get out

Jordan Peele on 'Get Out,' the horror film about racism that Obama would love By Jen Yamato

"Get Out" director Jordan Peele at first didn't have high hopes that his horror-satire would get made. (Jay L.

Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Jordan Peele never thought his directorial debut "Get Out," a horror spin on

"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" for the post-Obama age, would ever

actually make it to the big screen.

"I said, 'You want to hear a cool story?'" the comedian-turned-filmmaker

says of his pitch to a producer years ago, teasing a thriller about an African

American man who goes home to meet his Caucasian girlfriend's parents

only to suspect insidious goings-on in her affluent liberal hometown. "The

caveat is: No one will make this movie.'"

Happily for Peele, 38, a comedy star best known for his sketch show "Key &

Peele," his run on "MADtv" and last year's "Keanu" movie, he was wrong.

With backing from QC Entertainment, Blumhouse Productions (the

company behind horror hits "Paranormal Activity" and most recently "Split")

and distribution from Universal Pictures, Peele turned the pitch into a script

filled with scares, laughs and searing social commentary about race and

racism in America.

Little Haley Joel Osment in ‘The Sixth Sense’ can see dead people. Well, I can see racist people.

Jordan Peele, writer-director of "Get Out"

Share quote & link

Wanting to make sure his vision for the film would come to life with the

nuance and edge it required, he made the leap to directing, a lifelong dream

for the cinephile. The result is a taut, unrelenting and frequently hilarious

horror-satire that's scored a rare 100% positive rating from critics on Rotten

Tomatoes, as well as raves from hip-hop luminaries like Chance the Rapper,

who recently hosted a private screening of the film in Hollywood.

With nods to paranoia classics like "The Stepford Wives" and "Rosemary's

Baby," Peele turns his lens on the "monster of racism" lurking in the

manicured suburbs. Like his predecessors and cinema idols, he exploits the

conventions of the horror genre to open a universal window into one of the

most marginalized voices in contemporary America: that of the young black

man.

"I'm so in awe of movies like 'Alien,' 'Aliens,' 'The Shining,' 'Edward

Scissorhands,' most [Steven] Spielberg films — entertaining, 'give the

audience what they want' movies," Peele said on a sunny afternoon in

downtown Los Angeles.

Growing up in New York, Peele would spend his nights obsessively poring

over the films of Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick and David Cronenberg, favoring

horror titles among his collection of more than 300 VHS movies.

"My friend and I would spend the better part of an evening figuring out what

to watch. While other teenagers were getting laid, I was just trying to decide

between 'Dead Again' and 'The First Power' for the third time."

But one of his favorite movies — Ridley Scott's "Thelma and Louise" — also

taught him how effectively film can open audiences to experiences outside

of their own.

" 'Thelma and Louise' was a pretty important film for me, and still is," Peele

said. "It's a social film about many things — gender, freedom — and it puts

someone like me into the place of these protagonists. Watching that movie,

you are living through the eyes of these women. It's an inspiring movie that

affected me so much. And until I saw it I wouldn't have guessed that it had

anything for me."

The trailer for "Get Out," written and directed by Jordan Peele.

"Get Out" puts its audience into the shoes of Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), a New

York City photographer who joins his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), on a

weekend trip home to meet her parents (Bradley Whitford and Catherine

Keener). He's apprehensive about how her family will react to their

interracial romance, despite her reassurances. ("My dad would vote for

Obama for a third term if he could," she insists.) But as odd encounters rack

up, he begins to wonder if the paranoia and fear is all in his head.

"Part of being black in this country, or being a minority in this country, is

about feeling like we're perceiving things that we're told we're not

perceiving," said Peele. "It's a state of mind. It's a piece of the condition of

being African American, certainly, that people may not know. They may not

realize the toll that it does take — even if the toll is making us doubt

ourselves."

"Little Haley Joel Osment in 'The Sixth Sense' can see dead people. Well, I

can see racist people," he chuckled, his smile fading to a more sober

expression. Although he couldn't have planned for its unexpectedly acute

real world relevance, "Get Out" arrives in theaters at a time of post-election

tumult and terror among the country's minority population under President

Trump's first two months in office.

"It's not impossible to think why someone might miss a deeper, darker,

crazy twist, because we do have this absurd actuality that we're dealing

with," he said.

British actor Daniel Kaluuya stars in "Get Out." (Justin Lubin / Universal Pictures)

This film is how racism feels. You get paranoid and

you can’t talk about it. You can’t voice it.

Daniel Kaluuya, star of "Get Out"

Share quote & link

He cast Kaluuya after watching the 27-year-old British actor's breakout turn

on an episode of "Black Mirror." Kaluuya was already a fan of Peele's

comedy work — he and Emily Blunt spent their downtime watching "Key

and Peele" in their trailers on the set of "Sicario," he remembers — but

found in Peele's script an urgency that reflected familiar trauma onto the

screen.

"That party sequence is why I really wanted to do this film, because I've

been to that party," Kaluuya said of a scene in which Chris politely navigates a series of white strangers whose pleasantries are edged with passive-

aggressive racist undertones.

Kaluuya, who got his start on the hit British series "Skins" and is currently

filming Marvel's "Black Panther" for "Creed" director Ryan Coogler, delivers

a nuanced performance that builds as the dread mounts. In one scene, his

wide, expressive eyes stream unblinking tears, conveying a horrifically

visceral feeling of physical and metaphorical powerlessness.

"This film is how racism feels," said Kaluuya. "You get paranoid and you can't talk about it. You can't voice it. No one around you gets it, so you can't

speak about it. And in the end it just comes out in a rage."

Director Jordan Peele is best known for the sketch comedy "Key & Peele." (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

You know Obama's got a devilish sense of humor. I know he'll love it. . . . I can't wait for Trump to see it, either.

Share quote & link

"Get Out" makes black lives matter far more than they traditionally have in

movies, particularly in the horror genre, simply by depicting the reality of

being a marginalized minority in white-dominated spaces.

"Those are the times you have to bite your lip, when an officer's

disrespecting you, in order to get by. In order to have freedom. In order to

not be strip searched. In order to not be imprisoned," said Kaluuya. "So you

circle at the party, having to smile, because if you stand up and want to go,

you're the troublemaker, you're the nuisance, because you are not playing

the game — you're not making everybody else feel comfortable."

"Get Out" premiered as a surprise screening in January at the prestigious

Sundance Film Festival, garnering glowing early reviews. The critical

acclaim and strong box office tracking, with reports expecting an opening

weekend take to quadruple the film's $5-million production budget, put

Peele's career as a multi-hyphenate filmmaker in a promising position.

"I've done enough time in sketch comedy where you know that you're going

to piss people off, and you know that that's not the end of the world, and

that that's OK," said Peele, who is developing several feature film thrillers

similarly built around contemporary social ills.

Emboldened by the recent successes of films and television show like

"Straight Outta Compton," Donald Glover's "Atlanta" and Issa Rae's

"Insecure," and the accomplishments of director Ava DuVernay helming

"Selma," "13 th

" and "A Wrinkle in Time," he sees change coming to a

Hollywood that has long resisted diversity.

"The theory that black doesn't sell overseas is . . . . We need to give more

diverse points of views the platforms to do good work. And I think part of

the key is for the underdogs to realize that this is a possible aspiration," said

Peele. "I want to produce untapped voices, find people and help them get

their platform."

Peele's push into directing comes at a time in America when socially

provocative mainstream fare has the potential to permeate the national

consciousness and drive vital conversations about race, inclusion and

empathy for otherness.

"I feel like we're entering a time now when it's not as much about being mad

as it is about being strategic," he said. "I believe Barack Obama when he

says progress isn't a straight line. We just have to mitigate the potential

damage and get through this together. I think art is going to play a huge

part in that."

To Peele's knowledge, former President Obama, who famously tapped his

comedy partner Keegan Michael Key to bring the duo's "Obama Anger

Translator" sketch to the 2015 White House Correspondents Dinner, hasn't

yet seen "Get Out" — although former first daughter Malia Obama was in

attendance at the film's Sundance premiere.

"You know Obama's got a devilish sense of humor," Peele grinned. "I know

he'll love it." He paused, his comedy senses tingling, teeing up a joke.

"I can't wait for Trump to see it, either. You know he definitely consumes content. He probably spends 10 hours a day watching news and Netflix," he

smiled. "He probably binge-watches shows on his iPhone during national

security meetings. I'm sure he's caught up with 'The OA' at this point."

Jordan Peele explains 'Get Out's' creepy milk scene, ponders the recent link between dairy and hate

How Allison Williams mined the horrors of white privilege for 'Get Out'

Review: Jordan Peele's clever horror-satire 'Get Out' is an overdue Hollywood response to our racial anxiety

Jordan Peele's 'Get Out' — the scariest movie at Sundance