The 92nd Academy Awards took place on Sunday night, and they certainly brought quite a lot of unexpected moments along the way. For many, one pleasant surprise was beloved director and actor Taika Waititi winning the award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Jojo Rabbit. Long before Jojo Rabbit hit theaters, the What We Do in the Shadows and Thor: Ragnarok director had already established quite a fandom for himself, and that recently came in handy in a very specific way. A tweet from October of last year gained attention again on social media, in which someone declared that Waititi wasn’t going to win an Oscar, before calling him “Marvel boy”. In a now-viral tweet, Twitter user @mcuwaititi responded to the troll with three pictures of Waititi with his Oscar.
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https://t.co/EcTsR4j5gW pic.twitter.com/HbUtjoM7cv
— font guild founding member ♢ (@mcuwaititi) February 10, 2020
Waititi’s Oscar win delighted quite a lot of movie fans, especially given the nuance of the “anti-hate satire”. The film, which follows a young boy whose imaginary friend is Adolf Hitler (played by Waititi), proved to be an interesting conundrum for Waititi.
“I felt weird about it,” Waititi shared last year. “Even though the character in my film is not evil — he’s got a 10-year-old’s brain because he comes out of Jojo’s head — there’s elements to him that are shared with the actual guy.”
“I didn’t have to do any research, and I didn’t do any research,” Waititi said in another interview. “I didn’t base him on anything I’d seen about Hitler before. I just made him a version of myself that happened to have a bad haircut and a s***** little mustache. And a mediocre German accent. It would just be too weird to play the actual Hitler, and I don’t think people would enjoy the character as much. Because he was such a f*cking c**t, and everyone knows that as well. I think people have got to relate to really enjoy the ride.”
Jojo Rabbit also stars Roman Griffin Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Stephen Merchant, Alfie Allen, and Rebel Wilson. Read the official synopsis here:
“Writer-director Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok, Hunter for the Wilderpeople), brings his signature style of humor and pathos to his latest film, Jojo Rabbit, a World War II satire that follows a lonely German boy (Roman Griffin Davis) whose world view is turned upside down when he discovers his single mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a young girl (Thomasin McKenzie) in her attic. Aided only by his idiotic imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi), Jojo must confront his naive patriotism.”
Are you excited that Taika Waititi won an Oscar for Jojo Rabbit? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
