'Jojo Rabbit' trivia and fun facts
Waititi as Hitler
When Taika Waititi, who is Maori/Jewish, was asked about why he chose to play the role of Adolf Hitler he said "The answer's simple, what better 'fuck you' to the guy?"
Stylish war
Taika Waititi discovered in his research that WWII Germany was very vibrant and fashionable, and was interested in shying away from traditional war films showing it as dreary and dark, instead presenting the town as a seemingly celebratory place and dressing characters as stylishly as possible. He liked the idea that everything seems happy, but just underneath the surface "the third Reich is crumbling, and, you know, the dream is over."
Based on a novel
The film is based on the the novel 'Caging Skies' by author Christine Leunens.
English and German
Even though the spoken dialogue is all in English, all written or printed text in the movie is in German.
Toronto Film Festival
The film triumphed at the 2019 Toronto Film Festival by winning the Audience Award.
For his mum
Taika Waititi described the film as a love letter to his mother, and single parents everywhere: "It wasn't until I was a grown up and I had kids of my own that I realized 'oh, these parent people, they make a lot of sacrifices, it's really hard raising a kid!'"
Together again
Scarlett Johansson and Taika Waititi also starred together in "Avengers: Endgame"