Director Jason Reitman talks honesty of 'Tully'

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- 'Tully' is a new film that delves into the reality of postpartum depression.

It's the third collaboration between two Hollywood powerhouses.

'Tully' tells the story of overworked, overstressed New York mom named Marlo and her night nurse.

It's the third time director Jason Reitman, who recently visited 6abc studios, has collaborated with screenwriter Diablo Cody.

In the film, Marlo played by Charlize Theron is about to have her third child.

To catch up on sleep, the family hires a night nurse played by Mackenzie Davis.

The young woman help finds herself caring for both the child and the mother.

"Tully arrives at the door and part of her job is to be there and help take care of this child overnight, but the other job really is to take care of Marlo. That Tully finds Marlo at this moment where she needs to know she's not alone in the universe. In that sense, Tully is kind of an adult Mary Poppins," Reitman said.

It's an honest and raw conversation about the demands of motherhood, and the moments you don't usually see on the screen, including a cell phone accident.

"We reached out to new moms and said, 'Help me fill this story with things I've never seen before.' That's where the cell phone falling on the baby came from. It seems it's an epidemic. Parents are just dropping their phones on children left and right," Reitman said.

Reitman says working with Cody for the third time feels like writing a diary together - in 5 year installments.

"These three films, 'Juno,' 'Young Adult,' and 'Tully,' all deal with this kind of concept of not feeling where you are in your own timeline. 'Juno' is about growing up too fast. 'Young Adult' is about growing up too slow. And 'Tully' is that moment when you become a parent and you realize that your younger self starts to feel like a different human being. And you have to create and make space for your child to occupy the space you once occupied yourself," Reitman said.

Cody, of course, won an Oscar for her screenplay for 'Juno.'

Reitman says when they met 12 years ago, they didn't know at the time that it was the beginning of a lifelong storytelling marriage and he believes they will be making movies into their old age.

He says while the divorce rate in Hollywood does not demonstrate a community that values long lasting relationship, Reitman says he lucky he met Cody.

"She has a way of articulating things that I'm feeling and don't have the words for, and that other people are feeling and don't have the words for," Reitman said.

Reitman first heard of a night nurse when he became a father.

"I never heard about this idea of a night nurse until I became a father myself. Diablo used the idea of a night nurse to create this relationship between a woman who feels I think the same way we all do when we become parents for the first time. In the middle of the night, we're scared, we're alone, we definitely think that we're messing up our kids, and we're just looking for anyone to tell us that we're doing a decent job," Reitman said.

Cody says she wrote this because the expectations on women are out of control.

So far people who have seen it say, "Parenting has never looked so relatable."

"Tully" is in theaters now.

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