Why Hollywood gave superhero Thor a makeover
He impressed on Wilderpeople and now Kiwi director Taika Waititi has brought his quirky touch to Thor: Rangnarok, writes Esther McCarthy.
While filming Thor: Ragnarok, director Taika Waititi had to occasionally check himself and remind himself that he wasn’t making a low-budget indie in his native New Zealand, but a massive Hollywood blockbuster.
The filmmaker would sometimes wonder aloud about bringing a major new element to the production, usually for fun.
“On occasion, it would happen that I would turn up and there would be a space ship that had been built, and I’d think: ‘Oh my God, I only suggested that spaceship as a joke. But they took it seriously and now there’s a spaceship and I’m going to have to figure out how to shoot in it.’ There were those moments where I didn’t really understand the scale of things and that you should watch your mouth, because when you ask for something, it usually happens.”
Disney and Marvel were quite right to pay heed to their man. In an era of often-jaded blockbusters that take themselves too seriously and focus on origins stories, angst and daddy issues, the new Thor is a slightly unhinged delight. It’s witty, spontaneous, silly and absurd in the best possible sense.
In many ways, it’s a reflection of Waititi’s own personality, as is the delightfully laid-back Korg, one of the film’s funniest characters, who he plays.
An actor as well as director, films like What We Do In The Shadows, a comic documentary about vampires, and Eagle Vs Shark, about the efforts of two misfits to find love, have long signalled Waititi as an interesting voice in cinema. But it was no doubt last year’s utterly charming Hunt for the Wilderpeople — about a fostered boy who goes on the run with his new family — that got Hollywood calling.
He saw the opportunity, and embraced the chance to do something completely different. “I think they just felt: ‘Let’s take a look at that guy’. Lucky for me. It never really felt like it’s a big risk for me to do a superhero movie because I might ruin my track record. In my opinion I had no real track record.
“I made my films and certain groups of people really loved them, but for me, coming to this felt like: ‘Yeah this is a welcome change for me. Something really new and weird and uncomfortable. And I really don’t care about whether or not I’ve ruined my entire box set of DVDs. And I’m not really beholden to my fanbase of which there are probably 32 people.”
He’s being modest, of course. Waititi’s involvement was widely embraced by the very vocal Marvel fanbase, who felt he would inject the new Thor with the verve and humour that the first film promised. “Sometimes, you have to look at the source material and understand you’re making a (film about a) cosmic character who happens to be a viking who lives in outer space. And understand that maybe it’s ok to just embrace the audacity of those ideas, the campness and the boldness of the world that has been created in the comic books.”
In person, he is warm and engaging, and delighted to be back in Ireland, having worked here some years earlier.
“I shot a commercial in Dublin once with Pierce Brosnan. I think it was for Sky TV or something, and he was delightful. It was really lovely being there and walking around
different parts of the city. He’s a real hero over here, which was quite lovely to see. And he gave me his jacket!
“He had his mum there and would hang out with his mum. I’ve found this with a lot of the actors I’ve worked with on Thor. They’ve seen it all and they’re confident in their
abilities, what they’ve done, the foundations they’ve laid for people. But one of the coolest things on Thor, was I made friends with a lot of these people, and realised: ‘oh they’re just like my friends’.
“When I made movies it was just with my mates, and then on this you just become friends with those actors you’ve admired, you become mates, and then you start working in much the same way as you did on your tiny independent films.
“You can be more casual and that’s why I think it feels like there’s a spontaneous energy and fun life force that emanates from the film.”
The movie — which is pretty much an out-and-out comedy — also singles out Chris Hemsworth as an actor with a knack for delivering a gag. “I really thought it was quite
evident in Ghostbusters, where he nearly stole the show. There were lots of little things in there which he brought. He’s very good at putting himself in the audience’s shoes.”
Many of the scenes in the film, especially between Thor and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) feel
improvised, although a lot of work goes into that sense of spontaneity. “We take the script and then we start talking about what we’re going to do with the scene before we shoot it,
myself, Chris and Mark. We just talk through the script, rewrite any lines that might need to be rewritten. In rehearsals, we’ll do versions of a scene, and while we’re shooting, I’ll interrupt them and throw them a new line. Little things like that.
“But when you say these scenes are mostly improvised, people think: ‘This wasn’t in the scene you just made it up on the spot’. This isn’t true. It’s not there in the scripted scene, but you get there by trying to make it better.”
Waititi, who established himself as an actor before turning to directing, is a well-known stand-up comedian in his native New Zealand and also worked with Flight of the Conchords. Growing up in Wellington, he says, he embraced the arts from an early age, but never considered a career in film a possibility.
“My mother was a school teacher, an English teacher, and she socialised with a lot of writers and poets. My father is a painter and a sculptor so growing up with him I was exposed to a lot of that mainly traditional Maori art with him. So I knew that was a possibility, but filmmaking definitely wasn’t.”
Given the success of Thor: Ragnarok, Hollywood execs are doubtless waving scripts and chequebooks at him.
“It’s very nice, and it’s validating after many years of visiting LA and feeling there wasn’t anything that I was really interested in.
That some of the things that get pushed your way are pretty good and you can go: ‘Wow there are great ideas here, there are good scripts around. That’s real cool’.
“For me really I think I’m going to try and concentrate on one of my smaller films, something that I’ve written, and go back to doing what I’m used to, at least for one film, and then start thinking about what might be next after that.”
- Thor: Ragnarok opens in Ireland today
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