VERA FARMIGA DISCUSSES “UP IN THE AIR”  Nov. 30, 2009

(VERA): Well you know, there’s a sense that…the preparation for this, I think every romance I’ve ever had in my life is somehow informed, this one. I don’t…on one hand, my character is someone who really compartmentalizes her life so I didn’t have to think about what is going on with Alex so much because this is the time she has to establish her own needs, her own desires, be unapologetic about it, be demanding, establish perimeters and in this case, in her relationship with Ryan she’s in it for the enjoyment of it and that’s all I really had to think about because whatever twist happens at the end should come as a shock and a surprise and in that moment, you do try to…but so for me, it was just like dancing an Argentine tango, with someone who can throw you into the deepest cortes and dip you and…dancing, with George. And that’s…you don’t really prepare for something like that in the moment, you have to sort of, one part, rely on chemistry and one part rely on the incredible text that we had. What’s so sexy about these two people is, it’s hardly physical, it’s very mental, it’s the banter is what’s so hot, the things that they say to each other, the dialogue, the hilarity of the dialogue, and the sense of humor that they share. So I think it’s just clicking into that. And other than that, I think the preparation is just clicking into, who is this woman? How does she dress? That’s very important to me, I’m like a kid dipping into her costume box, into her space, to me her tempo is very languid, she glided through life with her confidence and so we chose…I mean, having a baby I was sort of 12 to 15 lbs. heavier, and that versed itself well, I was very voluptuous. So the silk blouses, the softness, would counteract the very masculine, sexual prowess. And at the wedding sequence…eh, it was a toss between the bonus points scene, the first scene where they meet, I just…it’s a love scene without being a love scene, um, so you know, that was really fun and sort of a new take on a love scene. And then I love the wedding sequence, it was largely improvisational, it was just sort of, Jason having the cameras roll and he set up a very care-free environment where he hired a wedding planner and the camera operators were the videographers of the wedding and we just sort of went through a real wedding three times that day and the camera picked up sort of, nuances, and just things that happen in a wedding. That was fun.

Jason as a director is um…he’s good times, he has…the way…one day, we were on set with Ana and that one scene, that one marvelous scene that Anna has when she breaks down about her boyfriend, which is, again tonally, there’s very challenging, tonal things that all of our characters have to walk and I remember Jason at one point telling me to play the scene as if I was a wounded puppy and then he’s actually howling, showing Ana, like, what sort of sounds she should achieve as she’s crying, sort of yelping, you know, [laughs] and then coming to me and going, “Don’t do it like that.” The direction was always so, I don’t know, he’s got a great sense of humor.