Writer/director Taika Waititi has a very clear reason for why he always casts himself in his movies. “In all honesty, and this is gonna sound very arrogant, but I really think I’m real awesome,” he tells Consequence with a laugh. “I like watching myself in the edit. I know a lot of people [who say], ‘Oh, I hate watching myself,’ but I actually really get a kick out of it. I’m like, ‘Ah man, this guy’s so funny.’ That’s just probably a lot about me, you know? I’m probably my own biggest fan.”
And thus, Waititi has a small role in Next Goal Wins, the new Searchlight Pictures film based on the acclaimed documentary of the same name. Both projects tell the story of the American Samoa football team, the ultimate underdog after a humiliating World Cup performance in 2001 that haunted them for years to come. Until, that is, a new coach (played by Michael Fassbender in the adaptation) was able to get them ready again for the global stage.
Waititi first got interested in the story of American Samoa football in 2015, when he watched the original documentary by Mike Brett and Steve Jamison, “which I absolutely loved.” At the time, he wasn’t looking for a new project, but then he met the real-life Jaiyah, a transgender player featured in the documentary, as well as the directors, “and it just got me sort of thinking, well, maybe I could do this thing.”
While he assumed that adapting the documentary wouldn’t be an option after he took on Thor: Ragnarok, after Jojo Rabbit he found himself with an opening in his schedule, and the film went into production in November 2019. After production wrapped, though, there were a few issues delaying its completion — not just a global pandemic, but also the later need to reshoot a small but key role, originally played by Armie Hammer.
Waititi looks at all reshoots as an advantage, though. “I always try and work pickups into my schedules, just because when you’re editing you realize, ‘Ah, maybe I should change this bit.’ Or maybe like, ‘Yeah, we need to have a little moment here between these characters. And then I’ve managed to put them in the pickups or additional photography. It’s just vital, and I’ve always done it and I always will.”
Continues Waititi, “it’s just been instilled in me. I’ve done it ever since my short films. You try your hardest to get things when you’re shooting and you think your script is great, but you just never know if it’s going to make perfect sense. And then sometimes you’re there like, ‘God, I wish I had a shot of someone picking up that cup. And then the scene would make complete sense.’ Most additional photography is just people getting shots of a map being opened, or a wallet being snatched out of a pocket. Just tiny little things.”
