Taika Waititi on playing Hitler in black comedy Jojo Rabbit, and more Thor with Chris Hemsworth
When Taika Waititi was asked to play one of the most evil and despised men in history, he was both flattered and insulted. So why did he do it?
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In his film, the controversial and divisive Jojo Rabbit, Taika Waititi plays a buffoonish, comedic version of Adolf Hitler, the imaginary friend of a young Nazi boy in World War II Germany.
In 2011, riding high on the success of his breakout film Boy, which became the highest homegrown movie in his native New Zealand, the Kiwi director and actor had written a script for the unlikely black comedy, loosely based on the acclaimed Holocaust themed novel, Caging Skies.
Waititi’s script took the very serious book’s central idea of a boy trying to succeed in the Hitler Youth who discovers his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in the attic – but the risky addition of the cartoonish Hitler as father figure and confidant came straight from the director’s fertile mind.
“No one tried to talk me out of it,” says Waititi with a laugh over the phone from Hawaii, where he has been shooting the soccer underdog story, Next Goal Wins.
“I just think people are hugely kind of nervous about stuff like that, but no one actually said to me, that’s a terrible idea.”
Discussions for the film got as far as the studio pushing for a big name actor to play Hitler but when none were forthcoming, Waititi put the project on the backburner and made the vampire mockumentary What We Do In the Shadows, buddy comedy Hunt For the Wilderpeople and then breathed new life into Chris Hemsworth’s Marvel superhero Thor, with the hugely successful third chapter in the franchise, Ragnarok.
But the strange story that had made the 2012 Black List of the hottest scripts in Hollywood never went away, and when it returned to the spotlight again, it came with a twist.
“Once I finished Thor and I got back into the discussions again, (studio) Fox Searchlight said ‘we’ve been thinking about it, and we basically only want to make the film if you play Hitler’,” recalls Waititi.
“So it was really them who encouraged me because I am obviously not the obvious choice. I mean even just the way I look. I was flattered and insulted.”
Waititi’s mostly goofy and over-the-top version of the Fuhrer is of course far from a historically accurate portrayal – not only did that interpretation fit the story but he didn’t want to give the demented demagogue the courtesy of extensive research.
“It was easy to do even a weak impression of him,” says Waititi.
“You just swing your arms around and yell.”
Nevertheless, Waititi, who has Russian-Jewish heritage on his mother’s side, admits to a certain embarrassment and discomfort just from putting the Nazi uniform on and going on to a set surrounded by the Swastikas so inextricably linked with the racist and hateful ideology. But he says the cast (including Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson and Stephen Merchant) and crew who understood what he was doing helped him overcome any negativity.
“That’s not really fun but if you surround yourself with decent people and like-minded people and fun people and friends, it’s a good way to be creative but also to ensure that you are doing it for the right reasons and that you are not overwhelmed by the sadness that would probably be infused through a set like that.”
Waititi says it was partly his Jewish heritage that inspired him to make Jojo Rabbit, but also a personal fascination for the era and a desire to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive more than 80 years later.
“I knew a lot about it throughout my life and I think growing up that was something that fills you with fear when you know that people can do that to each other,” he says.
“You feel like you have this part of history watching over you but knowing about that stuff means that you know the right path so I never thought there was any danger of me ever turning into someone like that or being racist or being a bully.”
He cites a poll from last year that showed that two third of Millennials in the US did not know about Auschwitz, and more than one in five had never heard of the Holocaust, which saw 6 million Jews killed during World War II.
“Those statistics are really scary thinking that kids will grow up in an age where a bigot and a fascist can get into power and convince masses of people to do things – and that can happen again,” he says.
“So that’s why I think it’s vital that we keep telling these stories.”
Although Jojo Rabbit took out the top prize at the Toronto Film Festival in September and has been nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical Or Comedy at next month’s Golden Globes, inevitably there has been criticism for a film that finds humour the most serious of subjects.
But Waititi points out that there is a rich tradition of mocking Hitler from Charlie Chaplin to Mel Brooks and that satire and comedy is the only way to deal with bullies and dictators.
“You have to make fun of fascists, as people did with Hitler in the ‘30s, like Chaplin,” he says.
“It helps to poke fun at them and it helps to pull away the facade so you can see what’s going on behind it. And bullies and dictators hate it, being made fun of.
“You can see that with Trump – if you make fun of him, it drives him bananas. There is this weird immaturity that they operate with and I think that if you just take them seriously, that’s what they want, and that’s what gives them power. And that’s what they operate on – fear and they idea that ‘if people are scared of us, then they won’t do anything’. But if enough people laugh at them and they feel embarrassed then that means that enough people realise ‘oh, they are nothing’.”
Waititi has made it to the upper echelons of Hollywood by following his own instincts, however unusual they may be, and by taking feedback from colleagues and friends he trusts and admires such as frequent collaborator Jemaine Clement (of Flight of the Conchords fame) and acclaimed Australian director Warwick Thornton (Sweet Country). Another member of his circle of trust is Hemsworth, who lobbied for him direct Thor: Ragnarok in Australia and with whom he will team up again for the fourth chapter in the superhero’s adventures, Love and Thunder.
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“We became good friends and allies,” says Waititi of making the Gold Coast shot Ragnarok with Hemsworth, which was a huge step up for him in terms of scale, budget and profile. “We’d get on set and laugh at the same things and thought the same things about that character and that was great and a massive relief as well. I am looking forward to doing it all over again. We’re still writing it – and we’ll probably be still writing it all the way through shooting.”
Jojo Rabbit is now available to buy on DVD.