The underdog soccer comedy’s real-life characters team coach Thomas Rogen and Jaiyah Saelua, the first transgender football player in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match, basked in applause from the TIFF audience.
Seems like an uplifting story that could help educate people about how trans is a normal thing in some parts of the world, theyve always existed.
And then I saw Arnie Hammer was going to be in this until he was pushed out ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“That’s the most interesting part of the story,” Waititi said in a post-screening Q&A as he introduced Jaiyah, the striker for the true-life American Samoa soccer team that infamously lost a game in 2001 by 31-0, and who is played in the film by Kaimana.
“You spun my head around a few times in this film,” Rongen told Waititi about Fassbender’s portrayal in Next Goal Wins, which was only loosely based on the Dutch coach in real life.
Based on a 2014 British documentary of the same name from Mike Brett and Steve Jamison, Next Goal Wins follows the national football team of American Samoa and their coach as they try to transform from perennial losers into a FIFA World Cup-qualifying outfit.
Waititi stressed his latest movie had to be authentic, including representing Jaiyah as a Fa’afafine, which in American Samoan culture are people who have fluid genders that move between the male and female worlds, and illustrate how two spirits can exist in one person.
The JoJo Rabbit director said representing a transgender soccer player in Next Goal Wins underlined how the Fa’afafine are common and treated as a normal part of the American Samoan culture.
Next Goal Wins was originally set to open in April 2023, but had to undergo reshoots when Armie Hammer exited the project after the actor was accused by multiple women of sexual assault.
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