Taika Waititi "didn’t feel uncomfortable" playing Adolf Hitler in ‘Jojo Rabbit’.
The 44-year-old director took on the role of the Nazi dictator in his new movie and Taika admitted he is surprised by how the movie is "weirdly relevant" in 2019, years after he wrote it.
He told Deadline: "I didn’t feel that uncomfortable, other than having to see myself in a mirror. But apart from that, I don’t want to say that I enjoyed it.
"Nazis weren’t cool when I wrote it. People weren’t into this sh*t when I wrote it, and now it’s just developed and suddenly weirdly relevant."
The film follows a young German boy, Jojo Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis), who is such a devotee of the Hitler youth, that his imaginary friend is Hilter.
Thomasin McKenzie – who plays a Jewish fugitive in the movie – praised the film for holding up a mirror to the rise of the white supremacists around the world.
She said: "That happens quite a lot, I find, where films come out and they weirdly reflect or are like a mirror to what’s actually going on in the real world. Which is why, for me, film is such an important medium. Because people are able to see things from a different perspective, and think about them in a different way. So in that kind of way, film is such an amazing piece of magic or treasure that is really valuable."
The movie – which also stars Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, Scarlett Johansson and Stephen Merchant – was a huge hit with audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival where it picked up the Grolsch People’s Choice Award.
Taika Waititi wasn’t uncomfortable playing Hitler in Jojo Rabbit
