Page 98 - Sharp Winter 2024

FULL LOOK BY GIVENCHY; NECKLACE BY CARTIER.
to do it. It was a passion thing. But, over the years, it became a job and, honestly, now it’s one of the less exciting parts of my day. It’s become harder, and lonelier.”
Could it be pressure? Jojo Rabbit not only won Waititi the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, but also saw him receive a BAFTA, and a Writers Guild of America Award. Do these accolades loom large every time he puts pen to paper?
“There is pressure,” says Waititi, “but I’m fine with it. What actually happens when you win an Oscar for writing is that every single thing you write — from text messages to email — are writ- ten by an Oscar-winning writer. That text, where I’ve just written ‘What’re you up to?’ That’s an Oscar-winning sentence!”
And all of those Oscar-winning sentences have put Waititi in serious demand. Among his upcoming projects — take a deep breath — there’s a film adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s dystopian Klara and the Sun, a television adaptation of Charles Yu’s National Book Award-winning Interior Chinatown, a Star Wars movie, a television remake of 1981 fantasy adventure Time Bandits, and a likely third season of Our Flag Means Death, the HBO pirate comedy in which Waititi plays Blackbeard. To prepare himself for this substantial slate, the filmmaker has started rewatching his past projects in a bid to reappraise and develop his style. He’s even scrutinizing Next Goal Wins in this way, which was filmed pre-pandemic, in 2019.
“I think distance and time are really good ways of coming to terms with things,” Waititi reasons, “and help you accept that you made decisions that felt good, proper, and authentic to the story in the moment. And, like them or not, you’ve got to stick with them. Because, unless you’re a psychopath, you can’t just go and re-edit your film every year because you’ve decided that something needs to change.”
It would also throw off the delicate balance of Waititi’s films — particularly Next Goal Wins. For there are weightier, more
profound considerations hidden in the humour of the filmmaker’s latest, from issues of parental grief to transphobia. This, you’ll find, is the thread that weaves Waititi’s work together: coaxing audiences in with froth and fun, then sneakily starting important conversations. His films aren’t sugar-coated, as such, but rather operate as Trojan Horses, smuggling otherwise sidestepped subjects into the spotlight.
“For instance,” Waititi explains, “with Boy, that’s essentially a comedy about child abuse. Hunt for the Wilderpeople is about the foster system in New Zealand, which has been a problem for us New Zealanders, how we’ve treated our kids. So I’ve always been interested in those sorts of things, to be able to bring an audience in, to welcome them with humour and lightness, and then deliver some sort of message.”
And there it is: the elusive “takete” and “kiki” of Taika Waititi. Eight films in, and the New Zealander has quietly broached more hard-hitting topics and taboos than many of even our most stony- faced filmmakers. He’s tackled arson and anti-Semitism, touched on suicide and bullying. But that’s the skill of his storytelling — he knows such subjects can’t be ignored, but is committed to showing us the world doesn’t turn on doom and gloom alone.
“I feel like, as a filmmaker, you need to be saying something,” Waititi says. “So, even if people look at Next Goal Wins and say: ‘Oh, it’s just soccer with some jokes here and there,’ that’s just one glimpse of it. It’s a film about hope and something we all need to be reminded of, which is: slow the fuck down, be happy, and the happier we will be around each other.”
“Football is a religion for people,” he adds. “It’s more important than life. That’s true. People live and die over a game of football. And it’s a game! But life is a game. So I think we all just need to step back and ask: what are we doing? Why don’t we just chill out — and play the game?”
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“I’ve always been interested in those sorts of things, to be able to bring an audience in, to welcome them with humour and lightness, and then deliver some sort of message.”