Comes From Upbringing Podcast With Brad Gilmore

NEXT GOAL WINS also introduces Kaimana as Jaiyah, the team’s striker, who is really the most influential person on the island. Jaiyah is Fa’afafine, which in American Samoan culture are people who have fluid genders that move between male and female worlds, showing two spirits in one person that coexist. “It is a sacred part of their culture, it is just accepted,” explains Waititi.NEXT GOAL WINS is Kaimana’s acting debut, as she steps into the shoes of Jaiyah Saelua, the world’s first transgender football player in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match. Kaimana drew upon individual and collective personal stories to bind the two Fa’afafine into one powerful, singular performance.Kaimana was the only actor to meet their real-life counterpart and she gives insight on how she is inextricably connected to Jaiyah. “There wasn’t a need to divorce myself between the real Jaiyah and the character in the film because we are so similar,” she recalls. “It was actually the tool that I used to guide me through it.” Jaiyah doe