‘The Front Runner’: Director Jason Reitman On Prescient Politics, Hugh Jackman, Charlize Theron & More

Filmmaker Jason Reitman has been on a creative tear of late. After producing the television series “Casual,” Reitman shot “The Front Runner” nearly immediately after directing the Diablo Cody-penned “Tully,” all within the past year. The “Juno” helmer often explores films that delve into parent-child relationships, the dynamics of generational differences, stunted emotional growth, and explore strong, naturalistic, multifaceted central female protagonists.

“I like to tell original stories,” Reitman once told the Georgia Straight, “and the most simplistic argument would be that if you want to tell original stories, tell stories about women.” “The Front Runner,” which centers around the sex scandal that ended politician Gary Hart’s American Presidential run in 1988, focuses less on the man, but more on how it affects the women around him. It’s a timely film, particularly during a period today when political and tabloid journalism is seemingly inseparable and truth appears to be subjective.

On the verge of “The Front Runner’s” wide theatrical release today (November 21), I had a chance to speak with Reitman about his latest film, his cinematic influences, the prescient nature of Hart’s campaign, his fruitful professional, collaborative relationships, and much more.

Gary Hart’s story is oddly prescient about what today’s toxic politics morphed into. Why did you want to tell this story?
It is a tricky thing because I feel like explaining why you want to make a movie is like explaining why you’re in love with a girl. It’s so personal and so instinctual. When I heard [about it]; it just felt like a movie, and I couldn’t believe it had happened. And it feels like an opportunity to talk about the kinds of things that we’re just asking ourselves all the time these days and struggle because the volume is so high in 2018.

How the hell did we get here? What is the relationship between journalists and candidates? And what is that line? Where does a public life start? Where does a private life stop? All these things are on all of our minds, and we’re all looking for a way to answer them and have that conversation. For me, filmmaking is asking questions. Filmmaking is having that conversation. I make movies because I have questions, and this felt like an opportunity to chew away at them.

This film is considerably Robert Altman-esque aesthetically. What Altman films did you draw from?
It was Michael Ritchie that we were looking to, actually, and I completely understand why people bring up Altman. Obviously, with the long shots and everything, and I’m honored by the comparison, but it was Ritchie’s “The Candidate,” “Downhill Racer,” “Smile”— his trilogy on winning, tonally, that really was our north star. The philosophical question of the movie is what is relevant? Right? That’s what we’re asking the audience. What is important versus what is just entertaining? Again, the same thing that we’re asking ourselves all the time these days.

So, the challenge for, me, the writers, the cinematographer was: how do you take that philosophical question and ask it cinematically? So, we decided that was through these long, sprawling shots in which we are always hearing three conversations at once; always seeing three things at once. Specifically, so we can ask the audience, “All right. What do you want to look at and listen to? From the very open shot of the film, the audience is being challenged: who do you follow? Who do you think is important? And we don’t give you the answer on that. You must figure that out for yourself. It’s Altman-esque in that way, but the way in was how do we ask this philosophical question of the audience?

Between “Casual” and “Tully,” when did you decide that you want to take your next film in a new direction?
We actually wrote “The Front Runner” in 2015 at the end of the Obama administration. It’s funny, we wrote this movie when the country was in a very different place. And then we made “Tully” and “The Front Runner” back-to-back. It’s interesting because, while we were making “The Front Runner,” there was a presidential election and then, of course, the #MeToo movement began. So, just as the ground shifted under Gary Hart’s feet, the world shifted under ours. But a movie tends to be a living, breathing thing. It takes on and reflects the world around it.