Meeting one’s heroes is, opposite to recommendation, at all times advisable – relying on how canny you might be at choosing heroes. So if as a teen you lionised, say, the notoriously grumpy Van Morrison, then you definately’ll in all probability be disillusioned. If, nevertheless, you’re the type of one who by no means grew out of your love for Ivan Reitman comedies, from Animal Home to Ghostbusters to Dave, you'll have been mocked (by idiots) over time on your style, however, man, you might be quids in once you meet your man.
Because the Guardian’s official 80s films correspondent, I talked to Reitman a number of occasions over time, starting with a cellphone interview for the final movie he directed, 2014’s Draft Day. Once I contacted him once more a couple of weeks later to ask if I may interview him for a e book I used to be engaged on about 80s films, he instantly agreed, and talked to me for over an hour, reminiscing about movies individuals had been asking him to reminisce about for over 30 years. He by no means confirmed boredom or irritation. If I ever wanted a quote, or simply had a query, I may electronic mail him and he’d reply instantly. Does it really want saying that this type of behaviour from a real Hollywood powerhouse just isn't precisely typical?
I didn’t get to fulfill Reitman in particular person till October 2021 when he, amazingly, got here to London mid-pandemic to assist promote his son Jason’s contribution to the Ghostbusters canon – a testomony, it rapidly grew to become clear, to his love for his son. We initially met in entrance of a resort in Soho, the place he and Jason gamely hammed it up within the Ghostbusters automobile, Ecto-1. It's rule quantity one in all interviewing that you simply don’t ask for pictures with the superstar, and it's rule quantity two that, should you completely should, you definitely don’t do it earlier than the interview. I smashed these guidelines to smithereens and requested the surprisingly shy and humble Reitman for a photograph with him in entrance of Ecto-1, and after asking if I used to be positive I didn’t need one with Jason (nope, sorry), he agreed.
How do you convey to somebody how a lot their work meant to you as a baby and due to this fact all of your life? Poor Reitman had had nerds burbling to him about this for nearly all of his grownup life, and I’m afraid I added to the pile of nerds. As I babbled on about how I can recite complete scenes of Meatballs, of Twins, and most of all, Ghostbusters, Jason beamed proudly subsequent to his father, however Reitman himself simply appeared overcome. “Gosh, thanks,” he stated to me as we walked to the resort. “That’s so good – thanks.”
Real humility is in fairly quick provide in most superstar interviews – so is real emotion. However twice Reitman needed to break off to cry (as soon as going to the lavatory to tug himself collectively) as he talked about, first, how proud he was of Jason, after which as he talked about his mom’s time in Auschwitz. Reitman was born in Czechoslovakia in 1946, after his mom and father (who was within the resistance) lastly reunited on the finish of the conflict. They fled communist oppression and made it to Canada when Reitman was 4, shedding just about all of their cash on the journey. He was blissful to speak about Kindergarten Cop for weeks on finish, however when it got here to discussing his household – his dad and mom, his youngsters – his grief and satisfaction and love had been simply too near the floor. There’s nothing extra Jewish than weeping with satisfaction over one’s youngsters, or being haunted by the Holocaust, and watching Reitman sit there attain for one more tissue, this mild, tender man felt, not like a director I had revered all my life (one who made Invoice Murray a star and Arnold Schwarzenegger right into a bona fide comic), however like somebody in my household. I wished to hug him, however happily for him, social distancing guidelines saved me at a secure distance.
What a formidable and good man Reitman was. It’s one more horrible loss from that technology of self-made Jewish immigrants who formed American comedy, and a really unhappy lack of a genuinely beautiful man.
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