Taika Waititi has directed a lot of projects in his career, and thus, a lot of actors — including ex-president Donald Trump. And apparently, Trump had a “list of demands” that included a specific height for the camera that would be more flattering.
Appearing on this week’s episode of the “Smartless” podcast, hosted by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, Waititi and Arnett reminisced about an old Super Bowl featurette, which brought together all the NBC shows at the time. Looking back on that video, Waititi was tickled when he remembered that that included “The Apprentice.”
“You know who else was in that? Donald Trump. I directed Trumpy,” Waititi said with a chuckle.
At that, Bateman asked if Trump had “a set of specifications” that Waititi had to adhere to as the director of the spot.
“Yep, there was a list! There was a piece of paper with a list of demands,” he recalled.
And apparently, among that list of demands was not only how tall the camera had to be, but also what kind of lighting Trump had to have.
“[The camera] had to be a certain height to make him look a little thinner,” Waititi said. “I think it had like a sort of, whatever the pantone of orange was that he had to appear as on-screen.”
Waititi added that Trump also had his own personal hype woman, who would maintain that particular orangeness.
“He had a sort of like a make-up person who was also his ego booster,” Waititi mocked. “So she would like, touch him up and say ‘Oh Mr. Trump, oh Mr. Trump, you look fantastic.’”
You can listen to Waititi’s full appearance on “Smartless” here.