Taika Waititi Reveals Ridiculous “List of Demands” While Shooting Donald Trump’s 2012 NBC Ad
The Oscar-winning writer-director/actor Taika Waititi is known for his amazing filmography, which includes names like Jojo Rabbit, Thor: Ragnarok, Our Flag Means Death, Thor: Love and Thunder, What We Do in the Shadows, and many more. However, many did not know that he once actually had to direct former POTUS Donald Trump for a Super Bowl commercial.
Donald Trump’s whole career, especially his presidency, has been shrouded in controversy. Recently, in a podcast, Taika Waititi gave a glimpse into Donald Trump’s antics by listing down all the demands that he had while he was on set.
Taika Waititi reveals all the ridiculous demands made by Donald Trump during NBC’s 2012 Brotherhood of Man commercial
The former president, who was at the time the host of the US version of the show The Apprentice, was asked to make an appearance in the NBC Brotherhood of Man commercial that aired for the 46th Super Bowl. It was quite a star-studded commercial as he was making an appearance alongside Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey (30 Rock), Steve Carell (The Office), and Lauren Graham (Parenthood). However, according to Taika Waititi, it was Trump who had the most demands on set.
During his recent interview on the SmartLess podcast, hosted by actors Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes, Taika Waititi opened up about the outrageous demands that Trump made by saying:
“I directed Trumpy. There was a piece of paper with a list of demands. The height of the camera had to be a certain height to make him look a little thinner.”
He also joked by saying:
“I think it had whatever the Pantone for orange was that he had to appear as on screen. He had a makeup person who was also his ego booster and she would touch him up and say, ‘Oh, Mr Trump, oh Mr Trump.’”
In the commercial promo, the cast from all the hit shows on the NBC network are seen singing Brotherhood of Man from the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
What else did Taika Waititi say on the SmartLess Podcast?
Taika Waititi’s interview on the SmartLess podcast was quite a bombshell for many. The biggest blow was taken by Marvel fans when the director admitted that he had “no interest” in doing the Thor movies and only did so because he was “poor.”
“I had no interest in doing one of those films. It wasn’t on sort of like my whole plan for my career as an auteur. But I was poor and I’d just had a second child, and I thought, ‘You know what? This would be a great opportunity to feed these children.’”
Also Read: Taika Waititi Reveals He Joined Marvel as He Was Poor: “I’d just had a second child”
The director also added that when he was a kid, he had no interest in Thor comics and even termed it the “least popular” in the franchise.
“‘Thor,’ let’s face it, it was probably the least popular franchise. I never read ‘Thor’ comics as a kid. That was the comic I’d picked up and be like ‘Ugh,’” Waititi said. “And then I did some research on it, and I read one ‘Thor’ comic or 18 pages, or however long they are. I was still baffled by this character.”
He continued on how he thought Marvel was at their wit’s end when they called on him:
“I think there was no place left for them to go with that. I thought, ‘Wow, they’ve called me in, this is really the bottom of the barrel.”
However, he did say he had a fun time and therefore returned to the franchise to direct his second Thor movie, Thor: Love and Thunder. He also admitted recently to Business Insider that he would not probably be associated with the production of Thor 5.
Taika Waititi will be working on a lot of projects in the upcoming five to six years, the biggest among them being Disney’s Star Wars movie. He is also working on the big-screen adaptation of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s graphic novel The Incal and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun.
