{"id":603704,"date":"2026-09-17T23:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T23:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/603704\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T23:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T23:20:11","slug":"taika-waititi-talks-rita-ora-and-new-zealand-film-plans-on-ryan-bridge-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/603704\/","title":{"rendered":"Taika Waititi talks Rita Ora and New Zealand film plans on Ryan Bridge TODAY"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bridge told Waititi that when his friends moved to the popular fringe suburb, they were asked if it was to the \u201cRita Ora<\/a> end or the K\u0101inga Ora end?\u201d, prompting hearty laughter from his passenger.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my God,\u201d Waititi said on hearing his singer-songwriter wife of four years\u2019 name.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t even figure into the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ora loved spending time in New Zealand, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe goes to Pilates over at Sala, she just wanders about \u2026 she gets away from everyone in the world and just comes here and thrives and rests.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TaikaTaika Waititi is one of New Zealand’s most successful film-makers. Photo \/ AP<\/p>\n

As for him, he was \u201chealthy, happy\u201d but touched on a dark note as he and Bridge sang along to Ora\u2019s I Will Never Let You Down.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat messaging \u2026 fantastic, because I\u2019ve been let down a lot in my life,” Waititi said, name-checking Inland Revenue and the education system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t taught tax<\/a> at school. And it comes to bite you in those first few years after high school and you go and get a job and they\u2019re like, \u2018Would you like to pay tax? It\u2019s optional. Pay as you go if you want\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou spend a good four or five years not paying tax, and then it really comes back to bite you. If there are any young people out there, pay your tax.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hunt for the Wilderpeople writer-director\u2019s focus was now on the Auckland studio he bought with Jason Momoa and Cliff Curtis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to \u2026 bring all my projects and films and stuff, within reason, to New Zealand so I can be in the country I love, work with the people I love.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"RyanRyan Bridge and Taika Waititi canvassed a range of subjects as they drove around Auckland this week. Photo \/ Corey Fleming<\/p>\n

The driver for his career was that he\u2019d \u201calways loved stories\u201d, Waititi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s sort of what\u2019s driven me through most of my stuff, creatively, just wanting to be able to reach people, touch people and maybe just make a little change, make them think slightly differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch the video for the full interview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bridge told Waititi that when his friends moved to the popular fringe suburb, they were asked if it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[95,1565,297481,297482,234106,1061,8127,156,593,31405,1644,5620,297483,194,424,225067,11228,5971,117,111,139,69,90,23544,2171,161552,5128,29715,301,93954,1865,37105,80],"class_list":["post-603704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-and","tag-bridge","tag-canvassed","tag-carpool","tag-chevalier","tag-children","tag-end","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-filmmaker","tag-financial","tag-interview","tag-karaokestyle","tag-kiwi","tag-life","tag-lighthearted","tag-literacy","tag-need","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-ora","tag-plans","tag-rita","tag-ryan","tag-taika","tag-talks","tag-taught","tag-today","tag-waititi","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}