I think something that every actor wants, whether they've done four movies or forty movies, is they want to find the work interesting. You want to come to work and think this is going to be a challenge.
Taika WaititiRead
I did roles that I hated, and there were roles that were detrimental to my acting ability. There were roles that I was always doing that were always the comic relief... it was destroying my soul.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the struggle of an artist facing roles that hinder their true potential and creativity.
Taika Waititi speaks to the experience of an actor who has taken on roles that do not resonate with them personally, particularly those that serve only as comic relief. This experience not only undermines their artistic integrity but also is described as harmful to their spirit, highlighting the importance of pursuing meaningful and fulfilling work in one’s creative journey.
In practice
Use this quote during a discussion about the challenges actors face in Hollywood.
I think something that every actor wants, whether they've done four movies or forty movies, is they want to find the work interesting. You want to come to work and think this is going to be a challenge.
If someone asked, 'What are your films like?,' the best I can come up with is that they're, like, a fine balance between comedy and drama. And they deal mainly with the clumsiness of humanity.
I'm not interested in doing work that doesn't captivate me.
People overcoming the odds is actually a really important part of humanity, and I don't think we kind of get to celebrate that as much as we should.
The stuff I'm passionate about is what I write; it isn't multi-million-dollar franchise movies.
I love films that make you feel something but also deliver that payload behind jokes.
I'm not a playwright. The people in my songs are all me.
If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.
The big catalyst was seeing my sister, when I was 11, doing a dramatic recital. When I saw her on the stage and everyone listening to her so patiently, quietly, that's all I wanted: for someone to look at me and listen to me, but in some beautiful and artistic way.
...imagine what you are writing about. See it and live it. Do not think it up laboriously, as if you were working out mental arithmetic. Just look at it, touch it, smell it, listen to it, turn yourself into it. When you do this, the words look after themselves, like magic.
Art is the most beautiful deception of all!
A girl’s got to use what she’s given and I’m not going to make a guy drool the way a Britney video does. So I take it to extremes. I don’t say I dress sexily on stage - what I do is so extreme. It’s meant to make guys think: ‘I don’t know if this is sexy or just weird.
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