Characters I create are just mixtures of the people I know.
— Taika Waititi
With some actors, you can tell, just from their different backgrounds and their different approaches to working, they would have just a natural conflict, just a sort of friction.
Independent films are really the best ones out there. They're the most original stories, and they're very good.
I'm always fascinated by the theme of children who parent the adults.
I don't like laughing at people unless they're in a privileged position or if they're in authority. If it's poor people or people who live on the outskirts or on the margins, or the underdog, I'd rather be laughing with them.
New Zealand was such a weird place in the 1980s. For instance, we used to have this commercial in the late 1970s where this guy drives this car and stops outside a corner store. He goes in to buy something, and when he comes out, his car is gone. He's like, 'Huh?' Then a voice says, 'Don't leave your keys in the car.'
Music - it's motivational and just makes you relax.
You realise that there's nothing more endearing than people who are desperately trying to be liked or trying to be the hero, you know? Who also probably just need a hug or want to impress their dad?
Indigenous people in films, it's all, like, nose flutes and panpipes and, you know, people talking to ghosts... which I hate.
At the end of the day, the reality is we're all losers, and we're all uncoordinated. We're the worst of all of the animals on earth, and there's something quite endearing about that.
It was never really my plan to become a filmmaker.
I've always found the script to be more of a skeleton, the template.
I've been on a lot of film sets, and I've always promised myself I wouldn't create a set where people dread coming to work.
Nothing could be more restrictive than working with people in advertising.
I don't mind going from sadness to comedy in a split-second or mixing the two up.
Maori get pigeonholed into the idea they're spiritual and telling stories like 'Whale Rider' and 'Once Were Warriors,' quite serious stuff, but we're pretty funny people, and we never really have had an opportunity to show that side of ourselves, the clumsy, nerdy side of ourselves, which is something I am.
One of my favourite books when I was young was 'Wuthering Heights.'
Within the family unit, you have people you grew up with who are supposed to be your brother, father, or your mother who are almost like strangers and acquaintances.
Kids are always very savvy. It doesn't take long for a kid to realize when an adult is a loser.
The family unit is very interesting because these are people that you're supposed to be the closest to in your life, and yet that's where you find the greatest distances between people as well - especially between parents and kids.
The ridiculous events in everyday life are often overlooked - people don't recognise it as potentially cinematic.
There are lots of parts of filmmaking that I don't like. At the end of the day, especially on features, the film turns into a commodity. You have to play this entirely new game I'm very uncomfortable with.
I play music all the time because silence freaks me out.
My world is not spectacle and explosion. It's two people talking.
I've always felt that I wanted to make a Marvel film... I just want to make sure I'm not making an episode.
I come from a country whose idea of masculinity is quite extreme, and I've grown up around a lot of that energy. I've been part of that a lot. And it's very draining; it's quite tiring trying to be macho.
I'm in all my films, I can't help it. I just jam myself in there if there's a space.
I think something that every actor wants, whether they've done four movies or forty movies, is they want to find the work interesting. You want to come to work and think this is going to be a challenge.
A set should be like a family, except that you all actually like each other.
I daydream all the time.
I think I'm a better filmmaker than actor, so I already know that. That's OK. I can handle not being a famous actor.
Anyone who has a parent can relate to this idea of not quite understanding who your parents are or making up stories about them.
You make up a character, there's always gonna be parts of you that, like it or not, shine through.
Films that are easy to sell happen to be the worst films. Look at the poster for 'Wrath of the Titans' and 'John Carter': they're exactly the same. You could switch titles.
I think our first heroes with whom we discover flaws are our parents.
I find that relationships between kids and parents are very interesting.
I find that a lot of child actors are ruined once they've done a job.
My main thing was painting; I was just going to do that.
The thing for me is that 'Thor' was an indie film that just had a few more zeros on the budget. At heart, it is just a simple story about a guy trying to get home to deal with someone who has broken into his house. It's just 'After Hours,' but set in space.
I'd loved 'Iron Man,' you know, with a passion. I thought that was the most fresh, cool thing, in terms of superhero movies, that I'd seen in a long time.
If someone asked, 'What are your films like?,' the best I can come up with is that they're, like, a fine balance between comedy and drama. And they deal mainly with the clumsiness of humanity.
My job is to express myself.
I love heroes that really go through ordeals, and they come out the other end completely changed.
Shooting a movie should be fun! It's not a real job. It can be hard, but at the end of the day, we're dressing up and playing pretend.
In a lot of my films, the biggest theme is family, making families out of those around you.
In my films, a lot of the situations come from real life.
The stuff I'm passionate about is what I write; it isn't multi-million-dollar franchise movies.
A lot of people are trying to get out of their home country and think 'making it' is if you're able to work in another. For me... I'd be quite content to keep doing my own little films down there for the rest of my filmmaking career.
