Author: Morgan Sloss

Oscar Kightley Recalled A White Woman Apologizing To Him After Watching His Play About The Terrible Discrimination Pacific Islanders Faced In New Zealand

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You’ve appeared in several Taika Waititi movies, including Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Next Goal Wins. How would you describe him as a director?

Genius. Hilarious. Lovely. Just one of the boys who’s got a really crazy energy and a really amazing zest for life and telling stories about cool stuff. Next Goal Wins was just a dream. We shot that in Hawai’i. The cast, there was Samoan, Tongan, from Hawai’i, but also from Aotearoa, from Australia. Six weeks of hanging out in Hawai’i and just getting to laugh every day. And there was our mate directing, hanging out with these Hollywood bigwigs. It was awesome. We’ve known Taika since the end of the 1900s.BuzzFeed: Do you have any favorite memories with him?I was amazed Taika even did that film. He’d done Thor and JoJo Rabbit, and his schedule was crazy; I can’t believe he found time to squeeze that in. But it’s lucky we did because Next Goal Wins, that was the last film shot before COVID changed the whole world, I reckon. We wrapped in December 2019, and the week we got home, four people had died in a seafood market in Wuhan over this weird thing called COVID-19. But I remember Taika being really sick. There were times when he would be directing, and as soon as he was off set, he would be on the chair and a physio would be working on him. But he worked extremely hard, and I remember saying to him one time, “Bro, you’re doing so much. Do you get time to rest?” And he said something like he feels like he rested for most of his life, and now he’s finally getting to do what he really wants. And so, that was an awesome attitude. I just remember Taika being really sore, and he had a bad back. But despite that, he powered on. I think the energy of all the boys and all the cast around helped to get him through.And getting to do the film with Dave Fane, who was also in Sione’s Wedding and bro’Town and the Naked Samoans, that was an absolute joy, too. This was another step up from Sione’s. Now suddenly we’re in Hawai’i, and there’s all these massive trailers and trucks. There’s a guy cooking steaks, and we’re like, “Oh, what’s that for?” And he goes, “Oh, that’s for everyone.” We’re like, “Wow! That’s incredible!” We’d walk around going, “Wow, we’ve really made it. Dave, look at this. This must be huge.” And then the crew would be like, “Oh no, this is small budget.” [Laughs] That was so cool, Next Goal Wins, and I’m really glad Taika made it. I’m proud of that film, and I love that we got to hang out with Michael Fassbender; he’s such a lovely man.

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