Taika Waititi Calls New Zealand “Racist As F—” And Talks About His Adaptation Of ‘Akira’

Everyone loves Taika Waititi. It’s true. Even if you aren’t necessarily a fan of his films, watch an interview with the filmmaker, and it’s quite obvious that the New Zealand-born creator is one of the more honest people working at his level. He gets away with his honesty because he usually peppers that honesty amongst some lighthearted comments and jokes.

Well, in a recent interview with Dazed, the director brings his signature honesty when talking about his home country but doesn’t soften his words with any jokes. That’s because Waititi is talking about just how racist New Zealand is.

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“Nah, it’s racist as fuck. I mean, I think New Zealand is the best place on the planet, but it’s a racist place. People just flat-out refuse to pronounce Maori names properly. There’s still profiling when it comes to Polynesians. It’s not even a color thing – like, ‘Oh, there’s a black person.’ It’s, ‘If you’re Poly then you’re getting profiled,’” says the “Thor: Ragnarok” director.

In the interview, Waititi discusses New Zealand alongside fellow Kiwi Ruban Nielson, from the indie band Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Nielson continues Waititi’s thought by saying that he actually found his brown skin was accepted more in the United States than in his native home.

Waititi continues, “People in Auckland are very patronizing. They’re like, ‘Oh, you’ve done so well, haven’t you? For how you grew up. For one of your people.’”

However, it wasn’t also racism being discussed in the article. The interviewer also asks about one of Waititi’s more high-profile projects (hopefully) coming in the future, the live-action adaptation of the Japanese Manga (turned animated film), “Akira.”

“I haven’t really started to get my head around it yet. What I wanted to do was an adaptation of the books, ’cos a lot of people are like, ‘Don’t touch that film!’ and I’m like, ‘I’m not remaking the film, I want to go back to the book.’ A lot of the people freaking out haven’t even read the books, and there are six gigantic books to go through. It’s so rich. But [the anime] Akira is one of my favorite films; my mum took me to see it when I was 13 and it changed my life,” says Waititi.