He added: “They can’t stand being in such big franchises. They get depressed when they’re done. Sure, they make millions, but that doesn’t satisfy them creatively.”
While in his hotel room for the Chicago junket, Waititi says he couldn’t find a film on TV that’d keep him glued for two hours. Like you’d expect from indie talent, Waititi and Horsley were overwhelmed by the grandeur of Chicago’s Four Seasons setting.
“It’s surreal,” Horsley said. “Right before this interview, we were running around the room – doing laps – and laughing at how huge it is. About 0.1 percent of people actually live like this.”
“I don’t feel like a star at all,” Waititi said. “I feel like a guy in a band just starting out. I feel like a Beverly Hillbilly. Soon we’ll return to New Zealand and go back to paying rent in our little apartment with five other people. We’ll be fighting over bills.”
While many Americans who aren’t rich could quickly figure out what to do with gobs of dough if it fell from the sky, Horsley says she can’t conceive of how to handle millions of dollars. For Waititi, he says living life ideally would be making films like this, traveling, frequenting the festival circuit, viewing evocative films, and making just enough loot to pay the man. He says his films don’t have to tip the scales so long as people connect with his message.
Beyond box office receipts as a barometer of a film’s success, Waititi understands that the mark of a good film is one that is timeless. When asked what he thinks Eagle vs. Shark will look like in 30 years, he said, “Its feeling is already clumsy and archaic. The technology is already obsolete. Setting it here and now automatically dates it.”
Rather than a fine wine maturing with age, Horsley said, “It’s more like a strange cheese. While you don’t know if it’ll mold or dissolve, it will be delicious.”
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