Collider: To start with a silly question, Willis finds himself trapped in a police procedural.
TAIKA WAITITI: Definitely notSeverance.
I dont wanna be trapped in anything thats too cerebral or scary.
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MaybeMAS*Hwould be fun, but probably not even that.CHiPsseems fun.
CHARLES YU: I dont know, probablySuccession.
I wanna be a billionaire, so I think Ill just do that.
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But I wouldnt bother with the family.
WAITITI: Just take the money and go live somewhere else.
I didnt know if it would be for anyone else, to be honest.
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No ones gonna like this, but Ive gotta do it.
WAITITI: Weird is good.
Everything is so boring now.
‘Interior Chinatown’ premieres November 19 on Hulu.
Weird is good, but at the same time, weird is also particularly difficult to explain and market.
Is this the most impossible show to give a shot to describe to people?
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WAITITI: Oh, for sure.
You cant even believe how hard it is to pitch something like this.
Executives everywhere just want to know what its like.
Interior Chinatown, adapted from Charles Yu’s novel, follows Willis Wu, a background character in a TV police procedural. After witnessing a crime, he uncovers a criminal conspiracy in Chinatown and his family’s hidden past while exploring what it means to take the lead in his own story.
Im too lazy to write something or adapt something like that and make it work.
I give up very easily on things.
For me, I was like, Im glad I dont have to write this.
That was really fun for me, but also still difficult.
YU: Obviously, Taika is being modest.
Its such a hard thing to figure out how you take it from text to this.
That was a huge challenge and I learned a lot.
I dont know why you would make it so hard on yourself.
There are various subtle things that are done to play with reality versus the show within the show.
How did you want to approach that visually?
Was it always something you had a very clear idea for?
WAITITI: We knew that Willis world had to feel somewhat bland or just normal.
I dont know if that was the design, but thats also part of it.
That was just an ongoing conversation between myself, Mike Berlucchi, the DP, and Charles Yu.
We just wanted to be clear.
You need clarity and you cant be overly complicated because that confuses the audience.
Youve gotta keep it easier on yourself and so that its understandable for the audience.
There are a lot of little things that you will see on repeat viewings.
YU: There are some Easter eggs and little things in there.
YU: I was nervous to work with Taika, to be honest.
I was excited, but certainly wondered, Can I explain what I want?
Have I thought about it enough?
Really its about, how do you conjure a world of a show within a show?
Its one thing to jot down some sentences out and the reader does the work for you.
Its another thing to actually have somebody build that, and then shoot it and light it correctly.
I worried about whether it would translate.
Would people be along for the ride?
Would you care about Willis?
I think its a wonderful ensemble.
I love the cast.
But it starts by caring about this guys perspective as he shakes up the world.
How did you figure out the best way to approach the fight scenes?
WAITITI: I didnt think too deeply about it.
I just wanted to shoot a martial arts fight scene.
It was two days of just destroying the restaurant.
That was super fun.
There were lots of things that we experimented with and we tried different things.
Its just embracing the theatricality of those fights.
Theres an incredible heritage and a history of martial arts fight scenes.
Its a real art form.
I just loved having the opportunity to even give that a go.
YU: It was really fun to watch Taika and the team do that.
On the page, that was one page, and I think we shot probably about six minutes.
Its probably half that in the episode, but there was a whole bunch of stuff in there.
In the script, it was basically just, Willis starts to win, but then he loses.
And then, they shot that for two days.
The Taika Waititi-directed premiere debuts on Hulu on November 19.
Interior Chinatownis available to stream on Hulu.
Check out the trailer:
Watch on Hulu
