Jason and Gattlin, what do you think Kate brought to the film?
Jason Reitman: Gattlin had a really interesting relationship with Kate. She created a bond with you that Josh and I were not even privy to.
Gattlin Griffith: I remember the first time I met her, I was a nervous wreck. I was star struck. She said, “are you nervous at all?” and I said, “yeah, a little.” She said, “don’t be, I’m here for you, everyone on this set is going to be your friend, and they’re going to be there for you.” And from that day on, I knew that I could count on her, and ask her questions, and she gave me a lot of tips too. I never told you (Josh) this, but in our first scene together, I was so intimidated by you. It was in the grocery store, and you were bleeding, and you were really in character, and between takes we’d walk our separate ways, and I’d walk over to Kate and say “he’s so intimidating!” She said, “listen honey, you need to just take that intimidation, and you need to use that.” It was stuff like that that she would tell me all the time, and that formed our relationship I think.
Josh Brolin: Did Kate and I have a similar way of working?
Jason Reitman: You dicked around with each other a lot. [laughter] It was a lot of laughs, it was a light set.
Josh Brolin: I usually do the opposite, in how much to reveal to you guys, because there’s a nice romance and a mythology that’s always Josh, and Kate, and Gattlin, and this thing, and they created this world, and they created this bubble. For me, especially with a drama like this that’s so laconic and subtle in its behavior, I kind of make an ass of myself on the set. A lot of his direction came as “please stop moving and f**king around and just do the work.” [laughter] I found it very important to keep things light, because then I feel that we have a place to go, and when we go to that place, it becomes much more reactionary and dynamic than if I just live in this kinda dark hole of being in prison the last 18 years. That’s a very selfish thing of mine. With Kate, I got to use the Academy Award thing often too. I’ve only been nominated – she got the award.
Jason Reitman: We both talk about it.
Josh Brolin: “I’m sorry, is this an Academy Award question? I’ve only been nominated, so I’m not sure” [laughter]. But you get to the place. She and I are like brother and sister personally, we just got it right away. And she’s an amazing amazing person who’s not intimidated by anything or anybody, which is really nice to be around. Gattlin was her first child, and I think I sorta became her second child [laughter]. And then when it comes down to it, you’ve done enough of the work to where you pop into that place and completely lend yourself to it, and then you pop out.
Jason, do you think the chemistry was natural or manufactured?
Jason Reitman: I’m a big believer in chemistry in every definition of the word, in life, and in performance. There’s a few things that I need to do right at my job, or it’s never going to work, and a lot of things I can screw up, but you have to pick the right actors, and they have to have chemistry. I’ve been very very fortunate about that. It’s instinct, it really is, I wish I had a good answer for that but I don’t know. I met with Kate, I met with Josh, I knew that they completely understood the DNA of who these people were. They’re two actors who understand how to approach vulnerable, broken characters without judging them, which is really hard to do. That is a much rarer trait than you think, and I suppose because of that commonality, I thought these two are going to bond. But really, at the end of the day it’s an instinct, it’s a gut feeling that two people are going to respond to each other. And I’m very happy that they did.
Josh, what do you think is the key for a man to have chemistry with a woman?
Josh Brolin: Everybody likes something different. In my experience of life and women, you can get sucked into it as a man, the hero aspect of things. And if you start to actually believe the hero aspect of things it can really muddle things up. I think initially, when you’re with a woman you start to pick up on the vulnerabilities and the insecurities. I was in a relationship, I was just thinking about this the other day, I went to this woman’s house for the first time, and within five minutes I was on the floor playing with her cat. Uncomfortable for her, but also at the same time, she thinks “wow the guy’s taking incentive, how great.” It becomes about instinct, and how you’re playing off each other, and it’s something that’s not really intellectual. This guy, wants to save her in a way that’s exactly what Gattlin’s character is going through, but in a completely different way.
What about love makes for compelling storytelling?
Jason Reitman: I really don’t know if I have an answer to that. It’s an excellent question, probably because it’s completely cofounding. I think storytelling in general is self-discovery masquerading as entertainment, so the best stories are the ones that are bound to confound us the most. Love, while the most wonderful thing on earth, is also probably the most confusing.
Josh Brolin: There’s no mastering it. It’s a close parallel to parenting: the minute you think you’ve got it, something else comes along, and you feel one way one second, “I can’t imagine not being with this person,” and then the next day it’s something else. It’s a journey unlike any other.
That concludes this interview but we’d like to thank everyone for participating. Be sure to catch Labor Day when it hits theatres on December 25th, 2013.