Drawn to the story, to working with writer/director Jason Reitman (of Juno fame) and to portraying a heated romance with co-star George Clooney, Vera Farmiga spoke at the film's press day about how much she loved playing a character with such duality.

Q: What was Jason Reitman like, as a director?

Vera: What I admire about his films is that he can make a comedy about a teenage pregnancy, and here his hero is somebody who fires people for a living and he still expects the audience to root for him. He sketches these characters and shines a real stark spotlight on them that illuminates all their foibles, deficiencies, quirks and eccentricities, and yet you still manage to root for them because they're so human and complex. And, I saw that in Alex.

I'm always on the hunt for a great romance, and I love how Jason portrays romance. He did it similarly in Juno. What's so special, sexy, touching, authentic and heartbreaking about it is the tete a tete. It's what they say to each other. It's the banter. With this, the banter was so old-fashioned and almost prudish. You don't see them together. You see a scene that's an illusion to them having a good old romp, but what's so sexy is their relationship. I loved that.

Q: How did you prepare for this role?

Vera: With Alex, it's such a masculine portrayal of feminine desire. I love that duality to it. He's totally a master at treading the fine line of tones. For my character, it was honoring her sexual prowess. It was very a demanding, masculine, unapologetic and compartmental sexuality, while making her as soft, feminine and appealing as possible. The key to that, as I found out because she's got some zingers, was that dignity and self-integrity tap into that, for this character. That made it all elegant and somewhat okay.

Q: Was the role-reversal thing attractive to you, when you first read the script?

Vera: Yeah, it was. But, even before that, I appreciated the quality of these two characters. It wasn't so much that the female was now going to be in it for the enjoyment of it. I really just found them to be on solid, equal footing. I like that because that's seldom the case.

Q: Do you see yourself in Alex, or know someone like her, who leads a double-life?

Vera: We all know an Alex, whether it's someone who is male or female. We all do it, as women. There's so much we have to balance in our lives, wanting to be a career woman, and balancing between career and family. It's about recklessness and restraint, and virgin versus whore. It's that whole pendulum we swing between and we'll never have an answer to. That's what she represents to me. She has to compartmentalize and say, "This is my job and this is who I am." I'm old-fashioned. I'm devoted to my husband. But, I like to think I understand Alex's confidence and grace.

Q: This movie is partly about our modern technological gadgetry distancing us from having personal relationships. Are you like that, in your own life?

Vera: No. If you scroll through my text messages, it's my husband and my mama, and occasionally there's a business interaction. With my husband and I, our romance was founded on love letters and text messages, going back and forth. We were bi-coastal and that's what allowed us to persevere in our love. I printed them up and I have a novel of them.

Q: You just had a baby before you made this film. How did you prepare physically?

Vera: Breast feeding. It was two months before I actually started and we were in St. Louis, which has one of the best parks in the United States. I'm a New Yorker and it rivals Central Park. And, I was running six miles a day while I was breast feeding. I was about 12 pounds heavier, but it just dispersed in the right way. It was actually quite voluptuous, sensual and womanly, and I know it added to the performance. I'd never felt so empowered and so womanly, as I did bringing forth a human.

Q: Did you bring the baby to the set?

Vera: All the time. Poor George. I would always interrupt his close-up to go and pump. They really were accommodating, I have to say.

Q: You and George had an incredible on screen chemistry. Was that just there, or did you have to work on it?

Vera: No, I think what you can work on is the rhythm between two people, and that's something that is in the sharpness and rhythm of the dialogue, almost like Shakespeare. You've got to click in to the rhythm. Jason writes rhythmically. And so, there's a certain measure that can be honed. Jason's biggest direction to me was, "Vera, you've got to say it faster." I'm Ukrainian. I'm Slavic, and I can be Chekhovian about things and indulge in them, but Jason was on me to speak rhythmically. But, aside from that, you do click into the hilarity of the dialogue, and that's most of it. You do ride the wave of chemistry, and it's either there or it's not. Jason cancelled all rehearsals after the first table read, so I guess it must have been there.

Q: What was George like, as a person and as an actor? What was the best part about working with him?

Vera: He's such a goofball. What is so attractive about him is his sense of humor. Too bad he's so ugly. He establishes a tone of frivolity on set, and so does Jason. We frolicked through our jobs, and it was playful. He's just himself. He's warm and inviting, and you tend to just cozy up to that energy. You can flower in his presence because he's so easy and genuine.

Q: What's next for you?

Vera: I did The Vintner's Luck with Niki Caro, who did Whale Rider and North Country. That will be coming out, at some point. I'm in rehearsals for a zany romantic comedy, called Henry's Crime, with Keanu Reeves and James Caan. It's an indie film, along the lines of Buffalo ‘66 meets Bullets Over Broadway. It's fun. And, I'm going to be directing an indie film. I'm going to try that, for the first time. It's a very personal story, based on the memoirs of a woman called Carolyn Briggs, and it's just her grappling with her faith in the 1960s and the 1970s born again Christian movement. It's just a portrait of a woman trying to define that for herself.

UP IN THE AIR opens on December 4th

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