The Press Box - 'The Big Picture' — How to Make a Marvel Movie Funny With ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Director Taika Waititi (Ep. 374)

Episode Date: November 3, 2017

Ringer editor-in-chief Sean Fennessey chats with Taika Waititi about his transition from small indie comedies in New Zealand to Marvel’s big-budget superhero epic ‘Thor: Ragnarok.’ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The scariest thing, honestly, was that had made 16 successful films for any director. If they're speaking honestly, coming into this thing, your biggest fear is, am I going to come in and just destroy it all? Am I the one that is going to ruin that record? I'm Sean Fennessey, editor-in-chief of the Ringer, and this is the big picture. What makes a Marvel movie work? Is it the action, the interconnected universe of storytelling, the movie stars? With rare exception, it's not really any of those things.

It's the humor. From Robert Downey Jr.'s-Wise-Cracking Iron Man to the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, which treats interstellar war like a slapstick movie, the best Marvel movies are the funny ones. Now we have the funniest one yet. Thor, the Norse God, played by Chris Hemsworth, who wields a big hammer and a Shakespearean accent, has always been kind of a blank character. But in Thor, Ragnarok, he's a different kind of hero,

charming, self-aware, and most importantly, a comedian. The credit for that goes directly to today's guest, Tycho Waititi. He's a filmmaker who started out as a comedy writer and performer in New Zealand, with people like Jermaine Clement of Flight of the Concord's fame, and Yatidi is yet another in a long line of unlikely director choices by Marvel. Before Ragnarok, he'd made four films, all small, all in New Zealand, and all comedies, including last year's Sweet and Tart Hunt for the Wilder People. With the third Thor movie, he's turned a stately story into something much goofier.

And as he told me, he did so largely on his own, without Marvel looking over his shoulder during the production. We talked about making Marvel funny, getting Cape Blanchette to play along, and a lot more. Without further ado, here's Tycho Waititi. Very excited to be joined by Tycho Waititi. Tyca, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me on the show. This is a pleasure.

I'm a huge fan of your films, though I want to talk to you about how the hell you got here making a Marvel movie, because the movies that you were making before this are quite different from Marvel movies. They are very different, a lot smaller. That's right. A lot smaller in scale and in budget. But just as big in heart. That's true. So, you know, you were making films mostly in New Zealand, comedies with some dramatic elements.

Hunt for the Wilder People last year. A lot of people saw that. what we do in the shadows. Take me back to the moment when someone from Marvel contacted you and said, you should make a Thor movie. Well, I was in Hawaii, just given birth to our second child, and, that Jermaine and I've been trying for years. And I was editing Hunt for the Wilder people, so I was halfway through the edit for that. And, you know, I get an email from my agent saying the EP from Marvel, would love to talk to you about Thor, the new Thor film. And my initial reaction was not sure if I'm very well-suited to one of these kind of films.

I'd seen them and enjoyed them, but had always thought, man, how do you, how do you even do this? Logistically and just creatively, how do you get your head around tackling something so big? I had a meeting on Skype with him and he told me, okay, you know, the Hulk's going to be in it. And basically what he said was we really want to change the whole franchise. Chris is feeling like, you know, it's getting a bit too familiar for him and playing that character the way it is we want to tap into how funny Chris is. We want to just venture off in a completely new direction with the franchise and just shake it up and make it more fun and make it more of a cosmic adventure.

And that was really exciting for me because my favorite of the Marvel franchises have been Guardians and probably Iron Man. But each of those franchises are so solid in their identity and so solid in knowing what they are because I've had strong filmmakers behind them who know what they want and the best example is James Gunn and you know who's done such an incredible job with Guardians.

You know, I would never in a million years want to do a film, a Guardian's film after what he's done because it's just, I just wouldn't feel like I could have any ownership or bring anything unique or have any kind of stamp that I could put on it. But Thor was the one franchise where I felt like it didn't quite know itself as well as the others. And it just had so much more potential to be shaped into something new.

And that's what became exciting for me. I thought, yeah, I can come in after all the groundwork and the foundation laying that Brano and Taylor did on those first two films, which I like those films. But they did all the hard work in like, you know, explaining what Asgard is and who Haimdoll is and the Bifrost and like all these crazy names and things that you've got to take on. They've done all that and all I had to do was like come in, walk into the door with all my crayons

and like, you know, colors and crazy characters. And so, yeah, I had a way easier job coming into that. When Marvel comes to you, what do they say? They say you have a great comic sensibility and we want that in your film. How do they talk about it? Really, they said, you know, we've seen shadows, but the thing for us that really,

really made us interested in you was your second film, boy. And I think really that just they, it's not enough for them just to get someone who can tell jokes. You know, they want to find storytellers who can access the, you know, the dramatic side and, you know, and kind of massage some pathos into, into their fun stories as well. So it means something. You know, then those are the best films that swing between drama and comedy and, you know, something for everyone. And it's a bit more of an emotional ride. And so, yeah, so they, they, They said, look, you know, obviously you haven't done superhero movies before, but we have. We know what we want and what we're doing from the spectacle side of it, from what the fans want.

But we want someone unique and we want new and original voices in our universe, which is why they got James and the Rousseau's in the first place. What was the scariest thing about considering taking it on for you? The scariest thing, honestly, was they'd made 16 successful films. And I think for any director, if they're speaking honestly, coming into this thing, your biggest fear is, am I the one that is going to ruin that record? Yeah. You know, am I going to come in and just destroy it all and, you know, top all that house of cards? So what do you do to prevent that?

You actually just have to kind of, I think you have to give over that fear and turn it into trust. and trust that they do know what they're doing and that Kevin is a genius and that Lou and Victoria and those three together are like this sort of this kind of trident of success

who know they know their fans they know the universe they're creating and how everything interacts and its weaves to the point where I was like oh great this is someone who thinks like me and who wants to just do something different and surprise everyone all the time which meant that I felt my ideas and, you know, my sensibility was really suited for this film.

Did you care about Thor before this? Because, like, candidly, I didn't really care about Thor. Not at all. This is the first movie. But it wasn't a character. It wasn't a, I'd never collected any of those comics. I collected a lot of comics with a kidder, but, you know, my things were X-Men, New Mutants and Batman. And then a few, like, Vertigo and Dark Horse things, like sort of those.

the weirder things. But even Iron Man, like it wasn't really my thought. I felt like they were probably too, I don't know, some reason I felt like too mainstream or something as a kid. Yeah, yeah. And I just sort of felt kind of old and weird. But it's actually a character I've come to love so much, mainly because of Chris.

And mainly because I can't think of Thor now without thinking of Chris and what he's brought to the character. He's a Norse God from Australia. And so really we just gave him permission to just, you know, inject more of himself into the character because, you know, I mean, who the hell can relate to, you know, a rich kid from outer space?

Yeah. Yeah. Nobody. And, you know, he just carries a hammer around all the time. And nobody can. Nobody really wants to. So how do we make him more relatable and make a version of this character

that audience can identify themselves in? And big part of that was, yeah, make him ask the questions, make him surprised by what we're surprised by. So when he sees Jeff, Goldblum he's like what the hell who the hell is this and like you know he's constantly when he gets just a car he's just confused all the time which is really what the audience is experiencing and so and I think my theory really is the audience is drawn to the character who's he's talking or

or acting like them or reacting to the environment as they are and then which is really all you want you know you want the audience to be on Thor's side and to be with him on the journey yeah and you took things away from him and made him the weak character. You have to strip him down. Lost earth. He's lost his powers. He's lost... Exactly. He's lost his friends. He's alone. Hammer? Quite unique. It was made from this special metal

from the heart of the dying stuff. And when I spun it really, really fast, it gave me the ability to fly. You wrote a hammer? No, I didn't ride the hammer. The hammer rode you on your back? No, no, no. I used to spin it really fast. It would pull me off. Oh, my God. A hammer pulled you off.

The ground. It would pull me off the ground up into the air, and I would fly. every time I threw it you would always come back to me it sounds like you had a pretty special and intimate relationship with this hammer and that losing it was almost comparable to losing a loved one it's a nice way of putting it

every single character except for Corg played by who played by the great New Zealand actor director private dancer Tyco YCTE every character wants

to take something from Thor when you look at it it's like you know, they want to exploit them, sell him, eat him, kill him, make him fight. You know, and, but, you know, there's very few characters who come in who are just like, hey, I just want to be your friend, man. You know, which is. That is your character's vibe. Let's hang.

So tell me a little bit more about the rest of the cast aside from yourself and Chris Hemsworth. I mean, Cape Blanchett's in the Marvel movie. She's in this Marvel movie. That is a crazy thing. I would often, like, check in with myself and say, you know, you realize, Cape Blanchet's just there in like in front of the camera and you're like, you're directing here or Tony Hopkins or, you know. So it's like, it's pretty bizarre.

Yeah. Or Jeff Goldblum. Yeah, those are the three that I was really like, I often would sit there and go, wow, who would have thought? How do you guys do that? I mean, obviously Anthony Hopkins is in the previous films, but with Kate and Jeff in particular, huge names, serious performers, Jeff maybe a little bit less so on the serious side. But is that something that you're in the room with Marvel

and you guys are like, what would be the most mind-blowing way to get person X in here? What's the creative process of that? A little bit. The great thing now about Marvel is that everyone wants to be in the films. So when I came in, it was really like,

well, let's just take our pick of people and, you know, we'll get one of these amazing people for sure. She was the first choice for me as well. I went and talked to her, and, you know, she was thoroughly confused by what I was talking about with, you know, with Thor and this universe and all these things and I thought, okay, basically

forget what everything I've said. It's just a film about a guy trying to get home to save his house and from burning and the arsonist is you and you're in the house. Do you want to play someone like that? It's after hours but set in space.

He's just trying to get home and he's accompanied by just this rag-tag bunch consisting of his annoying brother, a bipolar guy is prone to, you know, anger spells. And a drunk chick. Yeah, it's like a chamber piece. You know, it's a small drama set in outer space. For her thing also was, you know, she'd just come off Carol.

Hilarious film. And, and... Todd Haynes was here last week. I feel like, I feel like, I gave her shit about that every day on set. It was just like, hey, Kate, is this, how is this like more or less fun than then Carol and will you be signing on for Carol too

the extended Carol universe yeah she um but she really yeah she's one of her points was like I've been doing these award winning roles where I cry and go there and like you know

sort of like strip myself of you know of emotions and I just want to like do some fighting and like wear a funny costume and make a movie that my kids want to see and something that's fun and doesn't, it's not like, you can invest some time and effort into it as an actor, I guess,

but something that's not going to just, like, ruin your day and, you know, you can enjoy going to work. Tell me about that, though. How do you do that on a movie this big? Because I imagine the sets of your previous films are probably pretty fun, but, you know, the stakes are probably a little bit lower, given what's happening. How many people are there?

Well, my sets, yeah, exactly right. My sets are very fun. I play a lot of music. There's a lot of, you know, I basically create an environment where it feels like you're making a film with your family to the point where you can give each other shit and really, like, lay into each other and make fun of each other's work. And, you know, I invite anyone to make fun of me and my directing style,

which is not even a style. It's just like telling, giving people line readings. And it's just a fun environment because I'm trying to recreate the environment that I had when I was working with my mates, you know, in my first films. It was just like that. We was just all of our friends. We didn't. There were no egos because no one was famous.

And, you know, we'd just yell at each other and tell each other. No, that was shit. Do it again. Like, yeah, do it like this. And just trying to kind of create the coolest thing we could. Can that work on a movie like this? Can you say that to Mark Ruffalo? My big fear was coming in being like, oh, man, now I've got to deal with these egos.

I've got to deal with people who, you know, who don't want to be told what to do. And now I've got to like, oh, Kate, you know, you remember when your character was like, you know, and she was like, I don't want to think about that kind of thing. She's like, just tell me how to be. Tell me how to say it. I don't care. She's got nothing to prove. And so when you, and that's what I realize,

you come into this thing, these actors are so good and, like, so experienced. They don't have anything to prove. They don't care if you, you know, if you want to tell them exactly what you need because the time's running out, you know. It's not insulting to them if they've won two Oscars, you know, because if they need to have that conversation,

sure, they can. But also, you know, look at the costumes they're wearing and, you know, it's like, we are faking it to some degree. you know, for the audience. So my whole plan was, I'm just going to play music, and I'm going to try and recreate that feeling. And, you know, it worked.

You know, I've heard about these film sets and visited a couple where it's just, you can hear a pin drop and it's completely silent, everyone's stressed out. And, like, you know, the actors just don't want to do anything wrong. But I'm like, we have to do things wrong. We have to, like, reach for the mistakes because that's where the great adlibs all come from. That's where, like, jokes like, you know,

like, Coggs, the Foundations joke at the end of the film. Like where that comes from from just messing around and trying something dumb. My big thing was, please try the dumbest thing you can think of, because there could be some piece of gold in there. In any case, you know this, you call yourself Lord of Thunder. God of Thunder. I have never met this man in my life. He's my brother.

Adopted. So I think the perception of Marvel movies, any tent pole movie, is that these are very controlled environments, that the scripts are very sacred. You're dealing with the mythology, et cetera, et cetera. but your style is obviously totally different I think on the previous movies it probably was a bit like that

the script is sacred this one I feel like they and I don't know how the other funnier films were made I've heard that Iron Man was probably a similar thing you know they're really Downy just risked exactly which is my style

I love that I love that kind of working and for me the best thing that ever happened was that they just left us alone and that they allowed us to treat the script more as a suggestion or a blueprint and that we could come in and

say here are the key things from the scene that we need to say so the audience knows what's happening. How we get between those things is up to us and how we make it fun and turn it into a real conversation between two people who are actually listening to each other that's our goal

because mostly when you watch these films you can see the actors like here comes to my line. Here comes my line. I said my line and I looked really serious. Yep. But you make it sound like an episode of curb your enthusiasm, you know? Yeah, I mean, and it's very similar to that. Yeah. Very similar style. You know, we actually did have a script with dialogue, but we threw a lot of that away just once we started blocking and once we talk, you know, talk with the actors and, you know, and I was like, say, look, be very honest. If you don't want, if there's a line you don't want to say, we need the

information, but just, you know, we have to figure out how to say it in a way that it makes you comfortable. I would often say, I don't want you to say this line because it's very bad. And once we had that freedom, we would just riff a lot. And, you know, I would just, I basically just sit next to the actors, next to the camera and yell stuff at them and suggest lines and then tell them to do it again and say like this and do this and that. And so there's a lot of talking and resetting and just doing stuff and doing stuff.

And so the best example of like how you can see, where you can see how much fun people they're having is any of the scenes with Bruce and Thor. Like a classic one in the street, they're kind of bickering about going back to Asgar. I want to go to Earth and blah, blah. You're just trying to use me to get to Holt. And all of that was really just us shaping it over 20 takes to the point where you can see they're listening to each other because I don't know what it's going to say. I don't know what I've got to.

Yeah. And there's an energy there where you like, you can almost see them smiling when they're talking because they're like, I love this. They're amusing each other. This is why I became an actor. Because I feel the. fire and I could feel this like you know this energy and often you know they would call cut and stuff and they'd like be leaping around so excited they'd be like oh oh they felt so real and so human and so

alive and it's like really amazing seeing actors excited by that but also in this movie you've got ledzepp one soundtrack battle scenes how do you balance those two things and what's it like to try to make something like that well the lead zep song I put in my sizzle wheel when I was pitching so I'd cut together a whole lot of things you know to show the sort of tonal approach I wanted to take and just from different movies and then put the entire thing to immigrant song. They loved that real, but they also loved that song so much that, you know, when I got the job, they said, Kevin said, no, we should also explore getting the rights to that because you know, there's notoriously hard slash impossible to get a Led Zep song in your film.

And, but, you know, shit, if anyone's going to do it, it's the studio. And in the edit, we'd always wanted to open the film with that song. And once it came to the trailer, what you do is you like send Led Zepp the clip with the song and you send the money. So that there's no negotiation. They don't watch the clip and go like, oh, you know, if you choose it. They'll watch it and a yes or no. I'm trying to picture Jimmy Page watching a Thor movie. I think so interesting.

I'm watching the trailer and bobbing his head. Very interesting. Finally, someone gets us. But on the other hand. A lot of people said, I can't believe it took this long for an immigrant song to show up in a Thor movie. So you were on track. And then in terms of all the action stuff, that was the most rigid and, you know, the most kind of prescriptive we ever got was having to stick to a lot of pre-vis or stunt-viz stuff. Because it just makes sense.

So you don't really want to be improvising stunts. Was that stuff interesting for you to be doing? Because you obviously didn't have a lot of experience. It was kind of interesting. it's not as interesting as you know having fun and you know with the actors and stuff like that just cutting down you know

a little sequence into like minuscule little shots where someone landing on a three point you know pose or anything like that is not massively interesting to me when it cuts together it's like oh wow that's incredible it's like make a music video but on the day of shooting it's kind of it's pretty laborious

yeah was there ever a moment when you got the sense that Marvel was nervous about anything that you were doing here No, there was never a moment where I got the sense they were even paying attention. It's amazing. Yeah, it was amazing because we were in Australia. And most of the time they were in Atlanta dealing with Spider-Man, and I think Black Panther was about to start shooting.

There was a whole lot of stuff going on. And we were in Australia kind of by ourselves, just left to our own devices. Mind it hadn't said that, everything changes in post. And that's where they're masters of their storytelling is like, they get into post and they get their hands dirty. and they like deconstruct everything and, you know, reformed. Did you get precious about that at all about saying? I didn't.

I didn't get precious because it was not my source material and not my script. And so, like, it was, for me, it's like, I don't care. You can totally tear the story apart. Interesting. There's only things that I was precious about with jokes. And little cool human moments are like cool little moments between characters, you know, like certain expressions or certain lines of dialogue. But did you have any concern about getting into a world where you hadn't told the beginning of the story

and you're not going to be telling the end of the story? No, because I don't feel like when you look at it it pretty much is an episode within the larger thing. But for me, I really feel like this film stands alone and can be watched by itself without any prior knowledge or anything. That's true. That was one of my main goals

was to make something that felt like one of my films that could kind of easily go in the collection of films that I've made and could stand alone by itself, but obviously would reward viewers who had seen all the other stuff. Tell me a little bit more about New Zealand. I want to know what it was like coming up in New Zealand as a filmmaker, comic writer, actor. And also, I don't know very much about the film community. I think what everybody knows is Peter Jackson.

Yeah, that is pretty much the community. No. Well, New Zealand is very small, obviously. They're not a huge amount of filmmakers. And not a huge amount of money to make films. We have a film commission. It's a government body. who finances everything we do, and we don't have really, we really don't make films privately.

And I just came up through the years after making a couple of short films, made my first feature, and just sort of just kept going. And luckily for me, it had a good track record and had good successes where it just became easier for me to access that money. Yeah, you were the owner of box office records in the country. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the two highest grossing New Zealand films. But also, you know, it's a bureaucratic. system at the film commission often steeped in like this long winded development hell which we call

it where scripts can be in development there for five years. Not so different from Hollywood. Probably not different from Hollywood, but like it's the only place you can go out. There are no alternatives. You couldn't even say like, oh, I want to get my script and go, yeah. And the community is, you know, it's actually pretty strong. I think we make good films. We probably make about five or six features a year.

Were you eager to make a pure Hollywood? Hollywood product? I was, but I had no real desire to make a super hero movie. I just wanted to do something, a cool film in a studio or, you know, something that I'd no real desire to make like an American indie film. But I just felt like I've got enough of those in New Zealand and I like working in New Zealand. And also I've got a bunch of more scripts that I want to do that I'd rather do, and I'd rather do my scripts than someone else's indie films.

So, so yeah. But I would always dream of like, yeah, it'd be awesome to be on one of these giant sets and do these action things and work with all these people. I always imagine you would do something like a Will Ferrell comedy or something like that. Was there a time when you were messing with the studio comedy system? Yeah, but I started really feeling like,

I can't really tell the difference between the directors of any of those films. I can't name many directors of any of those Will Ferrell films or any of those, you know, like the... any of those got, you know, like, you know, the Apertale films and all those, you know, which, and I love watching them. I think they're really funny, but as a director, I was like, I don't know about, like, how you would really, like, imprint yourself on those things. And it's really just point the camera at those geniuses and let them talk and do all the jokes. And, you know, and there's your movie.

Right. And, you know, and I watch those movies, I'm just like, yeah, I don't even care about what the shots look like. I don't care about the style. I just want to see these guys tell jokes and be who they are. That's so interesting, considering that you had such a hand in creating everything around all of your previous films too, that you'd be willing to not be so, you know... Oh, I wasn't willing.

That's what I mean. I didn't want to do one of those comedy films. Oh, I see. I said. I didn't think I would have a voice. I didn't think that... If there's ever been like a script or something in Hollywood where I felt like anybody could make this,

you just turn the camera on and point at these guys and let them do their thing, that for me is not really, there's no point. Will you make another Thor movie? I'd love to. And the reason really is because I've loved working with Chris and Mark,

and everyone, really, and definitely have loved working with Marvel. But also I feel like it wouldn't be a fourth Thor film for me. It would actually be a second Ragnarok film in a way. It feels like it'd be difficult for someone to make a Thor movie after your movie. Because you've so clearly like redefined the characters.

That makes me feel really good. Because that I feel is exactly like how James must feel, or Russo's must feel. It's like how do you follow that up? And I feel like on this, you know, with Ragner Rock, it would be very hard to follow it up with a different team. So some of the benefits of making a movie like this are that assuming you do it well, it will be successful.

But that's also because it's part of a universe and there's an expectation. and people don't necessarily know that you made this film. They know that it's part of Marvel movies, which they like to go see. Yeah, yeah. So how do you know if you nailed it or you made something that is special? Well, I knew for sure in some of the preview screenings, and how I know is when the audience laughs in the right places,

they're quiet in the right places, and they're awake at the end. And that's like, those are my three, like, it's my checklist. But really, how I knew I'd made a Tyker film and that it was, going to work was, again, don't mean to turn the conversation back on to Cork. But really it was about all those times that he opened his mouth and says that weird, tangential,

like, strange, mundane shit and that they led it in the movie and in fact encouraged more of it to be in the movie that I thought, whoa, this is very different for Marvel. It makes me very happy that, you know, I've got my style of comedy in here. Most of these Hollywood, what I'd call

blockbuster films, the style of comedy is often just a joke that was written nine months before it was shot. And you can tell... And one-liner. Yeah, and it's like... Blah, blah, blah, blah. And that elicitsits a sort of chuckle, I think, from audiences, you know, which is fine. It's a style.

But in this film, there are jokes that just go on and on and, like, you know, you can tell that we're just riffing and we're making it up. You can tell that people are enjoying saying them. And, you know, there are callbacks and there's just, you know, there's surreal jokes. There's great visual gags. There's a lot of stuff in there which you couldn't write 12 months or, yeah, you couldn't write six months before shooting.

And what's been amazing for me is that all of that stuff we came up with on the day is in there. It's been allowed to be in there. Let's lean into Corg a little bit. So you're, oh, God, I was hoping you wouldn't talk about Corg. So you've appeared in all of your films? A lot of my films, yeah. And you like doing that.

I do. Corg, we should say, is a giant stone creature. Yeah, he's made of rocks. And again, his introduction joke, there has no business being in a Marvel movie. The Rock Paper, Scissors gag. You know, how that even, like, was allowed to get past the filter? I like the idea of Rock Paper, Scissors existing in other universes. Yeah, me too.

That's appealing. So you mentioned Jermaine. Jamein Clement, you're, you know, partner, someone you've worked with a long time, you've known for many years. What does he make of your, like, rise to Hollywood power? Oh, I think he's quietly proud, very quietly. But more he's publicly undermining you. Exactly, all the time.

He's just jealous, man. He's just jealous of my success. Yeah. He had his time. He had his chance. He blew it. No, he, I think he just wants me to hurry up and first. finish this stuff so that we can get on with our other projects.

Great segue. Tell me what's going to go. What's that going to be? Well, we've got to, in New Zealand, we're about to start shooting. I mean, he's basically made me do this. And I'm trying to, like, enjoy, enjoy my time as Toast of the Town as a big shot Hollywood director. And he's making me go back to New Zealand to shoot a spinoff TV series.

It's a spin-off from what we're doing in the shadows, which follows the two cops. around the small town in New Zealand as they investigate paranormal cases. So it's like a mockumentary boring X-Files in New Zealand. That's very funny. And then I've got my own little things, my other scripts I'm trying to do. I'm doing a bit of prep,

which will be starting soon, on a stop motion movie with Starburns Industries. Oh, that's very cool. Who did Anomalisa, and this is a stop motion based on a script called Bubbles, which is about Michael Jackson's chimpanzee. And it's sort of a callback to a boy. Call back to boy in a way, yeah.

I mean, it's actually really, it feels like everything is connected now. So, Tika, I like to wrap up by asking filmmakers, what's the last great thing they've seen? What's yours? Get out. I loved it so much. Yeah, what was your reaction? But it's the only thing I can remember right now. A lot of people are saying that about 2017.

It was one of the few films that I was like, you know, this look that, you know, the actor, the main actor in that, his name Dan. Daniel Kalulia. He, there's certain looks that he gives in that film where his mouth is like kind of open and he's like,

looks like he's about to faint. And so I'm sure I, like, that was the expression on my face watching that movie, you know, throughout the entire film was just like, my mouth was just like open and I was like, I remember just thinking, just, I probably was just thinking,

get out, get out, get out, get out, get out constantly. It just may be so panic, but like in a way where I was just like I freaking love watching this movie I loved it I loved being in this environment I just in that town and

trying to work it out like I was like yeah and I'm a I'm pretty cynical and like I don't if I hear that everyone loves a film I feel like it's I'm in danger of not liking you know I get really scared of seeing the film and what I do is I tend to like

ignore it for a few months and just wait for all everything to die down and they see it in my own time and just so I can not be too kind of influenced by the chatter. Yeah, it's the rare universal approval movie. I don't, anybody who's seen it, I have not heard even the most cynical person

can't find a way of it. You know what I loved about it? It's like, it wasn't like a star fest. You know, there were good actors and actors if you knew them, you knew them. Yeah, I was totally drawn in to that film. Taika, thank you so much for doing this. Oh, I didn't want to you,

for me. Thank you for having me, man. I'm sorry.