RopeofSilicon.com was the first site to bring you ten clips from the upcoming political satire Thank You for Smoking, and now I am proud to bring you a fantastic interview with writer/director Jason Reitman. Yes, this is the son of famed director of Ghostbusters and Meat Balls, Ivan Reitman, but Jason is in no way riding coat tails as you will soon learn.
Thank You for Smoking is his own baby and man-o-man did he manage to put together a fantastic cast for this puppy. How do names like Aaron Eckhart, Robert Duvall, Katie Holmes, Maria Bello, Cameron Bright, Adam Brody, Sam Elliott, David Koechner, William H. Macy, J.K. Simmons and Rob Lowe sound? Yeah, it’s chock full of acting goodness and to top it off it is funny as hell.
The film stars Aaron Eckhart as Nick Naylor, the chief spokesman for Big Tobacco, who makes his living defending the rights of smokers and cigarette makers in today’s neo-puritanical culture. Confronted by health zealots out to ban tobacco and an opportunistic senator (William H. Macy) who wants to put poison labels on cigarette packs, Nick goes on a PR offensive, spinning away the dangers of cigarettes on TV talk shows and enlisting a Hollywood super-agent (Rob Lowe) to promote smoking in movies. Nick’s newfound notoriety attracts the attention of both tobacco’s head honcho (Robert Duvall) and an investigative reporter for an influential Washington daily (Katie Holmes). Nick says he is just doing what it takes to pay the mortgage, but he begins to think about how his work makes him look in the eyes of his young son Joey (Cameron Bright).
So take some time and enjoy as I bring you one of the best interviews I believe I have sat down in. I am giving you this in transcript form because I think it was that good and I didn’t want to muddy it up with an attempt at puting together a cutesy article.
Enjoy!
Thank You for Smoking can already be seen in some cities in limited release, but it will be released wide on March 31 and will expand even further throughout April, click here for a complete release timetable.
Once you are done with that you can click here to check out 10 clips from the film and get even more goodies.
