T
aika Waititi – part-time wearer of pineapple shirts and
full-time director of exceptional movies – should have at least
one Oscar to his name.
Not taking anything away from being the reigning New Zealander
of the Year, but his trophy cabinet remains roomier than it deserves
to be. That said, the critical acclaim he received for 2004’s Oscar-
nominated short film Two Cars, One Night, 2010’s Boy, 2014’s What
We Do in the Shadows and 2016’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople did manifest
itself into something significant – Waititi’s unpretentious, comic
approach to indigenous tales resonated with one of Hollywood’s
biggest stars: Chris Hemsworth.
“I’d seen Boy and loved it, so I knew Taika, and was such a fan,”
Hemsworth tells us. “When his name came up [for Thor: Ragnarok]
I reached out to him and said, ‘I’d love to work with you’.”
Fast forward three years. Waititi has just spent 20-plus months
aboard the biggest production set he’ll probably ever work on,
directing, cameo-ing in and perfecting the third Thor movie, not
to mention goofing around with Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett,
Mark Ruffalo, Idris Elba, Tom Hiddleston, Tessa Thompson and
Jeff Goldblum on a daily basis.
Ever the prankster, it was Waititi’s sentimental side that had all the
Hollywood heavyweights on board from day one, when he arranged
a Maori dance to kick off filming. That set the tone and the magic
flowed from there. Given his experience is predominantly taken from
working on modest budgets, you’d think the transition from small
to gigantic was to be somewhat daunting.
“I’m always more proud about something where I feel like I’m not
entirely sure what to do, or that it’s gonna push me to find creative
solutions,” says Waititi. “With Thor, I love Chris and I think he’sreally entertaining. But he hasn’t really had a chance to fully
explore his comedic talent until now. So that was important for
me. But the main thing was being unsure. And that’s why I felt
like, here’s a chance for me to do something good.”
Arguably Waititi’s greatest achievement with Thor is to take
the best of Kenneth Branagh’s and Alan Taylor’s films, and revamp
them. Namely, making Thor a more loveable hero – humour the main
instigator. “Chris and I fed off each other well and could read each
other’s sense of humour really early on. So a lot of the time we’d try
to figure out how to make things funny or make a scene better.”
Waititi has a knack of replacing predictable dialogue with errant
chatter that maintains attention. As a film-maker, he’s like that
excitable boy leaping from one step to another – so much so that you
can’t not be absorbed by his direction. Chatting to Waititi, we get to
know a man of good nature and comic-book nerd at heart.
“Yeah, I used to collect a good mixture of Marvel and DC and
Vertigo and Dark Horse comics. I was fully into it,” he says. “Actually
I used to put them in the dust covers with cardboard backing to keep
them all straight. I loved The New Mutants, X-Men, and Batman- I mean I was really into them like a weirdo.” Prior to Thor, superhero
references inform Waititi’s films. “Think you can handle having
The Incredible Hulk for a dad?” his character notes in Boy, not to
mention Ricky’s fondness for superpowers in Wilderpeople.
Now, we may break the main rule of Antipodean rivalry here,
but we do have a Kiwi to congratulate for pitting two Aussie giants,
in Cate Blanchett and Hemsworth, against each other in one of the
year’s biggest blockbusters. For that, while the Academy might not yet
have done so, we’re for adding to Waititi’s airy trophy cabinet.
Thanks Taika, you’re our director of the year. n
WITTY, INTELLIGENT,TALENTED, HE’S THE MANRESPONSIBLE FOR TURNINGMARVEL’S THOR INTO MORETHAN JUST ANOTHERSUPERHERO FRANCHISE.Taika Waititi
DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR
WORDS MIKE CHRISTENSEN146 GQ.COM.AU MEN OF THE YEAR 2017