Director Taika Waititi (center) with cast members on the set of Eagle vs. Shark
Interview: Taika Waititi
Never underestimate the power of Oscar. When New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi (TYE-ka WYI-tee-tee) picked up a nomination for his acclaimed short film Two Cars, One Night, he suddenly found it much easier to get his debut feature, Eagle vs. Shark, off the ground. This quirky romantic comedy follows fast-food wage slave Lily (Loren Horsley) and her unwavering affection for geeky video-store employee Jarrod (Jemaine Clement). They fall in love at Jarrod's "Come Dressed as Your Favorite Animal" party -- she's the shark, he's the eagle -- and Jarrod may yet realize that Lily's the best thing that ever happened to him ... if he can overcome a return home to visit his dysfunctional family and a showdown with his high school nemesis. Mixing animation and a keenly hilarious visual style, Waititi's first film establishes him as a filmmaker with a literal eye for comedy.
You had a short film that won you an Oscar nod -- did its success open the door for you to make a feature?
It did, and in a huge way. I'd only ever made a couple of short films before. It made the funding process very fast, and easy.
How supportive is the New Zealand government of filmmakers?
Very supportive. They genuinely want to have a thriving industry. But because it's such a small country and there's not a lot of money floating around, they do have to be a little careful with what they fund. In the past, we've seen some bad films. They've taken on more conservative projects; they don't take too many risks, since it's the taxpayers' money. But that's also changing a bit right now -- they're getting better at understanding that they have to take risks.
But the government sees it as an investment, like "We want to put money into films that are going to make the money back?" Because that's not always the case with state funding.
Yes, they want to make their money back, which I think has led to problems in the past. They still want to make the money back, but I think they've realized that they can do that and also invest in really original ideas.
Where did the idea for this film come from?
It came from talks that Loren [Horsley], who plays the main character, and I had. We wanted to find a project with her acting and me directing, so she came up with this character of Lily, and I wound up writing the screenplay for it after we story-lined a lot of stuff, trying to figure out the kind of world she lived in, and the guy she would ultimately have a romantic interest in, what he would be like.
The film rides an interesting line, where as a viewer, one can't always tell if you're mocking these characters or celebrating them.
Well, I feel more empathetic towards these people. You can take a film like Napoleon Dynamite, which clearly goofs on its characters. But [my film] represents their lives, and I think this is kind of giving those characters an opportunity to express themselves in an emotional way, to let you see their vulnerability rather than say, "Oh, there's a weird character -- let's laugh at him."
There's a lot of interesting graphic work in the film, not only the animation but also the drawings and things that the characters are creating. Did that come from you, or did you work with visual artists to create this world?
Most of it is ideas I've had for different things. I've always been into strange things that don't really make much sense, or ideas I thought would be funny, like a banana walking along and tripping on a human skin. I've always liked that kind of stuff. I've always loved animation, and I knew I wanted that to be part of the film. Wellington's covered in murals, so I wanted to show them, and a lot of the art in the film has animals in it, and one of the original ideas was that the film would be called Sad Animals, because humans are the saddest animals. I think it still shows that in a lot of ways; you have these really awkward, strange, depressed animals walking around.
Are you surprised that the film is traveling internationally as well as it has?
Yeah -- I mean, I originally just made the film to cut my teeth and, I guess, learn how to make a feature film. I figured we'd make a small, low-budget film; originally, it was just going to be on digital, just something I'd do with Loren. And then we ended up shooting on 35mm, and the budget went up more, and it got bigger and bigger, and then Miramax bought it. And the small, intimate film I thought I was going to make was over, I guess. [laughs] But I think it's good, because it's still a small film, and I don't know how many people are actually gonna get to see it.
It's probably one of the more widely-available New Zealand films we've had in the United States for a while, not counting the Lord of the Rings movies or anything by Jane Campion.
That's true. It's sort of funny that I made a romantic comedy for my first film; it's sort of the last thing I thought I'd be making. It's kind of funny as well that I got to do it my own way.
What are you working on now?
I'm still writing it; it's sort of an extension of Two Cars, One Night. It's about kids growing up in the '80s in New Zealand. It shares a sensibility with my other work -- lots of comedy, but sort of undercut with drama as well.
