Here is a new interview the LA Daily News did with the women of “Up in the Air”, and a new photoshoot is included as well.
Walter Kirn’s 2001 novel “Up in the Air” rather brilliantly depicted the inner life of one Ryan Bingham. A corporate downsizing facilitator desperate for both a new job and more frequent flyer miles, Bingham thought in a perceptive stream-of-consciousness informed by state-of-the-art marketing concepts.
It was a pretty great book, but a tough one to turn into a movie. Especially after the Sept. 11 attacks, as Bingham’s cushy life in the privileged business class of what he called Airworld became increasingly unrealistic in a time of airline cost-cutting and inconvenienced travelers.
But Jason Reitman, the director of “Juno,” has nonetheless made “Up in the Air” into a compelling, relevant movie, with George Clooney all-too-perfectly cast as the charmingly untethered Bingham.
He did it by pretty much rewriting the story from scratch.
“Have times changed? Yes,” Reitman notes. “One, security protocol in flying completely changed. Two, when the book came out we were in an economic boom, and now we’re in a recession like no other. But one thing did not change. This has always been a story about a man who thinks life is somehow better alone.
“Whatever the differences – whether it’s the sexual flings that he goes on in the book versus the romantic relationship that he develops in my movie, or it’s the fact that we never actually read about him firing someone but he repeatedly does it in the movie – the one thing that remains is that you have a guy who believes in the idea of living clean; nobody, no thing. That’s what I wanted to make a movie about from the beginning.”
Among Reitman’s most engaging additions are the new women of Airworld: Vera Farmiga’s Alex, Ryan’s no-strings female counterpart whose very disdain for attachment makes him think about settling down; Anna Kendrick’s Natalie, a young, scarily self-possessed new hire whose plans to digitize Ryan’s business could destroy his cherished lifestyle; and Melanie Lynskey’s Julie, Ryan’s sister, whose wedding crises differ significantly from the character’s in the book.
They all bring distinct viewpoints to what had been an exclusively male story, and in the process turn Airworld into a place where real people could live.
Anna Kendrick
With a recurring role in the “Twilight” movies and a super-smart, scene-stealing turn in “Up in the Air,” Anna Kendrick could hardly have a hotter career.
She’s certainly earned it. The Portland, Maine, native has been acting since the age of 6, and made the long trek to New York for auditions countless times. At 12, she was the second youngest actress ever nominated for a Tony Award, for the musical “High Society.”
Now 24, Kendrick is specializing in remarkably smart young women such as the conniving high school debater in the award-winning indie film “Rocket Science” and “Up in the Air’s” Natalie Keener, an Ivy League go-getter who’s figured out a way to computerize Ryan Bingham’s job-terminating career.
“She’s not in the book at all,” Kendrick notes. “She mainly exists as a way to make George Clooney’s character explain himself. Otherwise, the entire film would be inner monologue, which would be pretty boring.”
Stiff and threatening at first, Natalie is persuasively humanized as the film unfolds.
“She always was empathetic to me,” Kendrick says. “At the beginning, people don’t respond to her because they see her as bratty and she challenges the story’s hero. But I love her independence, her strength and her drive. However misguided she might be, I love that she’s unapologetically ambitious, has been strong and works hard.”
Not unlike the actress herself, right?
“There’s part of me that wants to be that strong and confident,” Kendrick admits. “It’s so fun for me to play, when there are so many times in my real life when I’ve wished that I’d stood up for myself.”
CURRENTLY ACCEPTING, PLEASE 
002 x Photoshoot – 
