The movie Taika Waititi wants to delete from history: “I’ve never heard of it”
There are few directors working today who are as easily recognisable – both through their work and appearance – as Taika Waititi.
The New Zealand-born auteur was catapulted from cult favourite to box office champion to awards darling with a string of successful films, from the humble Hunt for the Wilderpeople to the world-conquering Thor: Ragnarok.
As well as writing and directing many of them, it’s not uncommon for Waititi to turn up as an actor in his own projects. His memorable roles include Korg in various Marvel movies and, of course, Adolf Hitler in Jojo Rabbit. Outside of casting himself, Waititi can also be found in Free Guy, The Suicide Squad, and as a voice in Pixar’s Lightyear. Not all of his acting gigs have been so prestigious, however.
Before he took off as an international superstar, Waititi had a minor role in the cursed DC superhero movie Green Lantern. Alongside fellow superstars Geoffrey Rush, Angela Bassett, Blake Lively, and, most notably, Ryan Reynolds, his was one of the many names dragged through the mud by this utterly dismal offering. Perhaps this is why, many years later during an interview with Games Radar, he pretended to have no idea what the movie was.
“What’s the project you’re talking about? I’ve never heard of it. Green… what?” he joked. Eventually, he came clean and was even able to see the funny side of things. “That type of thing is great, because Ryan and I have both got a similar sense of humour in regards to things like that,” he continued. “I find it really funny that I did that film. The thing is, it’s like when people shy away from things, and they don’t want to admit they’ve done something, or they don’t ever reference it, I find it worse.”
Released in 2011, the film stars Reynolds as Hal Jordan, an ordinary human who is chosen by the ring of the heralded Green Lantern Corps. Waititi plays Thomas Kalmaku, one of Jordan’s co-workers and a supporting character from the comics. He claims that he was given the role because of Kalmaku’s Inuk heritage and that the studio needed someone who wasn’t White, but wasn’t African-American either.
It might be easy to look back at Green Lantern now and laugh, but at the time, it was a proper catastrophe. Marvel were flying high with the MCU, which was in its infancy at the time. DC on the other hand could only produce dross like this. The film attempted to kickstart the studio’s own cinematic universe, but its dire reviews and even worse box office results – it barely scraped back its absurd $200 million budget – quickly put a stop to that. Reynolds, who claims he had doubts about the project from the start, really suffered as a result. It wasn’t until Deadpool that he fully got his mojo back.
Luckily, most of the people involved in the Green Lantern fiasco were able to recover and go on to bigger and better things. Waititi has precisely the right attitude towards this infamous flop; you’ve got to laugh at it before anyone else can.
