Rhys Darby in Our Flag Means Death, streaming on Neon. NZH 04Mar22 -
Rhys Darby in Our Flag Means Death, streaming on Neon. NZH 04Mar22 -
Stede Bonnet was a pirate. But a nice one. He was so nice, in fact, that he earned the not-at-all terrifying name of "the Gentleman Pirate".
Before deciding to become a pirate Bonnet had been a wealthy landowner living quietly on the island of Barbados with his wife and three sons. Lacking meaning in his life and, according to Wikipedia, desperate to escape his nagging wife, he bought a ship and just … sailed away, leaving everything behind to begin a new life of crime upon the high seas.
As far as mid-life crises go, it's one of the greats. Especially when you consider that Bonnet didn't know the first thing about sailing, pillaging or plundering when he shipped out.
"I admire him for taking that risk and following his dream," Taika Waititi says over Zoom. "The way he went about it is questionable."
Taika Waititi as Blackbeard in Our Flag Means Death, streaming on Neon.
Bonnet is the real-life inspiration of Waititi and Rhys Darby's new comedy series Our Flag Means Death, which is now streaming on Neon and begins screening on Prime later this month. Darby stars as the well-to-do Bonnet, giving the character a boyish sense of adventure and wide-eyed enthusiasm for his fanciful notion of what pirate life is.
Bonnet's story is remarkable thus far but by jolly roger does it gets better. Shortly after his abrupt career change Bonnet struck up an unlikely friendship with the notorious pirate Blackbeard leading to the pair sailing together. In Our Flag Means Death Waititi plays Blackbeard as a grizzled man disenchanted with success.
"He's a very tortured middle-aged man who is questioning everything he's done in his life," Waititi says. "I can relate."
Rhys Darby in Our Flag Means Death, streaming on Neon.
As well as being very funny the show is also very much about dealing with mid-life malaise as both characters try to escape their respective funks, albeit in very different ways.
"I don't know if you ever get out of that funk. Every couple of days I question, 'Why am I here? Am I following my true path?' " Waititi muses. "And then I go jump in my swimming pool and I think 'I'm all right'."
He laughs and then continues.
"But I think a lot of people do get that feeling and a lot of the show is about that. I don't think anyone's brave enough to do what Stede did and upend their entire life and go out seeking adventure. Very few people make a giant change like that. I think for a lot of people the truth of what's actually out there and what you're sacrificing is pretty brutal."
Taika Waititi in Our Flag Means Death from HBO and streaming on Neon.
"The big things are never one thing," Darby adds. "It's way more complex than that."
"Yeah, with Stede it's his childhood and who he became," agrees Waititi. "It all stems from what you see in the first episode; who he was told he was by his father, 'You'll be nothing but a stinking little rich kid'."
"And he never chose that. He didn't get to choose anything," continues Darby. "In those days, especially for the aristocracy, it was all, 'you're gonna do this'. He never made a decision in his life so he decided to make one decision. It was one hell of a decision, saying, 'I'm leaving all of this! I want adventure. I want to feel alive,' and then doing it. You've got to take your hat off to that. If you strip everything else away, just that human soul deciding to break free."
Fred Armisen and Rhys Darby in Our Flag Means Death, streaming on Neon.
Having drifted into interesting waters I decide to sail into the wind and ask what fanciful notion or folly would it take for the pair to follow Stede's lead and leave it all behind.
"Leave my life?" Darby asks, surprised. "Well, I've been breaking free from the beginning. I decided not to stay where I was, not to follow anyone else's rules and to just make up my own world. I did it because I felt right from the beginning that I shouldn't even be here. I was a mistake and Dad didn't want me so I was like, 'well, I don't want this'. I decided I was going to reach for whatever I could and along the way make as many friends as I could and make as many people laugh as I could because that's the one thing I was good at. So I just hit the road and ran with it."
"I felt very independent since I was very, very young in the sense that I didn't trust grown-ups," Waititi says, following on. "I didn't trust that they were very good at either looking after you or leading you along the right path in life. I felt sometimes you're just better off looking after yourself. I had something to prove. I wanted to prove to the adults that I was worthwhile and that I could do something with myself. And I've been doing that ever since."
Quietly, he adds, "I'm still hung up on grown-ups telling me what to do. I hate grown-ups."
Taika Waititi as Blackbeard in Our Flag Means Death, streaming on Neon.
For a moment the mood is still and their words hang in the air like a pirate flag without a breeze. Perhaps sensing dark clouds on the horizon Darby breaks the silence with a cheery gust of his characteristic boyish perk.
"Yeah, I agree," he beams, before grinning. "I hate grown-ups so I'm never gonna be one."
Clearly buoyed by his castmate, and real-life old mate, Waititi smiles.
"Nah," he says.
THE LOWDOWN Who: Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby. What: New pirate comedy series Our Flag Means Death. When: Weekly episodes streaming on Neon, begins on Prime Thursday, March 17.
