In this case, most women probably would’ve worked for perks alone.
But that didn’t mean Jason Reitman could find an actress qualified to seduce George Clooney in his bittersweet comedy Up in the Air.
“He said, ‘I need someone George Clooney can fall in love with,’” Vera Farmiga remembers the director of Juno and Thank You For Smoking telling her.
Her response?
“I said, ‘Fine, no sweat. I’ll give him a run for his money.’”
She laughs.
“I said, ‘I’m your gal.’”
Not that her confidence was unfounded. After all, Farmiga had more than convincingly wooed some of Hollywood’s most sought-after leading men before — most famously as the police psychologist snared between Matt Damon’s underworld mole and Leonardo DiCaprio’s undercover cop in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed.
It turns out she wasn’t even daunted by what some might consider a more-than-minor complication.
“When he offered me the job I was in my eighth month of pregnancy,” she says. “I was doing the math in my head. It seemed do-able. And I’ve always been someone who can fluctuate weight accordingly to what the character requires ... I knew I could handle it.”
(Off-camera, interestingly, she sounds less convinced of her sex appeal. “I know the effect I have on my husband and that suffices,” she says, referring to musician Renn Hawkey.)
Still, this isn’t to suggest her transformation from new mother to svelte seductress was without its challenges.
“It takes a woman a good six or seven months to get in the groove after maternity. There’s just sleepless nights, so lack of sleep takes a toll, so I didn’t always feel buttoned up and sexy and confident and comfortable in my skin. But it’s pretty effortless with George.”
In the movie, which opens Friday in Toronto and then across Canada in the weeks ahead, Clooney stars as Ryan Bingham, a commitment-phobic corporate bagman who cheerfully does the dirty work of firing other people’s downsized employees.
He finds his similarly attachment-free soulmate in Farmiga’s Alex, a snappy, self-assured business traveller just as aroused by the notion of 10 million air miles as he is. For Bingham, the question becomes: can he bring himself to commit to a woman as devoted to the concept of part-time love as he is?
As Farmiga notes, the nature of the relationship — and Alex’s character — recalls a bygone Hollywood in which female roles were as pointed as their male counterparts.
“Katharine Hepburn might have had her fair share of them. But it’s hard now to find them.”
The chemistry she shares on-screen with Clooney, she says, “was immediate. I’ve always admired him — not only for his work but as a person. He was familiar with me and championed me for the role. I felt very relaxed in his presence; you can’t help it. He’s so affable. He’s a delight.”
Yet for all the discussion of frequent-flier foreplay, Up in the Air also tackles darker, more difficult themes.
Reitman counters Bingham’s romantic journey and existential awakening with the poignancy of suddenly jobless workers.
For Farmiga, 36, it’s a topic that touches close to home.
“My father has been laid off several times. He’s a systems analyst who creates languages for computers and has been laid off a handful of times because of corporate downsizing and companies buying out other companies. And he still has three children to put through college and no health insurance, so it’s grim.
“It’s a very real thing to my family. I really wish I could take my frequent-flier miles and pay their electrical bill.”
Farmiga likes smaller films
Vera Farmiga has starred in some of the finest movies you’ve never heard of.
“I’ve made a career of those films,” she notes with rueful smile.
Among them: 2008’s The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and Nothing But the Truth; 2007’s Joshua and Never Forever; 2006’s Breaking and Entering; and 2004’s Down to the Bone, which became her calling card in the industry; after Martin Scorsese saw it, he cast her in his Oscar-winning The Departed.
In past interviews, Farmiga has been quoted as saying the dismal fate of these films — commercially ignored despite critical acclaim — has made her contemplate quitting the business altogether.
“I’m a real roll-up-your sleeves kind of actor, so it’s frustrating when a film ultimately doesn’t get seen. But that was also a younger me talking. I don’t take myself so seriously anymore.”
And while her role in Up in the Air opposite George Clooney will probably help expose her to a larger audience — and potentially more mainstream Hollywood parts — she says that’s not what she’s seeking.
“I’ll continue to do (smaller) films because I find them to be beautiful. And I’ll do my best work because I’m inspired by it.”
She adds optimistically, “If I’m interested in it, surely there will be someone else who will be compelled by it.”
