I’m so clueless.
I follow Liverpool, I’ll watch the big games, but I don’t tune in every week.
And I’m not much good at playing it either."
‘Next Goal Wins’.Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Searchlight Pictures
“I loved the dynamic between the coach and the team and just seeing island life on film.
Waititi recalls that the Irishman “was off in Europe, racing Porsches or something.
I called him up, and he was in his hotel bed with a glass of champagne.
Kaimana and Michael Fassbender in ‘Next Goal Wins’.Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Searchlight Pictures
‘Look, I was going to take the year off, but I love the script.’
So, he decided to do it.”
EW assumes the filmmaker is joking about the champagne, but apparently not.
“Yeah, that’s true,” Fassbender says.
“I don’t know why I was drinking a glass of champagne.
I think I was just trying to make an impression.”
Explaining why he signed on to the movie, the actor says he was “enchanted by the story.
The American Samoa team just kept getting up and striving.
I found that infectious.”
Saelua explains, “The literal translation of the word is ‘in the manner of a woman.’
“This just happened out of the blue,” she says.
“The casting call was going around the Polynesian connection.
A lot of my family and friends were bugging me about trying out for this role.
And now I’m here!”
Waititi recalls that successfully casting the role of Selua was a crucial part of making the film.
“Youre trying to check off these very specific but necessary aspects of the character.
After a couple of scenes, Michael was like, ‘She’s really good.'”
The soccer star says she was “extremely happy that it turned out to be what it is.”
Kaimana, meanwhile, believes Fassbender would “100 percent” make a good soccer coach in real life.
“I still call him coach.
I dont call him Mike or Michael.
Hes my coach!”
Next Goal Winsis now playing in theaters.
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