Speaker 1: You're listening to playback a Variety podcast. I'm your host,
Speaker 1: Varriety Awards Editor Chris Tapley. I had to count to
Speaker 1: be sure. I think I didn't miss any. But we're
Speaker 1: up to about seventeen Marvel movies right now. My guest
Speaker 1: today is responsible for my favorite of them so far,
Speaker 1: though Thor Ragnarok is director Taiko W. T T unbridled
Speaker 1: playing in the massive sandbox of a cinematic universe after
Speaker 1: honing his voice and his craft with films like Eagle
Speaker 1: Versus Shark, What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt
Speaker 1: for the Wilder People. So let's talk to him about it.
Speaker 1: Thak is right here, and we're very happy he's on
Speaker 1: the show. Thanks for coming on, man, thank you for
Speaker 1: having me. Were mad as well talk about it to
Speaker 1: see him here. Yeah, I mean that's we should talk
Speaker 1: about some other stuff. Actually, I mean, um, you got
Speaker 1: me here. Let's talk about that shirtless scene. We'll get
Speaker 1: I want to start. People may not be aware you're
Speaker 1: an Academy Award nominee, your Short film award loser. Y
Speaker 1: put it like that. Okay, it's cool, it is. Let's
Speaker 1: cut it. Cut the on it. If you don't win
Speaker 1: your Lisa An Academy Award losing director from New Zealand. Well, look,
Speaker 1: you dozed off during the ceremony anyway, so it wasn't
Speaker 1: no big You're a short film Two Cars, One Night,
Speaker 1: which I watched last night, was nominated in two thousand four.
Speaker 1: So that experience of getting an OSCAR nomination earlier in
Speaker 1: your career, what was that like for you? Um? I
Speaker 1: mean I was very flattered, but also I wasn't really
Speaker 1: planning on being a filmmaker, so once that happened, Um,
Speaker 1: I was. I was encouraged by a lot of people
Speaker 1: and pressure was on to really become a filmmaker. So
Speaker 1: it was more like an arranged marriage. Really. Um I
Speaker 1: sort of felt forced into it, and luckily I haven't
Speaker 1: regretted it, but yeah, it was. It was. It was
Speaker 1: just something that I just made that short film just
Speaker 1: to experience making a film, and then the next thing
Speaker 1: I knew, you know, everyone was calling me a filmmaker.
Speaker 1: I don't know the first thing about making films, so
Speaker 1: I did learned pretty quick. Yeah. That leads me to
Speaker 1: my next question. You went to drama school, I think, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I actually went to university and did a theater studies.
Speaker 1: Theater studies. Yeah, I didn't. I didn't study film. Um,
Speaker 1: and that was that that. That degree has probably been
Speaker 1: of no use whatsoever in my life, but my mom
Speaker 1: was proud, I've got I've got a film degree in
Speaker 1: a journalism degree. I think those might be the two
Speaker 1: most use I think most people going to go to
Speaker 1: university just to make the parents happy. Absolutely, And you
Speaker 1: know that's a big part of the equation. Yeah, his
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make my parents happy by racking up thousands
Speaker 1: and thons dollars of debt. It's gonna take me fifteen
Speaker 1: years to pay off. Well, they know, you'll, you'll, you'll,
Speaker 1: you know, learn on the streets how you're going to
Speaker 1: figure out how to pay off that debt. Well, you
Speaker 1: also learn about tax and stuff, you know, once he
Speaker 1: into the real world. Why don't they teach tax at
Speaker 1: school when they just before you leave high school they say,
Speaker 1: by the way, you need to learn about tax because
Speaker 1: it's going to come back to buy you and you're
Speaker 1: going to get ordered one day. They don't teach you that, No,
Speaker 1: they don't. You're right, they should. They should teach that
Speaker 1: in art school because there's anyone's oblivious to that artists.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to ask just since you didn't go
Speaker 1: to school for film per se, like what like, how
Speaker 1: did you learn the craft? Was it just through our
Speaker 1: short films? Actually? So, I was an active for a
Speaker 1: long time before I started making film, and I think
Speaker 1: I learned. I think my film school really was watching
Speaker 1: movies and watching people make movies and then eventually making
Speaker 1: making some short films and stuff like that. And I
Speaker 1: learned a lot doing that. But yeah, I've learned most
Speaker 1: of my stuff. Just being on sets is a great environment. Yeah,
Speaker 1: is that this is the best film schools being on set?
Speaker 1: What were some of like, you know, your inspirations. I
Speaker 1: guess when you started watching films and figuring out how
Speaker 1: to make them by observing Um, I mean a very
Speaker 1: eclectic um mix of films sort of inspired me over
Speaker 1: the years. But films I always go back to films
Speaker 1: like The Graduate bad Lands, UM, how Ashby's films, UM
Speaker 1: so American UM cinema of the seventies for sure, and
Speaker 1: Korean cinema. UM, I really love Korean films. Sort of
Speaker 1: just like to take it a little bit from everywhere really, UM,
Speaker 1: not so much the French weirdly what do you know,
Speaker 1: how Ashby? That's interesting. H What I love about him
Speaker 1: is he doesn't really have a distinct style. You can't
Speaker 1: really you can't really find, I mean, other than his
Speaker 1: cameos or you know, and maybe some of the cutting
Speaker 1: style is not a really a a three line or
Speaker 1: a link in style between any of those films. Are
Speaker 1: the difference between Harold and Maud and Coming Home well
Speaker 1: you know, the last detail and um and being there,
Speaker 1: so they were vastly different and um, you know, and
Speaker 1: some of the comedies and some of the straight up
Speaker 1: dramas and yeah, I just really love his I just
Speaker 1: love that mix, you know, where he never felt like
Speaker 1: he was repeating himself. And he's fascinating too. For being
Speaker 1: an editor first and transitioning to filmmaking, was there a
Speaker 1: particular aspect of the trade, like editing cinematography, that that
Speaker 1: you gravitate towards most mm hmmm, I don't know, not,
Speaker 1: not not so much. Now. Um. You know, I used
Speaker 1: to think I was really into writing, but now I've
Speaker 1: realized how a lonely that is. And um, I feel
Speaker 1: like I like editing, but usually only when I'm editing.
Speaker 1: Um I don't usually like being in a room with
Speaker 1: someone for six months because you feel like you just
Speaker 1: want to kill them. Um yeah, I like, I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean maybe the camera department because I work so
Speaker 1: closely with them, and it's sort of yeah, it feels
Speaker 1: like the area that that I focus on the most,
Speaker 1: and I mean and and and our department. You know,
Speaker 1: I really love seeing sets being created in the seat
Speaker 1: and and all the details. Well, that was very crucial
Speaker 1: on the new movie, which I'm going to get do
Speaker 1: in just one second, but before I do, I didn't
Speaker 1: want to talk briefly about Mohana, which you worked on
Speaker 1: early drafts of, and then walk the way to work
Speaker 1: on movies in New Zealand. Was that hard for you
Speaker 1: to walk away from that situation. No, it was very
Speaker 1: easy to walk away because I wasn't directing it, and
Speaker 1: just as a as a writer on a film like that,
Speaker 1: Um the you know, then those guys were great, and
Speaker 1: it was it was it was a really cool experience,
Speaker 1: but I didn't feel like it was going to do
Speaker 1: much for me and in my projects or my creativity
Speaker 1: just by being someone's writer, you know. And when I
Speaker 1: realized that, because those films, you know, they take four
Speaker 1: or four years or so to make four or five years,
Speaker 1: and just the prospect of working on one project for
Speaker 1: five years as a writer, um just did not appeal
Speaker 1: to me. And oh yeah, and so I would often
Speaker 1: made what we do in the Shadows and and Hunt
Speaker 1: for the World of People and shot four in that time,
Speaker 1: in the time that it took for them to finish
Speaker 1: that film. So I feel like there was a good move. Definitely,
Speaker 1: Density wives. Did you, you know, take anything from the
Speaker 1: experience that you've applied going forward, anything that you learned
Speaker 1: on it that kind of set you up? No? I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: did you actually the one? One One of the good
Speaker 1: things about the the writing process on the Disney slash
Speaker 1: Pixar films, it is really the kind of brain trust
Speaker 1: story room sessions that they have, and you know, they'll
Speaker 1: they'll take the project, everyone will read it, and I'll
Speaker 1: invite all the directors from the past films and all
Speaker 1: the writers from the other films, and everyone kind of
Speaker 1: comes out, and all the producers and it's just like
Speaker 1: a kind of massive roundtable with you know, thirty forty
Speaker 1: people and it's a free for aw and you know,
Speaker 1: really everyone just there to tear it apart and and
Speaker 1: make the best story possible, and hopefully by the end
Speaker 1: of that day or two days that they concentright on
Speaker 1: on the story. Yeah, you'll have a new structure, and
Speaker 1: you'll have really clear ideas about characters and and how
Speaker 1: to move forward. And I think that's really useful. I
Speaker 1: love I love it when people get together and tear
Speaker 1: something apart because it's it's it's yeah, when people are
Speaker 1: very complimentary and they don't have any criticism, it's um,
Speaker 1: it gets you get a bit complacent, and I think
Speaker 1: you can get too comfortable on your ideas and then
Speaker 1: you start thinking that you're you know, you're a genius
Speaker 1: and every idea that you come up with is amazing.
Speaker 1: You need people to put you in your place. Well,
Speaker 1: you're you've come back that doesn't need to work on
Speaker 1: thor here. And so, uh, what did you feel, I
Speaker 1: guess was if anything lacking in the Marvel cinematic universe
Speaker 1: that you could put in it? Uh? You know what,
Speaker 1: what did you want to contribute? What what got you
Speaker 1: excited that you were the guy to put this movie
Speaker 1: out there? It wasn't really um that I felt that
Speaker 1: they were lacking anything because you know, after Guardians had
Speaker 1: come out, you know, I realized, oh yeah, there's definitely
Speaker 1: room for jokes on this and this uh m c
Speaker 1: U for me coming into it, I think selfishly, I
Speaker 1: just wanted some you know, a nice challenge and suddenly
Speaker 1: that would break me out of my comfort zone. And
Speaker 1: I just I just I was editing Hunt for the
Speaker 1: Will of People, also made four films, and was starting
Speaker 1: the thing, man, the next thing I do am I
Speaker 1: just gonna be repeating myself, you know, is it going
Speaker 1: to be just another you know, and make destined to
Speaker 1: just keep doing these smaller films and that would be fine.
Speaker 1: But when the opportunity came to do something really big
Speaker 1: and something that would be a huge challenge, that to
Speaker 1: me was a perfect opportunity to learn to keep learning
Speaker 1: about film. And I've you know, as a result of
Speaker 1: obviously I've learned a huge amount of doing this film.
Speaker 1: Um and with thought with that franchise, I felt like
Speaker 1: that was the one franchise that had the most potential
Speaker 1: to be shaped into something new, like I couldn't come
Speaker 1: in and do you know the third Guardians film, because
Speaker 1: it's so well shaped and it has its own personality
Speaker 1: and its own voice, and that's all James, and you
Speaker 1: know some similar thing with you know, if I come
Speaker 1: and try and do Captain America, it's very distinctly the
Speaker 1: Russo's domain. And I just I would feel very strange
Speaker 1: coming into into those franchises and trying to put my
Speaker 1: mark on it. And they don't need someone to put
Speaker 1: their mark on those things. They're you know, they're great.
Speaker 1: They're great as they are. Before one had the most
Speaker 1: potential because it just I felt it probably didn't quite
Speaker 1: know itself as as well as the other franchises knew themselves.
Speaker 1: There wasn't quite a distinct voice there yet. And I
Speaker 1: felt like, Okay, well, this is my opportunity to come in,
Speaker 1: and this is something I could probably bring a lot
Speaker 1: of myself to and you know, my voice in my
Speaker 1: style too, because it's you know, it hasn't got a
Speaker 1: really shape yet. And yeah, and and and I think
Speaker 1: I was right, you know, And and well I was
Speaker 1: lucky because Brandon and Taylor had done so much groundwork
Speaker 1: and laying the foundations for the world and the character
Speaker 1: and everything that I could come in and every all
Speaker 1: of that establishment of you don't explain anything homes they're
Speaker 1: all done, and it's one of the hardest. Um, it's
Speaker 1: one of the hardest stories to establish because of all
Speaker 1: the crazy names and the Rainbow Bridge, the by Frost
Speaker 1: and all of them, you know, the names of the characters.
Speaker 1: So I was very lucky and that Dad had all
Speaker 1: been done for me and I could just kind of
Speaker 1: come and pick up the ball and run with it. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so I totally have to acknowledge, you know,
Speaker 1: the fact that it was It was quite an easy, um,
Speaker 1: an easy thing to walk into. Yeah, is that what
Speaker 1: the process was. They brought you in and said, we'd
Speaker 1: like you to work on something. What are you interested
Speaker 1: in doing? And you you came to that a mix.
Speaker 1: It was a mixed They they wanted to do something fun,
Speaker 1: and they wanted to make a radical departure from the
Speaker 1: first two films. Then you were brought in specifically for
Speaker 1: thor and not just generally which one of these do
Speaker 1: you want to I was just brought in just to
Speaker 1: talk about for And I've always wanted to work with
Speaker 1: Chris Um. We were mates, we knew each other before,
Speaker 1: and I've always been a big admirer of his and
Speaker 1: but mainly of of his um his comedy. It's a
Speaker 1: very funny guy, and the opportunity to work with him
Speaker 1: was there, and Marvel knew that they you know, they
Speaker 1: wanted to um to focus on that and to bring
Speaker 1: that out because they realized just how funny he is
Speaker 1: and it's something that they hadn't really tapped into, and
Speaker 1: so they saw an opportunity to do that. Chris was
Speaker 1: feeling like his the older version of thought was becoming
Speaker 1: a bit too familiar, and he wants to try something new,
Speaker 1: and so the ideas of cutting his hair and making
Speaker 1: them a little more colloquial and all that stuff that
Speaker 1: was already the seeds of that were already germinating. And
Speaker 1: when I came in, um, you know, I fully supported
Speaker 1: that and said, yeah, we should make him more fun.
Speaker 1: You know, the movie is called four. He's got to
Speaker 1: be the best character. And you know, I grew up
Speaker 1: with watching Kurt Russell movies, and you know, he's one
Speaker 1: of my favorite heroic actors. And I remember like just
Speaker 1: feeling very safe in his hands when I was watching
Speaker 1: movies and thinking, yeah, this is a hero. Is a guy.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he's a bit bumbling, and he's really funny, but
Speaker 1: he's Also he's like a great hero who you want
Speaker 1: to you want to follow around. So Bruce Willis, you know,
Speaker 1: he was one of those guys for me growing up,
Speaker 1: and I felt like Chris really had had that kind
Speaker 1: of quality about him. Um and yeah, it's just it
Speaker 1: was really about pulling that out and pushing that to
Speaker 1: the front and saying like, yeah, here's a guy who
Speaker 1: looks incredible. You know, he's charming and he's funny, and
Speaker 1: you want to follow him on an adventure. And that's
Speaker 1: just Chris were like basically transplant that those qualities onto
Speaker 1: four and and so Yeah, as a result, he's kind
Speaker 1: of playing the most crisp version of four there is.
Speaker 1: I do feel like I could see him in like
Speaker 1: a remake of Tango in Cash or something like that. Like,
Speaker 1: you're right, I've been I've been joking about doing Tango
Speaker 1: and Cash it. Um. What was the just the initial
Speaker 1: connection though? Who brought you in to the Marvel? Brad Winderbaum,
Speaker 1: who's the EP on the film. He got in touch
Speaker 1: through my agent and I guess they were talking to
Speaker 1: maybe three three directors or you know, three or four
Speaker 1: directors at the time, and I guess we all went
Speaker 1: and pitched on on the on, really on a story
Speaker 1: that no one kind of kind of had any idea
Speaker 1: what it was. At the time. There was a script,
Speaker 1: but they were trying to move away from that and
Speaker 1: try some new things. Um, yeah, there was So when
Speaker 1: I pitched it was more like, this is the kind
Speaker 1: of tone I think the film should be, because there
Speaker 1: was no real story for me to pitch. It was
Speaker 1: you know, this could happen, that could happen, but really,
Speaker 1: this is the kind of film which should be have
Speaker 1: this tone, should have jokes, and you know, it should
Speaker 1: have some you know, some weight to it where it needs.
Speaker 1: And my main thing really was just color, as just
Speaker 1: saying it's got I've grew up with Marvel comics and
Speaker 1: you know the thing about the splash pages and all
Speaker 1: those in the seventies and the eighties, there's just it
Speaker 1: was just color. It was bold and vibrant and really
Speaker 1: strong lines. And then especially looking at the Kirby art,
Speaker 1: that was stuff that I felt like would make a
Speaker 1: would make a statement, and it would. And it was
Speaker 1: also I feel like that departure they were looking for
Speaker 1: from you know, from the tone and the palette of
Speaker 1: for one and two are you looking at my questions, man,
Speaker 1: because you're like anticipating what I'm going to ask. I
Speaker 1: was gonna talk about the reflection of your thing and
Speaker 1: the Jack Kirby stuff. It really stands out. And I
Speaker 1: often ask, uh, you know, directors of comic book films,
Speaker 1: like what were the inspirations visually? Were there any specific
Speaker 1: frames from books that you wanted to emulate or anything
Speaker 1: like that. And with this one, it's pretty clear that
Speaker 1: the Kirby stuff is front in the center. So I
Speaker 1: wanted you to can you expand it a little more? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we wanted to, And that was something that I know
Speaker 1: that I think there's been a little a couple of
Speaker 1: Kirby references and guardians that James had used, um some
Speaker 1: celest deals and stuff. But I feel and Kevin had said,
Speaker 1: you know, we we haven't really had the opportunity to
Speaker 1: run straight into the Kirby's art and use it as
Speaker 1: a bold inspiration for the for the design of any
Speaker 1: film yet. And I always loved Kirby's art, and I'd
Speaker 1: love just the really the line and the contours and
Speaker 1: and and his even though he is I guess his costumes, Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: so those are the things that have really stood out
Speaker 1: to me and made me feel like this is this
Speaker 1: is the way to kind of push the film into
Speaker 1: that kind of Flash Gordon sort of territory where it's
Speaker 1: like vivid and in your face and unapologetic in terms
Speaker 1: of it's just like, this is a comic book that
Speaker 1: happens to be moving. Um. That that was really the
Speaker 1: aim for me, was to try and make something as
Speaker 1: close to reading an old comic book as possible and um,
Speaker 1: and then marvel fully into it and fully supportive. And
Speaker 1: what the hard us things with transferring that Kirby art
Speaker 1: from the page into a into a live action environment
Speaker 1: was that there's so much going on when you have
Speaker 1: it in a in live action it's actually it's almost
Speaker 1: too much for the human idea to take in because
Speaker 1: once it's moving, it's like so many different things are
Speaker 1: going on, and it's very hard to kind of pick
Speaker 1: out characters from those backgrounds. So we have to work
Speaker 1: quite hard on figuring out it's like a magic high post. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And we had to a pool characters away from walls
Speaker 1: and away from the backgrounds because we had to soften
Speaker 1: that stuff. And and and actually and we had to
Speaker 1: make bigger block colors in the backgrounds so that people
Speaker 1: could stand out rather than I think what people's first
Speaker 1: instinct with Kirby's at is just like, oh, any old color,
Speaker 1: just anywhere, and just you know, and and but it's
Speaker 1: not really like that when you look at the stuff beyond,
Speaker 1: just like aesthetically, like those colors in this color palette
Speaker 1: you ended up with. Did that mean anything to you
Speaker 1: thematically with the story you wanted to tell um No,
Speaker 1: I think it was more just I wanted to I
Speaker 1: just sort of wanted to shock the human eye, and
Speaker 1: especially ben't go into Sacar because it would Asgard had
Speaker 1: already been established as a very golden world. And and
Speaker 1: once we got to Scar, everything changed, included in music,
Speaker 1: you know, that's when Mother's Bows sort of symp music
Speaker 1: started coming through. He'd done the score for everything, a
Speaker 1: big orchestral pieces, which in the traditional things, which was
Speaker 1: a sort of upfront in the film. But then it
Speaker 1: was more when when when four arise on Takar, that
Speaker 1: the entire music changes and and and the palette really
Speaker 1: takes off. And that for us was just a perfect
Speaker 1: way of of celebrating all the stuff from the comics,
Speaker 1: but also just showing for in a world that neither
Speaker 1: he or any audience that you ever been in before.
Speaker 1: As well, then we were pulling Jeff Goldblum as well.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's the craziest I think of all of
Speaker 1: the alien planets that that I've seen in these movies.
Speaker 1: And speaking of music, it's it's kind of nice that
Speaker 1: they loosened the whatever was going on with led Zeppelin
Speaker 1: songs forever? Oh yeah, use them in commercials and movies
Speaker 1: and more. And it yeah, well that led Zep song
Speaker 1: was made a sizzle role from my pitch and that
Speaker 1: um I put that song in just part of that.
Speaker 1: And right from that moment, they really loved the song.
Speaker 1: And even you know, as soon as I got the job,
Speaker 1: you know, they said, well, why don't we start exploring, um,
Speaker 1: you know, what it would take to get that song
Speaker 1: just in case we want to use it for the film,
Speaker 1: and um, so it was there right from the beginning.
Speaker 1: For the last two years, that thing has kind of
Speaker 1: been drifting around us. It's immigrant song, by the way,
Speaker 1: everyone you'll see it first seen and it's badass. Uh. Also,
Speaker 1: the you know, you assembled like a delicious kind of
Speaker 1: array of characters here obviously our players, I mean, like
Speaker 1: Jeff gold Room, Keith Blanchet, Tessa Thompson. Did you write
Speaker 1: with them in mind? Because they there they just hit
Speaker 1: the characters like a glove, you know. So it just yeah,
Speaker 1: when we were storylining, we didn't we didn't really know
Speaker 1: that that we would cast Tessa. Um. She's so awesome,
Speaker 1: she's amazing character. She's amazing. Um sort of the female
Speaker 1: hand Solo. Maybe hand Solo is a male valkyrie, that's it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so you know, we hadn't really thought of her.
Speaker 1: Kate was already um in the works, and you know
Speaker 1: when I first came in, they were already talking about
Speaker 1: it and I agreed, and I said, yeah, we should
Speaker 1: just go And that's what I went and talk to
Speaker 1: her and tried to convince her to do it. Um
Speaker 1: and that worked. And then she has this look on
Speaker 1: her face in the film where it just looks like
Speaker 1: she's having a blast. Yeah, it looks like she's having
Speaker 1: a blast. But also there's a sort of this I
Speaker 1: feel like she's so relaxed in the film because much
Speaker 1: like however, returns to Asgard and and that's her first
Speaker 1: sort of bold thing there. Um, it's like yeah, I've
Speaker 1: seen everything, I've done everything. This is nothing to me.
Speaker 1: You know, this is like easy does it walk in
Speaker 1: the park for meum, which makes it very enjoyable, you know.
Speaker 1: And I feel like that's sort of what I got
Speaker 1: from Kate as well. It's like, yeah, what more can
Speaker 1: I do? Have one, a couple of oscars. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: come in and do this superhero movie with you guys.
Speaker 1: This is this is just fun. This is just fun
Speaker 1: for me. Um. So yeah, so yeah, and then then
Speaker 1: then Goldblum was our first choice for for Grandmaster, so
Speaker 1: I think in the scriptum and the storylining, definitely that's
Speaker 1: who were thinking of. And and then Eric and Eric
Speaker 1: you try, I guess, try to capture how he might
Speaker 1: speak and when it came to the script, but it
Speaker 1: became pretty apparent that Jeff was pretty much just going
Speaker 1: to do his own thing, and you kind of want
Speaker 1: you do want that. You know, it's always how do
Speaker 1: you write? You know, I don't know how how do
Speaker 1: you write? Literally, I think I tweeted something like that.
Speaker 1: I was like, you could not write Jeff Goldblum as
Speaker 1: a character like just that person. You wanted that person
Speaker 1: in a movie, and he didn't exist in real life,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't be able to write that person. He's a treasure.
Speaker 1: I just I don't even have a question here. I
Speaker 1: just wrote, Cork, this is the character that you play.
Speaker 1: It's just a statement. It's awesome and it must have
Speaker 1: been a blast and a lot huge part of the
Speaker 1: comedy comes from that. And he said, it's such an
Speaker 1: endearing character too, you know, he's there's such a warm
Speaker 1: soul to him. What was it like kind of creating
Speaker 1: that character? And then there was a huge amount of
Speaker 1: fun for me because I put myself in all my movies,
Speaker 1: as a lot of people know now, Um, and this
Speaker 1: opportunity just arose because I knew I was going to
Speaker 1: try and find something small to do in the film,
Speaker 1: but I don't even imagine it would be. Yeah, I thought,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll just be that guy who Jeff melts in
Speaker 1: the chair. You know. It's just something I was small on.
Speaker 1: What you tiny little cameo? Um, that was brutal by
Speaker 1: there's an extended version of that scene, yeah, which we're
Speaker 1: going to try and release, which is a big long
Speaker 1: conversation before he does that. It's hilarious. Um that they
Speaker 1: were probably a few quite extended scenes involving Jeff as
Speaker 1: you can imagine. But then Corg came up and it
Speaker 1: was just he was again. It was a small character
Speaker 1: that was sort of just laying laying down what Skar
Speaker 1: was like fourth for in the first time they met. Um.
Speaker 1: And I love characters like that because I love playing
Speaker 1: characters who just comment on things or just talk or
Speaker 1: just sort of say random things when he was get
Speaker 1: on the ship, just stuff that doesn't matter, Like I like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I love playing characters potentially don't even need to be
Speaker 1: in the movie, but you know, they just add a
Speaker 1: little bit of texture, a bit of flavor. Um and
Speaker 1: that whole voice just came out about from the wanting
Speaker 1: to do like a really colloquial New Zealand accent and
Speaker 1: feeling like, oh, no, one's heard this in these movies before,
Speaker 1: and it's just so strange. He's such a gentle character.
Speaker 1: There's so many crazy elements in this film, you know,
Speaker 1: like Giant Wolf was on beyarm Halla, the Hulk for
Speaker 1: you know, Valkyrie and Jeff Goldblin and all these in
Speaker 1: Sakara itself. It's sometimes when when an audience is being
Speaker 1: bashed in the face with all of these crazy things.
Speaker 1: It's nice to just check in with someone who's gentle
Speaker 1: and he just wants to look after you. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: he's anything. Yeah, he's anything and and and he is
Speaker 1: one of the very few characters who doesn't want anything
Speaker 1: from thor if you look at it, like everyone is
Speaker 1: trying to exploit them or imprison him or you know,
Speaker 1: or eat him or kill him. Yeah. So it's, um,
Speaker 1: he's just the guys, Like, I'm just happy to hang
Speaker 1: out with you, man. And then before we close out here,
Speaker 1: I have to talk to you about Bubbles. Uh. This
Speaker 1: was famously one of the favorite unmade screenplays on the Blacklist.
Speaker 1: It's about ostensibly Michael Jackson's life through the lives of
Speaker 1: his champ chimpanzee Bubbles. Although I've read that you you're
Speaker 1: not concerned with making it about Michael Jackson's life. You
Speaker 1: kind of wanted to be the story about the champ,
Speaker 1: I guess and yeah, yeah, and I'm really um, I'm
Speaker 1: stoked to be involved in there because that's it's almost
Speaker 1: like a great antidote from what I've been doing for
Speaker 1: two years, even though this would be three times longer. Um,
Speaker 1: it's it's the process here and stop motion and and
Speaker 1: it's just the subject is amazing to me. The idea
Speaker 1: of just of looking at the life of one of
Speaker 1: my huge heroes, Um through the eyes of one of
Speaker 1: his pets, and this is something so strange about that,
Speaker 1: and it's very I think aligns very much with a
Speaker 1: lot of my other work, where it's you know, we
Speaker 1: often look at the adult world three eyes with kids,
Speaker 1: and this is kind of a similar theme. Really just
Speaker 1: seeing the craziness of this world where you know, the
Speaker 1: his his master, I guess is Um is as much
Speaker 1: a prisoner, was living in a cage just as much
Speaker 1: as Bubbles bubbles and you know, just these and just
Speaker 1: seeing the parallels between these two, these two characters, and
Speaker 1: I'm just kindo exploring that side of it. And that
Speaker 1: reminds me of my favorite Michael Jackson music video, leave
Speaker 1: Me Alone. Yeah, yeah, the animation, and it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's all about his tabloid inspirations and stuff. So, and
Speaker 1: you're working with Starburns Industries, which Lisa one of my
Speaker 1: favorite movies that year. Um, it almost seems like in general,
Speaker 1: this project is more uh not challenging, but risky whatever
Speaker 1: than even something like thor I mean, yeah, this is
Speaker 1: and and and you know, part of the reason I
Speaker 1: thought was that that was going to be a challenge
Speaker 1: and also for me, it seemed like the least expected thing.
Speaker 1: Um you know, it was one of the I surprise
Speaker 1: myself by doing for and now I feel like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm surprising myself and shocking, shocking my kind of creative
Speaker 1: muscles again by entering into something as challenging as a
Speaker 1: stop motion about Michael Jackson's Chimpanzee. So I feel like
Speaker 1: every every project I want to do should be a
Speaker 1: sort of just you know, I just want my career
Speaker 1: to kind of zigzag crossing, but in and out of
Speaker 1: different scale projects, different mediums, different um yeah, different formats
Speaker 1: and and and that's how I think it will. I
Speaker 1: will be able to keep it interesting. Yeah, definitely. Well,
Speaker 1: everyone should go see Thor Ragnarok this weekend. It's again
Speaker 1: I'm going to prove it to him. There's my top
Speaker 1: seventeen list of Marvel movies, Thor Ragnarok on top my favorite.
Speaker 1: Go check it out. I loved it. Maybe you will
Speaker 1: and take thanks for coming on. SAT really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: So just happened since I last saw you. I lost
Speaker 1: my armor like yesterday, sir, that's still pretty fresh. And
Speaker 1: then I went on a journey of self discovery. I
Speaker 1: love you. What are we? You have no idea? Hello?
Speaker 1: The God has a God is invaded as God. Oh
Speaker 1: I've missed this and you and I have to find
Speaker 1: recently did I win? I won't easily. Some sound right?
Speaker 1: That's true. As God is dead, little be reborn in mine.
Speaker 1: I thought you big cla to see me. I need
Speaker 1: to stop her here now event riding rock at the
Speaker 1: end of everything, Son putting together a team at the
Speaker 1: old day. Surprise, This would be such fun fight. He's
Speaker 1: a fighter. Here we go. I'm not a queen or
Speaker 1: amongst death. When the God has a dead? What were
Speaker 1: you the god of? Again? M by the same you
Speaker 1: just a couple of hot headed foods. Yes, same, hook
Speaker 1: like fire, doy like water, kind of pers like fire,
Speaker 1: but hooked like raging fire, toy like smoldering fire.