I was a little phobic in terms of whether I'd have a breakdown or find I was incapable of doing it on my own 
He appeared on screen in 2000's Chuck & Buck, but it's behind the camera that Paul Weitz has really made his name, writing the screenplay for Antz and directing his own scripts on American Pie and About A Boy - all with his brother, Chris, by his side. Now the 38-year-old writer/director has struck out alone with In Good Company, a comedy of corporate relations and paternal angst starring Dennis Quaid, Scarlett Johansson and Topher Grace.
Having directed three films with your brother Chris, why are you working on your own on In Good Company?
The decision not to do this with Chris was an easy one because he didn't want to do it. On About A Boy we were very keen that it shouldn't be apparent that we were American directors making a British film, so with this I was trying to focus on American cultural issues a bit more. He helped by producing it, and gave me a lot of great ideas early on. I was a little phobic in terms of whether I'd have a breakdown or find I was incapable of doing it on my own. And also if it would affect our friendship. Luckily we found it was easier to go and have a drink after work when we weren't together 12 hours a day. So it was kind of good for our friendship. I also realised that if you've co-directed a film three times and you can't do it on your own, there's probably something terribly wrong with you.
How did the off-screen relationship between Dennis Quaid, his 'daughter' Scarlett Johansson and 'boss' Topher Grace compare with the power games played out in the story?
In terms of actors' dynamics I try to do my homework. There are some actors who would be prone to not being particularly generous with a guy half their age. They'd be reluctant to give the other guy his moment. But I did some homework in terms of finding out that Dennis was a good guy and secure enough that he'd be happy with Topher getting a lot of terrific moments in the movie.
The range of experience between the three of them is contrasting, isn't it?
Scarlett, although she's the youngest of the three has a ton of screen experience - far more even than I do. And Topher was relatively underexposed in film, which is exciting to me, having started out with American Pie where they were all unknowns. I like being able to introduce someone new to the film audience. That was part of the fun for me with Nicholas Hoult in About A Boy, who hadn't been in a film before. Scarlett and Topher actually met and had lunch before doing the film; she called me up and told me she really liked him and said that they shared a similar sense of humour.
How was it for them working with Dennis - were they intimidated at all?
Actually I was intimidated at the thought of working with him, because his initial demeanour is kind of gruff. At first I wasn't sure if that was because he didn't like me or not, but he turns out to be quite a sweet guy. But one of the first things he said to me when we first met was that he liked strong directors. For some reason I got intimidated by that. He did follow that through; he really likes being directed. In this case, a lot of the skill in directing comedy is to try to get people not to play the comedy. In the first rehearsal with Topher and Dennis I did something that I thought was very astute, which related to the fact that Topher was to supposed to boss Dennis around in the story. I asked Topher to give Dennis notes after the very first read through. He looked at me as if I was trying to sabotage him and said, "I'm not going to do that - are you kidding me?" In hindsight that was very smart of him.
Do you hope the film has an impact on industry's tendency to undervalue experience against youth?
I think American industry as a whole is going to change after this film. I think you'll see that internationally as well. There are a lot of people who are in Dennis Quaid's position, in America certainly, when corporate mergers make it very tempting to fire the people who make a decent salary who also turn out to be the people with the most experience. On a personal level I don't think we see enough of this kind of character in American movies. Sometimes you'll see it elsewhere, I love that French film Time Out [L'Emploi Du Temps] about the guy who gets laid off and pretends to continue going to work. But the workplace is not an appealing subject for American films, they think it's deeply boring.
So was it tough to persuade the studio that this satire on big business should be made?
I was pleased that Universal didn't pull the plug given that they were going through their own corporate merger at the time. I don't know if they thought we were being naughty making this film. Occasionally I would get notes saying "We've had this very speech given to us", so I was pleased that they didn't chicken out about that.
