As soon as I found out I would be producing a segment with Taika Waititi on The Social, I emailed Sarah, our resident Taika stan. The first time Sarah wrote about Taika was two years ago. She’s been yelling at us for two years to pay attention to the on-screen brilliance and off-screen charm of Taika Waititi. After the inevitable success of Thor: Ragnarok (one of the best Marvel movies EVER) and its current press tour in which he’s been hilarious and fashionable and all around perfect, everyone is going to be paying attention to Taika Waititi. Sarah gets to yell “I SAW HIM FIRST” at all of us but after today, I’ve decided I want to give up my entire life and devote it to the Taika Waititi standom. Sarah and I are about to fight over who gets to write about Taika moving forward. I’m ready.
Lainey got mad at me when I casually mentioned she would be interviewing Taika on The Social because I didn’t tell her as soon as I found out. Last month, she wrote about how he was emerging as the main attraction of Thor: Ragnarok and how excited she was to see him promote the sh-t out of this movie. She likes him so much she fumbled her introduction to him on today’s live show. Lainey NEVER fumbles while reading a prompter. She’s what we like to call in TV a “one-take wonder.” She’s interviewed some of the biggest stars on our couch and she never gets tongue-tied. Today, she dropped her cue cards and flubbed a line. It was a little slip that our audience probably didn’t notice but I’m telling you, this is the power of Taika Waititi. He’s taller in person, ridiculously handsome and even nicer than he is tall and handsome so, you know, it makes it hard to concentrate. And that accent? Goddamn.
These are all the superficial reasons for our Taika Waititi problem but he’s also a f-cking genius. Again, Sarah has been telling us that Thor: Ragnarok was going to be amazing since last year. It is amazing. And it’s SO Taika. His humour oozes through every joke, every character (and not just the delightful Korg, the one he voices), every frame. It’s also not lost on me that the new object of all of our affections is a dude named Taika Waititi. He’s the first indigenous director to helm a Marvel mega movie and he’s using his FOD (first, only different) status to push for diversity on and off camera. He actively fought for Aboriginal representation on Thor: Ragnarok and in our interview, he talked about the importance of mentorship and giving young people a chance to gain on set experience – especially those young people who typically don’t get that kind of access. Protect Taika Waititi at all costs.
After our segment, he told me he had a lot of fun and laughed when I joked I was about to fangirl all over him and make it awkward. Can you tell I’m a professional? If my bosses are reading this, I swear this was the first time I’ve ever said that. It was also the first time I wandered around the hallways after the interview hoping to run into a guest again while they were doing other interviews in the building. I have no shame and I’m obsessed. Say something. Sarah made me feel better about my hallway creeping by telling me he has this effect on everyone. She says she’s heard stories about PAs “fighting over who got to bring the fancy donuts to his meetings.” THEY ARE ME.
Please go watch Thor: Ragnarok this weekend so you can develop a Taika Waititi problem too.
To hold you over until Friday, you can watch the full segment from The Social here.
