It’s no secret that Donald Trump is obsessed with his appearance. However, when it comes to his onscreen presence, the former president would go to any length to ensure his appearance is nothing but perfect, according to New Zealand Filmmaker Taika Waititi. While filming the 2012 SuperBowl Ad, the then- The Apprentice star had a bizarre “list of demands,” recalled Waititi.
While speaking on the SmartLess podcast , Waititi revealed Trump had weird demands for the commercial, Brotherhood of Man , which was supposed to be aired during SuperBowl 2012, reported Business Insider. Apparently, the 77-year-old wasn’t the only face of the advert. The network approached characters from NBC’s other hit series like The Office , 30 Rock , Saturday Night Live , and more.
The Republican front-runner was part of The Apprentice then, and Waititi directed the commercial. The filmmaker told the podcast host, “I directed Trumpy. There was a piece of paper with a list of demands. The height of the camera had to be a certain height to make him look a little thinner.”
“Oh f**k!” podcast host Jason Bateman responded. Waititi continued, “I think it had like a sort of, whatever the Pantone of orange was that he had to appear as on screen.” Co-host, Sean Hayes, exclaimed, “Wow.” The filmmaker continued, “There was also a sort of like a make-up person who was also his ego booster,” who would “touch him and say, ‘Oh Mr. Trump, oh Mr. Trump, you look fantastic.'”
Prior to his political stint, Trump starred in NBC’s show, The Apprentice, which aired from 2004 to 2017. Waititi shot the advert in 2011 before he ventured into Hollywood as the director of Thor: Ragnarok. Waititi won an Oscar for his New Zealand hits, Eagle vs. Shark and Boy.
While discussing his work in high-profile films that got him fame in the Marvel orbit, Waititi said, “You know what? I had no interest in doing one of those films. It wasn’t on my plan for my career as an auteur. But I was poor, and I’d just had a second child, and I thought, ‘You know what, this would be a great opportunity to feed these children.'”
As for the Republican candidate, The Apprentice made Trump visible in the TV industry. The hit show turned him into an overnight star, and he cashed millions of dollars. According to The New York Times report, the presidential hopeful was nearly bankrupt before the show happened in 2004, per CNN. “Divorced for the second time, and coming off the failure of his Atlantic City casinos, Mr. Trump faced escalating money problems and the prospect of another trip to bankruptcy court.”
The reports also claimed Trump was awarded a 50% share of the show’s profits. And these incomes made a substantial difference- In 2005 alone, he earned $47.8 million from the TV program. However, the White House spokesperson denounced this report, calling it “fake” and “yet another politically motivated hit piece full of inaccurate smears.”