In a new episode of Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes’ Smartless podcast, director and actor Taika Waititi revealed juicy and entirely typical details about his experience working with ex-president Donald Trump on a 2012 NBC Super Bowl featurette entitled “Brotherhood of Man.”
“I directed Trumpy,” Waititi giggled. “There was a piece of paper with a list of demands,” Waititi said, when Bateman asked if Trump had any on-set “specifications.”
Trump had a helper present who flattered him constantly, Waititi explained. “He had a sort of like a make-up person who was also his ego booster. So she would like, touch him up and say ‘Oh Mr. Trump, oh Mr. Trump, you look fantastic.’”
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“[The camera] had to be a certain height to make him look a little thinner,” Waititi added. “I think it had like a sort of, whatever the pantone of orange was that he had to appear as on screen.”
In the musical spot, which features both Trump and disgraced former NBC anchor Matt Lauer, the casts of the network’s top programs at the time—The Office, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, Community and Smash—sing and dance their way through the track after which the commercial is titled.
Ironically, given Trump’s presence, the song is from the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Trump appears in “Brotherhood” for a split second, right before Lauer, who was fired in 2017 over allegations of inappropriate workplace sexual behavior, shows up on screen.
The former president points straight into the camera and simply sings, “You.”
