"Get Out" Postscreening Q&A with Jordan Peele and Betty Gabriel

Wow I'm gonna let that standing over I was weird we didn't really we didn't really have proper warning coming out we're in like a hallway just hanging out and then all of a sudden we come out we knew you were watching but it's a lot of people a lot of people thanks for coming out guys they're happy people thank you guys for coming out you guys have been on the road with this movie for nearly a year and the roads gonna continue very happily but as we found out when we started the the picture a large percentage of the audience was first-time viewers everybody seems to have made it there's a few empty seats that weren't there before but scare everyone off I wanted to kick off the conversation talking about revelations and not the kind of like end of days revelations that would feels like we're living through but the revelations that I at least have noticed in the the year of being with your film and having spoken to Risa in New York that people have had in experiencing your film oh that have been revelations that have been triggered by your film in in individuals or groups of people and I wanted to actually start with you Betty because one of the revelations of the film is you as an actor for many people who had not yet right yes yeah and you know typically in a good year for cinema which I believe this is there are a few relevant Torey moments in performances and your scene where that tear comes out of your eye I mean there's there's a few actors this year which are having their having revelatory moments Timothy sha'lame there's a few you've had one and it's one that's going to be imprinted it's certainly in my mind but I think a lot of people's mind and it's that tear and the things I've heard people say about that moment is really the there the pain of assimilation the the tyranny of politeness right yes it's a horror film yes it's totally invented and yes there's a character living with I mean you're playing apart and but that that tyranny of beating in that's what got people maybe you could just talk a little bit about how the hell you created that moment well I think and this is something and I don't quite know if I want to just launch into but I really feel like in this story you Jordan wrote this beautiful I'll be a tragic love letter to black women because I think the invisibility of black women in our society and not just our pain and suffering but also our heroism it's it's we don't necessarily see it is she she's she's fighting to come to the surface but she doesn't quite I mean you can interpret it any way you like but and she's the only female there who is trapped and and is also the only female that doesn't need the flashlight to to attempt to surface so yeah I think you know we both you know of course crafted that moment and it was very much I think cat encapsulates that that need to fight against something in order to help Chris and I think that's what's so beautiful about this film is that all the traps souls are when they surface are in their attempt to surface they're all fighting to help Chris get out there's something just like really selfless and beautiful about them right no actually I'd never thought about that it is a selfless moment I mean you would think it's a it's not a cry for her own help it's a plea for him to pay attention yeah yeah that's beautiful we've talked about the fact that this was the the character in the movie with the strongest will and we never actually get to meet her you know she's the the woman that's buried underneath Georgina except for that one moment where she comes to the surface and she fights to the surface so it it's a very it was a very emotional day for me as well to watch Betty do this amazing performance and you know the way I described that day is you know we got there we've probably 2/3 of the way through shooting the the entire film and so this was this was going to be a very big character in our kind of understanding of what the character was about it's just big so we you know we got out there and she did this performance and it was perfect it was just it was so much more than I could have asked for and I was blown away and we talked about it a little bit she said okay great she went back in there and she made all these beautiful little adjustments and it was better and so we did it we did it like 11 times but and I don't know if you think that's a lot or a little or what but like the the fact that matter was it kept getting even better and it was this kind of thing like well we could do this forever and it would always do better and so we're about to we're about to shut it down and she goes okay I was like you want one more and she's like yeah give me one more and she did it and that's the one that's in there and it's like oh damn so it was it was so cool every and any take I could have used anything I could have used no but I mean thank God for that last tape because I mean I actually mean this seriously I think it's one of those moments in cinema that people are gonna go back to and reference and certainly at performers right alright so my next revelatory moment or my next revelation is the teacup right I actually had a conversation this morning with a woman who's a director and she referenced the teacup in talking about developing her next project and for me or you know what we talked about again goes back to this kind of like politeness or polite society but the exposure of faux Bohemia right like tea is like you know it's like hippie dippie it's it's not you know it's not as aggressive as you know coffee or what it seems very specific and explode bohemia' yes well yeah I'm saying close that's dope no it's it's that's right that you know those those characters were you know I talked about this with like the Wardrobe you know these people are kind of New Yorkers out who live upstate you know so I yeah they had to have this we talked about like they're creepy Royal Tenenbaums you know what I mean they're like it's all squid and whale like kind of you know progressive intellectual family and and yeah so that was definitely the color of the thing was like faux Bohemia though I mean I actually spent Thanksgiving and Woodstock and that place is scary right yeah it is because you know there's these layers of like okay yes peace and love and you know that the resistance move but then you realize it's all commodified and it's all commercialized and it's like get the out of my way right like and its really anyway all right my third and I'm not going to dwell on revelations forever is of course sunken place and what has emerged from me and I know you've probably talked about this endlessly over the last nearly year is that it's a very non partisan space in a way right like it's very specific to Daniels character in in this film but it does seem like it's a space that can be inhabited by a range of people who are subjected to self-denial right they're put in a place where they are not allowed to to escape to be who they actually were because they're being some part of them is being suppressed larger or smaller so I'm wondering if I'm I totally out based in thinking that this is a space that can be occupied by a range of people who-who are subject to suppression yeah do you mean like in the movie or no no no not in the movie just like as a concept because I mean the I'm talking about my minds it's broad concept yeah yeah yeah I think I mean obviously there were other people you know who had been putting into the sangga place in the movie right but I'm talking know your movie has a like is beyond the borders of itself now yeah right no it's it's so it's it's so hard to catch up really because it is it's you know I people really you know have dissected it and really gotten into it and and I've kind of grown my appreciation for something like the sunken place has grown hearing people talk about it and seeing the art about it and yes I I'm I'm right now I think like if what the sunken place means is a wide variety of holes of systemic traps that we find ourselves in I think that we participate in our own sunken places and you know the the finding what this movie was about was about finding what the monster is in this monster movie and that was this idea of systemic racism ultimately right there's no single villain it's the the big picture of what's going on is the the monster in this in this situation so that it's it became just move this movie about this kind of vague amorphous thing and even racism itself is is such a vague and amorphous word you know to some to some people the word racist means well I'm not a racist if you're in the KKK you're a racist but we all participate in racism in different ways and it's kind of up to all of us to kind of figure out what those ways are but yeah so I think the sunken place kind of exists in in all all of those ways in as many ways as that is did you talk about what Georgina's sunken place experience was like or did you imagine what her experience with it might have been and in thinking about that yeah for sure and I don't know if he talked specifically about what what was her past but I did imagine her you know having and now being but you know I think her being in a relationship with a woman you know I would imagine that that's got a lot of I don't want to say baggage like a lot of things that we're in which she had to suppress and she had to conform as much as she could and to society but I think that's I was just thinking this while you're talking like the whole idea is this oppression and I think that also can apply to awareness as well like I you know every day I become aware of something that's that's an ugly reality you know I I mean these fires that are going on right now there's a part of me that has to suppress that knowledge and sort of go on about the civilized life that were that we're leading and and of course you know this is a good thing but yeah there's yeah there's I mean the possibilities are endless as to what she's suppressing and well I mean you certainly opened up a realm of consciousness for a lot of people with the acknowledgement that this type of place could exist right and and I I think it's liberated also people from realizing that oh maybe no this pain is not coming out of nowhere right it's coming from a part of me that I just haven't been able to access for whatever reason anyway that's part of the discussions I've had moving on to another realm so we've talked with before I think in New York about working in the horror genre and you've worked in horror genre as well right you were in the purge one of the purchases which is also a Blum House production now I've been really okay so thank you for one of the producers on the film incredible impresario and but I was thinking you know obviously they're their tools within or that that you leverage to great effect but one that I think is particularly justice is the way it connects to a popular audience and I'm wondering how much was in your mind in terms of telling the story that you could you knew you would be able to access working in horror genre because it would tap into audiences that maybe would just show up for a horror film yeah I mean you know I started in comedy and so the in comedy you know live comedy you're trying to get everybody to laugh right you're trying to get the big laugh and so that's just kind of my DNA you know I think there's really there's great filmmakers who don't give a what the audience thinks but that's not me that was for you guys yeah no and I mean that actually leads to you know again when we met two weeks ago the world had change or whenever it was but this question of what are you laughing at you know in relationship to your film specifically because it's true I mean I've seen it now two or three times with a live audience and there's always laughs but for me there's the difference between the knowing laugh and the nervous laugh yeah I mean and this you know this is uh I'm not you know I'm not here to kind of accuse anybody of anything but it's like you have to ask yourself what what are you laughing at what what part of the movie are you laughing at there's there's right laughs and wrong laughs I guess you know but but no I don't you know I haven't I haven't like been hearing a whole lot of wrong laughs when I watch people watch the movie and I don't think either is wrong I just think it comes from your perspective like where are you coming from then it's like that's how you're gonna laugh is in a knowing where you were not in your head of like this knowing versus nervous thing I don't know I can't really answer that but I do think that sometimes I go for instance you know when people are like laughing yeah I'm sure that applies to this I have not seen this actually with a laugh out loud kind of audience I've only seen it I was in a long story I was in Australia working on a blum house yeah so yeah there was very little laughing actually I mean there was some but you know it was in appropriate places Jordan I wonder if you would indulge this audience cuz we had some fun in New York talking about audit live on AIDS experience I live in Brooklyn and I first saw it in Brooklyn in what for me was the ideal setting of very knowing you know engagement it wasn't just laughs it was engagement and you were talking about some of your experience seeing this film with very engaged audiences yeah the best or the most yeah the best line over her died in a get out screen it was oh this out here drinking milk here on this milk flow what's going on with this milk no it's it's fun you know I've seen I've seen I remember there was one screening where chance and chance the rapper was there well and like anyone like that the guy when Chris was the antlers through Dean they all stood up but just home and like stood for the rest of the movie its I remember once when they're looking through the he's looking through the pictures and he gets they get to the one of Betty and and and Alison at the end and this dude right next to me goes oh she's swinging both ways she's swinging both ways no it was it was like it was designed for that crowd you know it's like we had you know in my life of watching horror films I've just heard this kind of like I've heard what the audience wants you know what I mean and so I wanted this movie do I really wanted this movie - first and foremost feed that black horror movie audience that has been very clear like what we need from a movie to make us you know and just loyal I just haven't gotten that representation and that representation became a part of what the movies I identity is and that lack of representation in this industry and in this genre is part of the sunken place and so if you notice Chris you know the sunken place is like Taylor made for Chris's own psychology but it's also tailor-made for the black horror movie audience in that it's it's a theater right he's he's looking at a screen and he's in this dark place and he can scream at the screen but he can't get his representation on the other side of the screen he can't he can't he doesn't have action he doesn't have a voice so um yeah that was like when I kind of when I when I when I unlocked this idea of you know we really influenced by scream you know Kevin Williamson scream which had this postmodern like commentary on the genre it was and it was a good version of that genre that's kind of what I was doing there so I do want to open up to the audience for questions so get him ready and there'll be a mic coming but um so the second time I saw it was also in Brooklyn but it was at the Alamo Drafthouse which is in downtown Brooklyn it's brand spankin new and it's expensive and it's one of these dying in cinema theater places and I swear to god it was a couple next to me drinking tea and so that's where the nervous laughter kicks in right no in my mind they did but no way but it's not that quaint but you know they had like the glasses of tea you know and it's like oh busted anyway audience question for our director and star and there is a mic so let's start in the back there's a gentleman right in the middle yes sir waving your hand and there's a mic running up to you yep hey Jordan Howie good excellent movie do I know you it's funny I get that a lot no knowing the cycle of how long it takes to put a movie together now when you put this all together in your head at some point with the political climate the way it was and what happened in the last 18 months did you like sit there look in the mirror and go wait till they get a load of this yeah yeah it was like that yeah it you know I it's it's one of those things that is is very hard to deal with because you know it's it's been a really shitty year but it wait you know the the climate that I made the mood I really designed the movie in there wasn't a there wasn't a conversation about race that was healthy I felt like that felt like the way we talked about race was broken and it still is but now we're doing it you know so in some ways I feel like we're we're in a place of where we have to progress you know I love episode Obama this is my bomb impression first I got no one needed to pimp me out I just launched into it bomb always said this thing you know no progress isn't always a straight line so cheap and is the cheapest but but I I think that's true I think we're in a shitty year but I you know I got a hope that we're the right direction in some way and part of that is like the discussion like the idea that people are being inspired by this moment and gonna challenge the moment with more art and and and stuff like that it's it's a time where great art I think can be made okay so we'll do one on this side yeah we'll get you in the I was actually pointing the guy behind you but that's okay I've seen this movie this is my port I'm seeing a movie oh cool thank you I've ever seen there's probably in my top three what are the other two and how many times have you seen them I have three quick questions no one one question that Opa Opa movie music that you had the beginning where the guy was kidnapped was really weird where did you find it and why did you use it what was the symbolism of the deer and later the flies buzzing around and why did you decide to keep the auction scene silent okay so the first thing is the the song is I just needed a creepy song really and so I found this song by this British duo like 1930s duo or something like Flanagan and Allen called run rabbit run and it sounded really menacing and it also kind of worked with this theme of what that theater what the theater shouts at these horror movies right get out get out of the house run rabbit whatever you know run and then it goes into the the Swahili song which is also these warnings that the composer Michael Able's wrote and that's CQ Lisa which means I trust your ancestors run get out essentially and then it goes into stay woke so it's like it was this three different styles of music where you can of what the audience is shouting at the character damn I thought I was gonna be able to run through each question without asking the deer the deer the symbolism of the deer was basically it's a lot of things but it's it's his mother right it's this idea that when he they first hit the deer it awakens this kind of suppressed memory of that is later further unlocked with the hypnosis with the the flies around it or the this him thinking about the deer still being their cat you know laying like like his mother ultimately he never saved his mother and then the last one oh why to keep it silent because first of all it's cool but second of all that they wouldn't want him to have a chance of hearing you know they're still that's just part of their process they do it silence and no one has a chance to hear what's going on over there alright and let's get one from this side too she was first behind her I was curious if there's anything that you've heard in reviews or people talking about the film that they've read into it that you've been particularly intrigued by or particularly annoyed by no I mean I'm just I'm just happy people are talking about it I love if you know I can't remember anything that's like particularly off-base or anything like that III just like I said this is it's all about you know conversation and the fact that we're having any kind of conversation or analysis about race is cool I think that's the best part about this film is that you as an audience member our part storyteller it's it's so subtle and you know it doesn't spoon it out to you like what's what's happening what this means what that means and that just allows you to interpret it as you want you know and I think you know given your life you know given your age whatever your history you're gonna see you might see a very different story from someone next to you in ten years if you see it again you'll see a very different story maybe and I think that's I think that's great cinema when you when you have to when you get to do that it's almost theatrical and how you participate in it somebody thought it was a took place in the same universe as being John Malkovich and and that Catherine Keener was playing yeah that it was like literally she learned hypnosis and like got ups obsessed with the whole idea of living within somebody's mind or something someone with that deep yeah no I do think actually your your comment about the theatrical nasai mean part of the great joy that we all have of experiencing this together is that it does facilitate conversation and again we're just so honored you guys we're here to have this conversation with us and share this moment which again I said at the beginning of this I said in New York when people look back at 2017 this is gonna be the film it doesn't matter whatever happens the rest of your and you guys are still gonna be on the road for a long time March is a long time away and you're gonna be all the way you know to the big show but it doesn't matter cuz this is the film people are gonna be talking about so thank you thank you Jordan Peele Ben [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Hammer Museum

Views: 5,318

Rating: 4.8024693 out of 5

Keywords: Hammer Museum, Museum, Ann Philbin, UCLA, Free Admission, Armand Hammer Museum, Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Museum

Id: pvzSVJEqtHs

Length: 29min 33sec (1773 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 15 2018