We had the pleasure of talking with Jason Reitman, director and screenwriter of Up in the Air about his writing process, the casting of George Clooney, and the relevance of the script in today's world.

I read that your personal life kind of influenced the final script. In what way?

Jason Reitman: I related to this character more than in a few ways and when I started writing this screenplay, I was writing more as corporate satire, and over the six years it took me to write it, my life really evolved, I went from a single guy living in an apartment to a married guy with a daughter, a professional director living in a house with a mortgage, and my perspective just changed and inevitably, I had to write the character differently and start discussing the things that are important in life.

Such as?

Jason Reitman: Well I don't know what's important in life. I'm just begging the question of actually 'what is?'

But did you re-write scenes as a result?

Jason Reitman: Oh yeah. When I went back and re-read the script five years in, having not read any of the scenes up until then, it was like watching myself grow up. I think, I looked at the writer at the age I was when I wrote Thank You For Smoking, I think it was just kind of less sophisticated.

You said it was written with George Clooney in mind, did he take much persuading for a role like this?

Jason Reitman: You know, I thought there would have been more to be honest, but he read the script and his response was, 'I just read it, it's great. I'm in.' That was the conversation.

Was George the first piece in the sort of casting puzzle for you? Did you get him first and then cast around him?

Jason Reitman: Oh yeah. I needed to know who Ryan Bingham was before anybody else. So I went out to Lake Como and gave George the screenplay. It was a strange experience. I was kind of floored by the fact that I was staying there and waiting for him to read it. I think both of us were uncomfortable. A couple of days later he'd read it and said 'this is a great screenplay, I'm in..' As you can imagine, that was a big moment for me.