IVAN REITMAN (Ghostbusters) directs the riotously funny romantic comedy NO STRINGS ATTACHED, starring Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman.
Reitman reveals how he persuaded Kevin Kline to play Kutcher’s screen dad, and talks about the importance of chemistry in rom-coms.
**NO STRINGS ATTACHED is in cinemas from 25 February.
Ivan Reitman on set with No Strings Attached star Ashton Kutcher
MMM: Your trademark of science fiction is missing from No Strings Attached. Instead, you delve into the world of relationships. What made you decide to tackle a relationship comedy?
Reitman: I started working on this over three years ago with Liz Meriwether, the writer, over 3 years ago. She was a young playwright out of New York and as soon as I started speaking to her I just loved her very off-beat sense of humour. She seemed to have a wonderful eye and ear for the voices of her generation. I actually pitched this idea to her. I’d been talking about When Harry Met Sally and how the quaint idea of the question of that movie 20 years ago – whether it’s possible for a man and woman just to be friends – seemed like such an outdated idea today.
Now, it’s seems to be about whether it’s possible to have a sexual relationship without any kind of romance whatsoever. I pitched that idea to Liz and she really took to it and turned out this first draft that was remarkably funny. It was one of those scripts that got on the Black List, that list of Hollywood screenplays that are unproduced. I think it was number one or two. Natalie Portman got a look at it very early on and wanted to play the role and that’s really how it started.
I loved the language of the script, the ideas of it and I sort of welcomed the idea of just working with actors in a room and just trying to create believable, truthful, funny scenes together.
MMM: The film’s R-rated in the US, so is that the price you pay for making a comedy that contains a sense of reality?
Reitman: Yeah, unfortunately, although it’s mostly for language that we got the R rating and for sexual situations. It’s not even about the explicitness of the sexuality, but the explicitness of the ideas. It’s just the way the MPAA, the ratings board in America, is set up. I think they’re much more concerned about a sexual conversation than they are about blood-letting. It’s a weird anomaly.
The MPAA is "much more concerned about a sexual conversation than they are about blood-letting," says Reitman
MMM: That must be frustrating as it affects the audience your film’s aimed at.
Reitman: Certainly, I mean it stops under-16s from coming to see it, at least initially in the theatres. They all end up watching it on TV or DVD or something. Fortunately, our box office has been great since being released in the US. We’ve been in the top two for all three of our first three weeks.
MMM: The film’s stars, Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher, have a great on-screen chemistry. Finding that chemistry must be crucial to you as a director on a film like No Strings Attached.
Reitman: I don’t think you can act chemistry, and I don’t think it’s about attractiveness. And as much as I’d like to take some credit for it as a director, I can’t.
It’s really a magical thing. Sometimes it happens and often it doesn’t. It’s particularly important in a movie about romantic relationships like this. We were really fortunate that the magic just happened. I had an instinct about it. I thought there was something about this very tall, handsome man and this very short, extraordinarily beautiful woman that would resonate and that’s what you always hope for. But it’s really more of an act of God.
MMM: So if the chemistry doesn’t exist between you’re two leading players are you then screwed?
Reitman: Yes. You see it all the time. Good work is being done. Sometimes the screenplay is really terrific. But there’s just something oddly dead about what goes on. But there’s very little you can do. There are all kinds of historical examples of it and contemporary films sometimes suffer from it.
Kevin Kline as Ashton Kutcher's on-screen father
MMM: How did Kevin Kline come on board as Ashton’s on-screen dad?
Reitman: Well, I worked with Kevin some 16 or 17 years ago in a movie called Dave and we had a great time together and are very proud of the film. He’s generally known as Kevin De-Kline in America – he’s very tricky about the films that he chooses. I actually had to go to another director to get him to do Dave, which turned out to be just this great role for him.
When I read this part I just kept thinking he’d be great, especially at this egotistical, sort of film actor. He loves the idea of being an actor, actually, in real life. He’s a very fine man but he loves the trappings of it. His wonderful wife, Phoebe Cates, makes fun of his actorly manner and I could just see him bringing all this stuff to that role. He has so many fastballs and screwballs in his arsenal of actor weaponry.
So I just called him and said: ‘You just have to do this!’ But of course, he declined the part because it was too small, there were only five days of shooting and there weren’t enough scenes in it. He likes to really get into it.
But I finally sent him a very impassioned personal letter and he called back and said: ‘OK.’ And then, literally within the first half hour of the first day we shot together, we just sort of looked at each other, because we were both smiling, and he said: ‘I guess we shouldn’t wait 16 years for the next time!’
MMM: How did you go about shooting the sex scenes so they didn’t feel exploitative?
Reitman: I just tried to do it in a really straight forward manner. I didn’t think the shooting should be romantic. I didn’t think it was all about fancy camera angles, or moving dolly shots, and dissolves. The first one, which is the most critical one because it triggers the rest of the movie, really is kind of all close and all about how the two relate to each other and how they look at each other.
It’s really relying on the chemistry we were just talking about and sort of the passion that’s in each other’s eyes, and how they look at each other. So there were maybe three or four takes and I just let it go longer than they all expected. What that did is it felt awkward and very real. I decided very early on not to use any music. The music’s very important in the whole movie and I’m very proud of the score for the film and the way we use songs to create different eras. But it’s quite stark during that scene so we’re forced to really just watch them.
MMM: Did Natalie have any issue with the scenes?
Reitman: Well, she read an early draft of the screenplay. In our first conversation I said I didn’t want this to feel like a Doris Day movie from the 1950s. I said it’s really got to feel very contemporary and very naturalistic. I didn’t want to be nervous about what I’m going to show, or see things taped down over her chest.
I said I wouldn’t be taking advantage of her; I just wanted it to feel real and allow the comedy to come out of the characters. She loved the script and she loved how bawdy it was. She had done this very funny song on Saturday Night Live where the most filthy things come out of her mouth and it’s really funny.
I think because we know her as such an intelligent and serious dramatic person in real life as well as on-screen, the juxtaposition of that creates great humour. She wanted her audience to see this other side of her, which is really a truthful side of her – that she has a wonderful sense of humour. She’s really quite accessible and she has the greatest, deep body laugh you’ve ever heard. I think she wanted to do a film that was not period or dramatic in structure and I think she felt these words for perfect for her.
By Jan Gilbert
