we're not quite sure if the potential father of her unborn child is kind of hitting on her and and she escapes and and decides to keep the baby and decides to still give it to Vanessa and I just thought that was such a tricky dramatic turn and I thought that scene is gonna be is gonna kind of take everything I'm capable of to direct right and walk that tightrope and that was the reason I made that movie and now and now we've got another Diablo movie Diablo Cody also wrote wrote young adult and I just happen to have in my pocket Tony Scott's review which appeared in the paper today of this movie he loved it he called it brilliant brave and breathtakingly cynical and he talked about about how it breaks the established codes of moviemaking scrambles and scrambles and subverts them in ways that are puzzling amusing horrifying and ultimately astonishing all true firstly I was going to ask is do you care about reviews does that the I earlier this month I interviewed David Fincher who who says that the only reviews that matter are the ones that people tweet when they come out of the theater to their friends it's great or it sucks do you care does that make you happy this is it's interesting I Shirley's do you do you pay anything no I wasn't gonna say anything I mean did you like have you read them yet for for young adult no but like people are definitely talking about so you can't help but not running right oh I'm really grateful for that review I'm really grateful for also the review that that was in the LA Times this morning is it paper that I grew up reading it's funny so many people have you know taught me don't read reviews and I'm getting better at reading less of them because you tend to just look for the bad ones and in life you tend to believe negative comments more than compliments however they come I guess in this particular case what's really wonderful is hearing someone who seems to understand why we made this film by the way he talks about it and not by the virtue not by the fact that he said it was really good I mean that's well that's why we made it to make a good film exactly no but I remembered you know charlize when she agreed to do this film she said let's jump off this cliff together and that's what it felt like felt like we were making something pretty scary this is a movie about a character that does not change and that's that's what makes it unusual that's what made the script unusual and there's what made Diablo incredibly brave for writing this it's a gutsy thing to write an unmake Abul movie which is what she wrote and then somehow I think particularly by virtue of Charlize being in it the studio said okay and then they left us alone paramount put together a budget of twelve million dollars and we shot this in 30 days and we never changed the thing about the script and the only fear is you know what if people don't get it would it feel like why would you make a movie about a character who doesn't change not only not only does she not change she's not terribly likable I like her but I like her you don't like her well you do but I mean she's got some problems yeah but you know I doesn't yeah but more than you know I feel I grew up on in 70s film and and I feel like you know with like Gina Hackman and Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman and De Niro but you like they got to play all of these kind of conflicted unforgiving characters conflicted and unapologetic and they were you know we watched them and we kind of review them and look at them as a great character studies and we applaud them and for some reason when women kind of do which is so truthful to our condition as well it's just as conflicted all of a sudden it becomes unlikable I am so happy about how people are responding to this film because everybody tends to catch themselves and go I shouldn't like her but for some reason I do and it's nice to kind of see that storytelling and filmmakers are playing in that grey zone with women I said I think especially this year there's been a lot of females who've been able to kind of do these kind of real characters like you know women are just as messed up know I know the truth mm-hmm everywhere chicken cutlets the other thing about the part it seems to me is that is that it is that it it takes one of your greatest assets which is your beauty and even that comes to be it works against that characters I mean she instead of being an asset it becomes that it's you know she's trying to trade on it it's very complicated was that hard to do I mean did you you it's like you're taking one hand and tying it behind your back almost isn't it you so it's it's always it's it's a little bit of a bizarre thing because I guess maybe Jason has a better perspective maybe the directors that I've worked with have a better perspective on that I I only know that I try and utilize what I have is to my best I mean I think that you can kind of sit and look at the glass half empty or half full and and I'm not just in this in my entire career like something like monster you think there's never been a part of me that struggled with or felt pigeon held even though I think people assume that would have been my career I've never kind of let that define me I've never gone through my career kind of feeling like I've been kind of held down or just kind of been forced into a corner to do one thing and I feel like maybe my background as a ballet dancer which is kind of like theater and the only reason why I was somewhat successful as a dancer was because I wasn't technically very strong but I my god like I was in Swan Lake like you know I was probably the worst Swan Lake you've ever seen but like I was one like like I was a bad when you would say that in the middle of the ballet by the way the worst one like ever I am Swan Lake I would so see that's one I think Charlize as most beautiful qualities are her bravery and her wit and those are the two qualities I thought came in most handy on this film this was a character that on the page when you read the Ovilus script you could see that this was not a character that she was vulnerable and she was broken and she wanted to be loved like anybody else and there you know I really think in the hands of any other actor I would have become a caricature because most actors when they when they play what is considered an unlikable character they they develop some sort of tick or they do something with their dialect or their voice or their clothes and they find a way to let you know this is not me I'm playing a character this is performance and what shirley's has done in all of her work is disappeared and been unflinching in her portrayal and that's what makes this movie funny and that's what makes her likable at the end of the day is that you watch her and at least i watch her and I find the more I talk to people I feel that they have a similar experience where they watch her and at first there's this okay she's abrasive and she's doing and she's saying horrible things and then you begin to understand her and then if you can really get there you start to say okay and I'm a little bit like her to the maybe you've asked answer this already but but it seems to me that both of you are at a point in your respective careers where we're at this point you could have made kind of anything so so why make this original daring brave movie that as you say you worried that people might not get it was it was was it because of the fan as you can I mean it's that's the I mean why wouldn't you yeah I feel so lucky and and the success of your films and my films have put us both probably into a position where people think we know something that we don't and then it's just taking advantage of that opportunity to make a film that no one would make you know I love that you brought up the 1970s because there's films from that era like Shampoo and carnal knowledge and downhill racer and all these films that I that I love and I look into the theaters and I don't see them you know I think Alexander Payne is still you know really kind of holding the torch for those films but the the opportunity you know when Diablo wrote a script that made me think of that era with a character that never apologizes for who she is and walks out the the rest of the movie the waiting most people walk through their life without changing I thought yeah we should be so lucky to make it so how did this work did you know each other beforehand did you you had never worked together right no I met the first time I met Jason was at the Academy Awards the year up in the air was nominated you were nominated I was just there lucky to get an invite yeah I was you snuck in yeah we think they kind of you know with it it's bizarre you get there they serve you champagne and then they kind of you know steer you into the Kodak Theatre like cattle and you're everybody's like dressed in their gowns on top of each other and I Jason and his wife at the time was right in front of me and I had enough liquid courage and me to have him on his shoulder and tell him how much I loved his film which was my favorite film of that year and and ironically I mean they have very vivid memories of watching that film and speaking to my you know my agents and managers and stuff like that because I tend to watch films and become this like very jealous you know I watched that film in particular and was incredibly jealous not just a fear for me get bit of George Clooney as well and was like I want to play George Clooney's wrong Jason Reitman next film so it was a combination of really really I mean I think if I think I do that I like being inspired by people and what a great you know job that and and to be in an opportunity where you can you know maybe have those opportunities to work with people I mean to really work with people that you feel couldn't raise your your bar and inspire you and make you better and and the kind of storytelling that he does is the kind of storytelling that really moves me and so yeah it kind of started from that a little tap on the shoulder and I think six months later we were shooting yeah what's funny is and I really just actually thought of this right now for the first time you tapped me on the shoulder when I again it's just like 5% humor 95% nepotism the I imagine that you tapped me the show when you thought in the movie that we make together like George you'll be wearing a suit you'll be fast talking you'll be like moving through the world like yeah like a shark yeah and instead I'm like alright can you play this really broken human being in sweatpants it was there still somewhere I'm trying to find the compliment in the backhanded compliment of like you're the only person who can you're the only person I was like really there's not one other axis that can play a no no this is I've looked through I have looked through all Hollywood yeah we're moving moving casting now to Europe but if we're making this an American production to marry our girl yes here is yeah so so that so that's true you read the script and you immediately thought yeah but for a very specific reason and I've said it a couple times I don't mean to kind of be repeating myself but I really believe in it which is is a sense of bravery and if you're gonna make this film you need to be working with a brave actor who's willing to go there you know in the same way that George and Farah had to be very brave and the way that they were gonna do up in the air I knew this was he's a role you cannot pull back at all you have to be unflinching and it takes a lot of guts to do all every part of it the physicality of this role the amount of seeing that she starts completely hungover pulling at her hair the way that we dress her and the way that we really portray her as a complete narcissist I was obsessed with the wrong things who was hurtful that's who wants to look at themselves that way I mean that's a really tough stuff and to do it without it's not like she didn't gain a bunch of weight she didn't wear a prosthetic eye door I mean when you see when you look up at the screen do you see yourself ya know I'm I don't mean that you're like err but is it weird but is it weird when you look at the screen and you see someone who looks like you yeah but I it's weird I've never I don't have a self-consciousness about that I know you're trying to say it's definitely the most I've looked at like myself and anything I've ever done mm-hmm but I don't I've never I've never had like an issue I don't freak out looking at myself for watching myself have bigger issues with my voice well you don't like singing I know that to that my friend they're singing she's to sing throughout this film and despite you being the most brave actress I've ever worked with who's really dude who's willing to do anything I mean anything getting you to sing uh and you know what makes him such a great director he knew that was my Achilles heel so he did it over and I don't think we quite got it go again gotta go again what sound was know I think we have to go horrible horrible human being so when you when you sing in a movie the music isn't there what they do is they put a little like a little you know a twig inside our ear that's playing the song so to everyone else around she's just singing it's not quite the experience that we all know when you have the music up really loud and there's this there's a safety net there because the professional is singing it right next to you there was no horrible singer horrible horrible oh yeah thanks feel sorry for me squish squish one of these occurred to me when I was watching a movie is the your character Mavis is she she's sort of semi successful in New York and she goes back to this this little town in Minneapolis Minneapolis oh she's many ups I'm sorry and she's been successful in the big city she was back to this little town and there's a lot of reference sewer to the to the pecking order of high school she was the prom queen she was the queen of the cool kids and you know the movie assumes a certain kind of American high school culture and it suddenly dawned on me do they even have that and said they are their proms and prom queens in South Africa there's this culture even exist there no no no I mean I think that there's always the pecking order that you're talking about that kind of crosses borders and nationalities and I think that's just the human condition and it's part of adolescence and growing up and so that we had that we didn't have prom queen or prom king no we had a dance at the end like our final here is called mitrik and there's a dance but but none of we don't have to tie it we didn't have any titles and stuff like that okay I went to very I went to an art school in South Africa for ballet and it sounds very sexy and hip it wasn't like fan no I remember seeing Fame for the first time and I went to school and I told my friends about Fame it was almost like a conspiracy like to me I was like we all need to watch this movie because we need doing it right they are telling this is not this is what it looks this is what's supposed to look like yeah I tried a movement but it didn't quite work we were we were yeah uniform school uniforms it was very conservative and we had a popular girl but she was actually she wasn't mean she was nice and yeah mavis in our school well can't pick her out then was she that I couldn't quite spot her in my school so this you you told me when I interviewed you before that you you you took this part and warrant to work with him precisely because you thought he would he would push you that he that you wanted to get out of the box and you and you you you felt from that he would do that and but I'm curious so you so you make up your mind to do that intellectually and then what what was it really like once it happened was it was it I get I don't get the feeling that it was a lot of pushing I mean seeing the way you to relate it seems like was pretty collaborative really yeah I mean I guess pushing is maybe not the right word I think I I think what happens and when I said to Jason let's jump off the cliff there's a moment for me in the decision-making process where I have to and it was very interesting actually because it was the one thing that it was the only question that you asked me when we were talking know about process oh yeah and it's ironically it's the thing that me is always the last kind of moment where I decide where I realized that if I'm gonna do this with this particular person I I have to jump off the cliff with him and that to me means you know ultimately I have to trust them and I really love that and I love having a director I'm not the kind of actor that wants to show up and do my own thing I really love a director kind of pointing at things and making me aware of things that I could have never kind of come to my own conclusion too and and I think it's like a building blocks it's like you get to two places together that you can never kind of get alone and that only happens if there's complete trust I think a lot of times yeah you know actors can be sensitive and they show up and there is a sense that they feel they have to protect themselves in their work and that's a horrible place to be it and I just don't think that you can make a good film that way I think the whole thing just becomes defensive then and when I work with directors and I give that ultimate trust over there's never a moment that I don't trust them and so when Jason said we were done then we were done and if Jason said try this I would try it I would never kind of fight that and I think that's what I mean by wanting I want to work with people where I have that trust and they've deserved that trust not everybody deserves that and not everybody gets that place where you can ultimately hand yourself over like that but it's an incredible place to be when somebody says you know for instance we there's a scene in the film where you've seen the film now there were I I go on a little mission you stop cause hoping you bring so just to prove what a great director you are no I'm joking oh no this is a great example we were just like 3:00 in the morning everybody's exhausted it's a little scene where I'm stalking my ex and I'm driving with Mack played by Patton Oswalt we were kind of driving my little minion he's telling me where his houses and we're kind of pulled off to the side of the road and we're stuffing crackers and all sorts of junk food down our throats and I'm kind of daydreaming this very blue version of what he's doing which is you know basically very sexual and that he's fantasizing about me and Patton is making me aware that maybe he's just looking after his newborn child and and it was like maybe then the fourth take we really had like by then really kind of great chemistry and Patton and I were working really well together and I guess like from right from the bat we were kind of there mm-hmm and you could have called it a night you could have wrapped it and we would have been done and Jason came up to the car and he said he said after your last line because I kind of crack a really bad joke in the scene he said just really think that you're hysterical think that you're the funniest person ever and just really laugh at that joke which is so narcissistic and laugh like a maniac and laugh like a maniac I may even giving you an example yes I said don't yeah we'll only work if you laugh like a like I mean like not a real life don't you don't have to find truth in the lie you were like Forsett ha ha ha ha ha and yeah it's in the film and I think those things only happen when you are open to them you have to you have to be able to and like you said it's a collaboration but it is it is also you know and in it and it works both ways and that's what I love I love working with directors that in just as much as I want to hear what they have to say and kind of jump on that Jason reciprocated in that and and that's really that's the ultimate partnership when you make a film I think a lot of times people get so obsessed about what chemistry is on screen that they forget how much of that chemistry actually happens behind the screen I think chemistry between a director and an actor is sometimes almost more important than two actors mm-hmm you brought a process I'm curious partly because I just get through doing a story with David Fincher who's famous for taking 90 and a hundred takes hmm are you a 3-digit take director look no I don't understand that and and I know it works for him and he makes brilliant movies but no I do two to five takes depending what we're doing we got we do no rehearsal we we block it out in the morning and then we go shoot it and I I'm confident enough in my actors and a calm confident enough in in my own skill that we're gonna get there and every once in a while we're gonna do more takes we get there but there's there's an amazing scene and it's many pages and it's all shot handheld did one long shot that starts inside a house and we're following or with the camera and she gets into this meltdown and and it goes and she's talking to a whole bunch of people on the lawn and then she finally leaves and and it's the kind of scene that as written has so many sharp turns in it that you never expect an actor to be able to just go start to finish in it you just presume we're gonna do one take like this someone like take like this and another like this and we're gonna cut it together we'll make it an editing and I'll just start pushing the actor in these different directions when I need to and Charlize on take two did one of the most miraculous performances I've ever seen as a director where she from start to finish on what is literally a four or five minute take went from in the house drinking all the way out through an entire scene interacting with all kinds of people turning on a dime from you - I love your sweater - all these different turns that are really hard to do it's it's one thing to do that and make it funny it's a whole other thing to find truth in every one of these unusual moments how do you perform the line I love your sweater after you've just said fu twice of somebody it's really tricky and I'm take - she did the whole thing I remember everyone who was around the monitor watching was just kind of breathless because it's very rare that you when you're on set do you feel like you're watching the movie usually you're just watching bits and pieces and you know at some point they're on gonna come together but at this point it felt like we are watching the movie and we all applauded when it was done and I remember I walked up and I said okay we're good and I remember you said two takes you give me two takes last week you made me six do six takes of opening a door I get two takes of this and then you said really you want one more takers it's yeah it kind of it was the first time I asked you yeah okay for an extra take he said okay okay and then he walked away and he said I just okay just give me a second and then the day went by I never got my tape fix me is that true yeah and then you said sorry then no and then you said that you came out to means that I apologized they don't want you to think that I hurt you I just forgot but if we don't eat it that's it okay that's it I asked God forgot okay yeah but it was fine because ultimately you were right so but what I'm curious so when you're when you're when you were doing it you didn't know how great it was you you I did I charged everybody $20 add video when they applauded I said that will be $20 yeah it's hard because the courage to keep cash on them really good take chair doesn't take credit it's like right there on the spot yes it is like I am just exactly the same thing there is her salary that she gets you know from the studio and then when you look at the real tharon fortune it comes from it's in wads of cattle lives at Fiat Blatt I roll it up I roll it up like a gangster yeah carry it in my boots under my bed right no no god I you know I think I don't know anything while I'm doing it it's weird because I'm not a performer at all I'm not like Patton Oswald who you know can get on a stage and and I think some actors are really natural performers and I'm not I am NOT a performer acting is actually very intimate for me it's a very very intimate experience and I love the intimacy and I kind of find the five or six people that are like my little intimate group and I guess to them I'm comfortable to perform but it's not a it's not ever a performance for me and I the only thing that I can go by is feeling and and I know when something feels right don't necessarily know if it's good it just feels right and sometimes right isn't necessarily right for what you're doing you know you can feel something that feels right and it might not be exactly right for that moment in where you want to go with the arc of the story or anything like that so smartly but but I I only I can only go by that feeling and that's that's the only thing I can go by but I also think that actors sometimes we you know when you're so in it and and you know when you hit that zone just almost like a high where everything just kind of disappears in front of you it's an amazing moment to to get into that place where this kind of fictional world that you've created for yourself where you're trying to find this one moment of truth happens and it really really it's like it's like zing it just you know it clicks in and it happens you don't even when that happens you don't really know what it is what the truth is that is until your director can come up to you and really tell you what that is it was like working with the goalie at that point on a shutout or a pitcher who's who's thrown a no-hitter and just everyone stays clear and they got everyone knows the rules I'll get furious if anyone like comes and you know it pays too much attention or is talking too much because that when an actor is there you just want to try it you want to work through as much coverage as possible because it's just it's happening there's and it is amazing to have somebody be that innately aware of it because I've been on films where that happens and then nobody kind of celebrates that moment you know like all of a sudden camera operator Raiders aren't happy and focused pullers are walking in and like the whole thing falls apart the whole machine just falls apart and it is amazing to work with someone I'm very impressed by Jason because it's very rarely I think people just assume that directors would know what actors do and what and it's not the case yeah but you you have this innate understanding of it it's really impressive it's something that you know takes years of experience for most directors to learn and other directors have it like a talent it's it's it's it's it's something that you almost can't explain I had the same thing with patty Jenkins who had never made a film but had just this real clear understanding of what it was what an actor did and what character was and how to kind of build on that and it's really amazing when you work with the director that can kind of celebrate that and have that go when it happens how the camera is gonna be ready and just milk it for what it's worth it's like thank you you just want to keep throwing coins into that slot machine mm-hmm I think that there's a sense of truth that you always have to follow and I think that if you start thinking about the outside perspective you kind of I don't know if that's possible I don't want to say that it isn't because maybe some people can do that I know for myself I want to believe that if I can tap in emotionally to who this person is that other people will it's kind of like the only it's like village and I have this face that I just want to believe that if I'm emotionally connecting to this character when I read it or when I'm deciding to play it that there has to be other people that will emotionally tap into that too and then from that moment on you know I kind of have to let that go and realize that I have to just stay on the path of truth and sometimes those things that you have to decide are very yeah they're cringe were especially on this film there was a lot of stuff that I had to kind of commit a hundred percent to as an actor in order for it to work that was very embarrassing and very cringe-worthy and and there were moments where I thought I was you know at my max and Jason would come up to me and say I'm gonna need a little bit more out of you and yeah did it feel comfortable no but that's exactly further with that and also you know the tricky thing isn't and I really I want to say this because I've I've you know done a lot of films and the thing that I've learned in my experience is that tone is so incredibly important to the success of a film or just not just the success like box office but the success of what you set out to do and that really solely relies on the director and this film walks such a fine line and I think is so it really goes to show to how talented and and it's a delicate hand that Jason works with because tonally he knew exactly what this film needed to be and therefore this character is as good as she is I think because Jason really knew where to kind of enhance her and where to bring her back and find that kind of that weight that grounds her into reality and truth and I it's not you you just there's no way that you can go on a journey and discover especially a woman like this solely alone you you really have to do that with a great director and so I'm I thank you for making me more and I thank you all for coming and thank our guests very much you

Channel: New York Times Events

Views: 21,612

Rating: 4.8200002 out of 5

Keywords: Charlize Theron, Jason Reitman

Id: 0rApMz9noiM

Length: 54min 13sec (3253 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 21 2016