As famous as an actor as he is as a director, and also a celebrated comedian, Taika David Cohen, better known as Taika Waititi, couldn't be having a better time. While preparing what will be his version of a new Star Wars movie that will hit screens around the world in 2026, he has had the pleasure of finally being able to release The Worst Team in the World, which he filmed before the pandemic. A satire about how the American Samoa team managed to recover after the 31-0 defeat against Australia in 2001 thanks to the help of Thomas Rongen, a Dutch coach who arrives exiled to the American island. The film features Michael Fassbender himself in the lead role. In addition, Waititi has two miniseries awaiting release, including an adaptation of Terry Gilliam's The Heroes of Time, and is the producer of the successful series What We Do in the Shadows, which will premiere its sixth season next year.
What fascinated you about the Samoan team with the worst defeat in football history?
I love a good underdog story, and it's hard to find a better one than this one: a team that no one believes in, that has never scored a goal, that has never won a game in the country's history, and that suffered the worst loss in history. as long as football can remember, 31-0 against Australia, and everything that that generated. But as they say, never let the truth get in the way of telling a good story, so I've certainly taken some liberties in telling what happened. If the audience is interested in the real story, they can watch the documentary that was made on the subject. To tell it as a fiction, we have changed some players, and the order in which some events occurred, always in search of a better cinematographic experience. Still, at its core, it's the same story. The documentary is certainly very good, because it talks about the demons, shame and embarrassment that many of the players have been living with until Thomas Rongen, the new technical director, appears. I think he also had the demons in him, accepting such a difficult job as trying to lift the spirits of a team like this.
To what extent is Michael Fassbender's character important to the story?
Very important. I love the idea of someone arriving on the island, assuming they know nothing about anything. He is a man who has traveled the world and played with the best. He is trained in the old school of football. The idea that he comes to the island to save this team and then he's the one who gets saved by the island. I thought it was a very interesting idea.
What surprised you about Michael?
I always heard that he was a funny man, but it didn't seem that way because of the characters he has always played. He also didn't think he was a kind person, something everyone who knew him also told me. I am used to working with friends, and Michael became one of them very quickly. He made me enjoy going to set every day. I thought it was so funny that I later wrote to his agent and told her that I had to ban him from doing dramas.
Why did you decide to film it in Hawaii and not Samoa?
It's very simple, in American Samoa there is no infrastructure to make a film. We should have brought a good part of the equipment, and Hawaii does have an industry because series and movies are regularly made there. Those who made the documentary are also producers of this film, and they visited me in 2015 in Hawaii when I was starting to write the script. They were the ones who told me that the landscape is very similar and they did spend a lot of time in American Samoa. But I also have a personal relationship with Hawaii. My daughter was born here. I lived in Hawaii for many years. It is a meeting point between the United States and New Zealand. I feel at home.
Was it very difficult to find Samoan actors who knew how to play soccer?
It wasn't that difficult, because everyone has played it at some point in their life. Even I did it when I was a kid, although I was never good at it. For this film, finding actors who could play wasn't that complicated, because it wasn't what I was looking for. In fact, the worse they were, the better for the film, although for the last scenes we needed them to at least play it decently. I was more interested in whether they could act or be funny. I hired a good number of New Zealand actors because there is a large Samoan community there. I have grown up and acted with them, and there are some who are very good actors. We found the rest in Hawaii, particularly the extras, because there are a lot of Samoans there too.
Were they all this easy?
No. One of the most complicated roles was that of Jaiyah, the trans player, because in Samoan culture it works in a different way. She is usually the youngest child in a family, and they grow up identifying with the female gender because they do many of the tasks usually associated with women, and at a certain age they go through a transition and are accepted as women. In the documentary she is there, her name is Jaiyah and she is part of the team. She was an important part of that story and also of ours. It was important to me to hire a trans actress who was Samoan. And above all things, that she was a good actress. Finally we found Kaimana. I couldn't have been happier with her. An interesting moment in the film is when Michael tries to understand what it is, and it is his Samoan assistant who explains to him that they are part of the culture, and that there is no right way to describe them. They are what they are and have always been part of Samoan culture, and they have a sacred role within the community. The interesting thing is that this character does not have an identity crisis, she knows perfectly well who she is and the same thing happens with the rest of the team in her relationship with her. It is Michael's character who has to understand and accept that it is normal in this culture.
How much do you know about football?
The truth is that I made a film about a sport that I know nothing about. Obviously I've watched the World Cup matches when I was younger. I like that, but I never followed any team. Mine is rugby, which is the national sport in New Zealand. But football is growing a lot there. And I learned to appreciate it by making this movie. I used to think that football revolved around people pretending to be hurt and rolling on the floor all the time. But I discovered that when there are good players, football can be like a ballet.
In the documentary, one of the most interesting figures is the goalkeeper who scored 31 goals....
Nicky Salapu. In our story we find that character many years after that defeat, but in real life Nicky moved to Seattle and was ashamed of those 31 goals. He had an It was his way of dealing with what happened...
What would you say is the message of the film?
That sometimes you have to give up. You have to accept how things are and stop fighting, especially when you are dealing with emotional trauma. Sometimes it's no use trying to hold on to what you had, your old glories. It's okay to give up and be vulnerable. That's what happens to me when I'm in Hawaii. There is no way to fight mosquitoes. You know there is no way to win because there are 5 billion mosquitoes on the island. Instead of spending all day trying to kill them it's better to give up, get a mosquito net and try to survive them...
He mentioned the demons of Michael Fassbender's character. What are yours?
I think they are the same ones that many directors have, the doubts that one has when trying to complete a project. That the idea you have had could be terrible. Or that one day you're going to trip and do something so bad that it's going to end your career, or that in the middle of filming you're going to realize that it was a bad idea. I think most of my demons have to do with creativity and being an artist, because one of my biggest fears is losing my creativity or not having the energy to translate my ideas. That's why I prefer my shoots to be short. Many times I create obstacles for myself on purpose, because that forces me to think of alternatives. That's why I prefer smaller films to big ones, where it seems like everything is easy and they give you everything figured out. It's just that when things are too easy for me I get nervous and doubt everything.
What led you to leave New Zealand behind?
I had a lot of freedom there, I could do whatever I wanted, but there was a limit to what I could achieve, and I also wanted to work with certain people, which led me to film in the United States. There I have been able to collaborate with very intelligent people, with incredible artists. Getting so many opportunities took years of work and now they always come my way, but I don't know how long this will last. That's why I want to take advantage of the moment, using all the avenues that open up to me to do the best job possible. I spent 30 or 35 years without making money. Only recently have I been able to earn well and have more control over what I do. It's a comfortable situation I have, and I enjoy it. Above all, because it doesn't feel like work.
