Jason 'always asked about Clooney'
Thursday November 19 2009
Jason Reitman has made a note of every press question he's been asked recently - and worked out that the most frequent question is about George Clooney.
The Juno and Thank You For Smoking director is promoting his latest film, Up In The Air, which stars the ER actor.
He has taken photographs of the journalists who interviewed him and has also recorded the questions he's been asked most frequently and organised the data in a pie chart.
Asked what the most frequent question was, Reitman said: "What's it like working with George Clooney?"
He added: "It's really not a promotional tool. It's really for my own enjoyment."
Reitman noticed some trends in the interviews. In Chicago, more people asked him about his father, Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman. In New York, many asked him about the book by Walter Kirn that Up In The Air is based on. In Europe, everyone wanted to know about the economy (a subject in the film) and President Barack Obama.
"By keeping track of these questions, I realised that not only did I know what questions the reporters were going to ask, but the reporters often knew what answers I was going to give," said Reitman. "In that sense, I was acting and they were acting in a scene. We're doing dialogue."
He tallied up 119 questions on Clooney, 79 about his father, 69 of "What's next?"
"I'm a numbers guy, I guess," he said.
Press Association
