After chatting with Thor: Ragnarok Director Taika Waititi and seeing the chemistry he had with the cast during the press conference, I can only imagine that there was never a dull moment on set. He is fun, truly enjoys directing and, having seen the movie, he is extremely talented. Given that Thor: Ragnarok is now one of my favorite Marvel films, I am so glad he was chosen to bring the 3rd installment of the Thor story to life.
Here is what he had to say…
- There’s a lot of stuff in the film that’s adlibbed. “I used the script as a kind of team play, as a sort of suggestion for where we can go. We’ll do a version of it and then we’ll play around, spend another, you know, another or so just making stuff up because I mean you write dialogue six months before you shoot, you think it’s amazing at the time but, you know you don’t even know what will change or it might be a bore so yeah, so it changes on the day.”
- Taika Waititi also does the voice of Korg, a role he didn’t decide on playing until the last minute. Oh, and all of Korg’s dialogue was improvised.
- He is thrilled the Immigrant Song by Led Zepplin was used in the film. “When I went in for my pitch I made this sizzle reel which is like, I basically ripped tiny clips from multiple movies to show a tone of what the film would be and it was from Sixteen Candles, to Big Trouble in Little China, and the entire thing was to Immigrant Song. So playing this whole clip at the end I talked to Kevin about it and Kevin actually said it was one of teh strong points about my pitch. It was either him or another one of the execs said: “wow, that’s cool”. I was like okay! I couldn’t be happier that it’s in the film. I mean it’s the perfect song for the movie! It’s about Thor!”
- He loved comic books growing up. “…because when I was a kid I played with comics but I was obsessed with the real weird comics, like really colorful pages and stupid crazy characters…”
- He loves Chris Hemworth’s character in this film and the chemistry on set between Chris and Mark Ruffalo. “…my favorite performance is Chris’s performance because just knowing how fun he is and how funny and he’s charming and he often is the kind of makes you feel like oh, man if you actually were Thor I would totally come and be with you. But that I just love having the opportunity to give him free range to just be himself and to be charming and to like be the favorite character and in particularly him and Mark I think together when they’re bouncing off each other I love that.”
Check out what was said at the official Thor: Ragnarok Press Conference and our interviews with Marvel’s President Kevin Feige, Karl Urban (“Skurge”) and Rachel House (“Topaz”)
Check out my Thor: Ragnarok Movie Review (Spoiler Free) and take a look at my Thor: Ragnarok Premiere Experience.
Marvel Studios’ Thor: Ragnarok opens in U.S. theaters on November 3rd…Go and see it, you won’t regret it.
Disclosure: I went on this trip as part of a Disney/ABC/Freeform press trip. All of my travel, lodging and meal expenses were covered by them. No other compensation was received. However, all opinions/thoughts are 100% my own
What a wonderful experience! I would love to see this movie.