Big Kid Energy

Following the $854 million success of Thor: Ragnarok, which he imbued with the boy-in-a-sandbox energy of his irreverent indie films, Kiwi actor and director TAIKA WAITITI takes on the Marvel, Star Wars,and DC universes. But first, Jojo Rabbit, a World War II “anti-hate satire” in which he plays a German kid’s imaginary friend: Hitler. (Yeah, that one.)

- Kevin Sintumuang

“Taikaaaa. Taikaaaa,” she whispers. In a Mediterranean-style house, built into the side of a hill in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, not too far away from Walt Disney’s first home, Taika Waititi’s assistant is trying to coax him out of his bedroom. She thinks he’s asleep. And the complex Swiss coffee machine seems to be on the fritz. So while I wait, I try to fix it.

I’m about to implement the unplug-it-and plug-it-back-in method when I feel something ping my back. I see a small object go skittering across the floor. A bottle cap? I turn and there is Waititi, wearing a tropical-print shirt and stylish drawstring pants and, while in a ninja-like pose, holding a large, capless bottle of Perrier. He has the boyish energy of a walking GIF.

“I’ve been standing here for five minutes watching you, bro,” the forty-four-year-old director/actor/producer says. Then he gives me a hug. When in playful mode, he speaks with the country-Kiwi accent of Korg, the charming rock beast he played in Thor: Ragnarok (which he also directed), whom he based on the sweet, enormous Polynesian bouncers he would encounter outside clubs in his hometown of Wellington, New Zealand. The rest of the time, he speaks with a charming, soothing New Zealand accent featuring just a touch of thespian gravitas—a perfect delivery system for dry humor.

He moves a pink blazer from the back of a kitchen chair so I can sit and begins eating his very Californian breakfast—eggs and avocado toast with a side of bacon.

Trying to make conversation, I ask him about a sculpture in the kitchen. He gives me the shrug emoji. “I don’t know what any of this stuff is, bro! It’s not my house!”