Taika Waititi Answers the Web’s Most Searched Questions

Hi, everyone.

My name's Taika Waititi,

and this is the Wired Autocomplete Interview.

[upbeat music]

I Google myself all the time.

Knowing me intimately is still not enough.

I just need to know more.

Welcome to my nightmare.

[upbeat music]

How many languages does Taika Waititi speak?

What else would it be?

How many languages does Taika Waititi collect?

English.

That's the one I can speak the best

and not even that good.

Little bit of German.

Little bit of Maori.

How Taika Waititi get Thor?

Well, I tell you how Taika Waititi get Thor.

Just the way that everyone else gets Thor.

I went and did a meeting with Marvel.

They were awesome.

They loved me.

I loved them.

That how we get movie.

How did Taika Waititi become a director?

I didn't start till I was quite late.

There's all these other directors

who started when they're like eight years old,

and they're like, Oh, I wanna be a filmmaker.

I was like 30.

Before that, I was a painter.

I used to paint pictures.

Film was something I hadn't tried,

so I wrote a short film.

I was like, I'll give this a go.

And that short film got nominated for an Oscar.

Whatev?

Who cares?

Didn't win.

How Taika Waititi?

He good.

How to contact Taika Waititi?

[scoffing]

Who Taika Waititi?

Me.

Who is Taika Waititi voice in Lightyear?

I can't remember the name.

[laughing]

Mal?

Mo!

Mo.

Oh my God.

I'm the laziest actor you'll ever, ever come across.

I played Hitler, didn't read anything about him.

I just played Blackbeard in Our Flag Means Death.

I went on Wikipedia,

I typed in Blackbeard,

and there's too many words.

I read the first part, which is like, He's from Bristol.

And I looked at the Bristolian accent,

which is like Stephen Merchant, it's like [mumbles].

And I thought, Nah, too hard.

So I just did my own accent.

That's it.

That's that's my range.

My range is me.

I don't try.

And I'm successful, so...

Who does Taika Waititi play in Thor: Ragnarok?

Korg!

Korg, the big guy made of rocks.

Again, my accent.

This shouldn't be allowed.

It's not just a voice, guys.

All right?

I was in motion capture suit,

so all of Korg's movements,

that's real acting.

Who does Taika Waititi play in The Mandalorian?

IG-88.

Or 11.

I play a bounty hunter droid called IG-88.

IG-11. Oh.

[laughing]

Who does Taika Waititi play in The Mandalorian?

IG-11, of course.

And even that's just my own accent!

This is really revealing for me.

I don't think I've actually worked a day in my life.

Who does Taika Waititi look like?

He looks like a slightly older,

probably more matured and better looking version

of Taika Waititi in 2015.

Who's Taika Waititi?

Ask my therapist.

That's what we're trying to find out right now.

What does Taika Waititi do?

[laughing]

I ask myself that every day.

What am I doing?

What was Taika Waititi first movie?

The first feature length movie was called Eagle vs Shark

starring Jemaine Clement and Loren Taylor.

And that was way back in

2005.

What country is Taika Waititi?

I'm not a country.

I'm a human being.

No one wants to know.

What country is Taika Waititi from?

I'm not even gonna answer that

'cause you should know.

I'm from the glorious kingdom of New Zealand.

[Interviewer] Can you answer the other question also?

The one that's just before that?

Oh shit.

What did Taika Waititi get an Oscar for?

Well, he didn't get an Oscar for his short film,

but he did get an Oscar for his feature film Jojo Rabbit

for writing, adapting a book.

Literally just ripping off a book.

Taika Waititi sucks.

Jojo Rabbit iconic lines.

I wrote it, and I don't remember any of the lines.

I think whenever I finish something, I block it out.

Okay, Jojo.

What she's trying to do is,

she's trying to drive a wedge between us.

You have to get rid of her.

Ah, she's like a little...

See how fast she was,

she was like a little Jewish Jesse Owens.

Where does Taika Waititi get his shirts?

I steal most of my clothes.

I have a great stylist.

They deliver clothes over,

and I try them on, and then I don't give them all back.

Does Taika Waititi have tattoos?

Yes, he does.

He's got this little tattoo.

He's got these tattoos,

a giant big tattoo on his leg.

He's got the regret tattoos down there.

[Interviewer] What are your tattoos of?

What's the one on your wrist?

On my wrist?

This is, in New Zealand, what we call mara,

what we would call whare nui, a big house.

And that's the community that your tribe will come to.

And they're named after an ancestor and this ancestor's

Pararaki who started our part of the tribe.

Does Taika Waititi have a Grammy?

He sure does.

They are just giving those things away.

I got the Grammy for the best boundtrack for Jojo Rabbit

which is pretty much just getting a Grammy

for making a playlist.

This section is called, is Taika Waititi?

Is Taika Waititi?

Yes he is.

Nice.

I am.

I'm very nice.

It is Taika Waititi in Bridgerton.

The fuck is that?

I might be in it.

I mean, I'm so busy I don't know.

I mean, obviously I don't know

any of the names of my characters.

I don't know anything about what I've done.

I'm probably in Bridgerton.

Yes, I'm in Bridgerton.

And I loved it.

It was great.

It was that it's a period pie...

Movie.

Show, TV show.

It's a TV show set in England

in the 19, 18...

1700s.

And everyone's good looking and it's sort of, it's like

M.A.S.H. but in the 1700s.

Is Taika Waititi a good director?

I don't know.

I mean, I've basically made seven movies

that've all been hits.

You do the math.

Taika Waititi

Korg voice.

Oh, these are requests.

Oh, Taika Waititi Korg voice.

Is that what they wanted?

They wanted me to do the Korg voice.

Well, I'm not a performing monkey okay bro?

I don't just do things on command.

Taika Waititi Cate Blancett meme.

What the hell is this?

Oh, when I'm showing her something on an iPad

and people are like, when your wife gets home

and you're like look what my score was on Wordle.

Okay, yeah.

I've seen it.

It was actually, it was exactly like that onset.

I was like, this is how it's gonna be.

And I want you to do this and that's gonna look really cool.

Cause you're gonna have a giant wolf and a zombie army.

She's like

I could have taken last year off.

Taika Waititi love and thunder.

I have been described as that.

I guess you're wanting a trailer.

Everyone wants a trailer.

I want a trailer.

You're not getting a trailer.

Taika Waititi favorite films.

Where do we start?

I like all my films.

I like Back to the Future, The Graduate,

Star Wars.

Taika Waititi aww!

Taika Waititi paintings.

Figurative.

Slightly, kind of like, a little experimental.

I used to paint in oils and wash.

Not acrylics.

Taika Waititi fashion!

How do I describe my fashion?

Usually it's wake up and whatever

doesn't smell like shit I put on.

There's the end of the cards.

That's what people Google. [upbeat music]

That's probably all my mum who did those.

She's on the internet all the time Googling me.

She's very proud.

I suspect it's her asking all these questions.