Taika Waititi’s Hitler In ‘Jojo Rabbit’ Was Inspired By The Fonz

It’s a story as previous as time: the younger New Zealand filmmaker who goes from making an Oscar-nominated quick movie to enjoying a vampire to becoming a member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as each a director and actor (together with a task within the highest-grossing film of all-time) to portraying the chief of the Nazi occasion.

In his World War II satire Jojo Rabbit, Taika Waititi performs Adolph Hitler, or extra particularly, a buffoonish depiction of Hitler as imagined by a 10-year-old boy (Roman Griffin Davis). “Well, I was trying to make him the Fonz of 1945,” he instructed the Los Angeles Times. “It never felt like a danger because Hitler is just an access point into this kid who’s brainwashed. I guarantee you there were kids who fell asleep talking to an imaginary Hitler in the 1930s and 1940s.”

He factors to the film’s opening credit sequence, which juxtaposes Jojo working off to summer time camp to the sound of The Beatles singing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in German with footage of early Nazi rallies. “I looked at those documentaries and it just came to me: Hitler was the Beatles of the time in Germany. It was like Beatlemania, the way people responded.” (Via)

No surprise Disney fears Jojo Rabbit is simply too “edgy” (ugh) for its family-friendly model. It’s not too edgy for his Waititi’s mother, although. “My mother comes and visits the set, this little Jewish woman from New Zealand, and I’m dressed like Hitler,” he stated. “And the first time she sees me, she says, ‘Oh darling, you look great.’ If you’re wondering where my humor comes from, there’s your answer.”

Jojo Rabbit comes out October 18.

(Via the Los Angeles Times)