Jordan Peele discusses GET OUT at UCLA 1-31-18

[Applause] [Laughter] the class has grown we have more than more than we did last time it was just have you answered questions like you did last time you know last time we saw you we just knew you it done a great film now you've done a great ask ur nominated [Applause] I'm assuming you all will not be shy about asking professor peel your question just on that note before we dig into the questions I just want to like I want to tell a story that you know it's hard for me to sort of wrap my head around the idea of what an award means you know I've already kind of achieved this this this goal of my my dreams to make a film to direct a film like that that to me was always the since I was 12 years old what I wanted to do and you know honestly I sort of convinced myself it wasn't possible it wasn't gonna happen I didn't have enough role models necessarily but when I one year probably before everybody here was born maybe one year Whoopi Goldberg won the Academy Award for four jokes for Best Supporting Actor I want I remember being 12 years old and watching and rooting for Whoopi and it was this feeling like she was she was a black woman she was in a comedic role there was this feeling like she was the the outsider in the group and the long shot right I remember she got up on stage and she said something like to everybody out there looks like me and feels like and it feels like me and things I'll never be able to make it and achieve their dreams you can do it and I just I remember internalize it that and and say like wow she's speaking to me because this is this is something this is something I want to do I feel like I can do and for so many years I I moved away from my dream of directing looks like I said I I doubted myself I doubted that the industry would accept my vision and accept me in that role because I felt like no there's only handful of black directors and they must be the exceptions to the rule and I got this beauty of it is I got a world of experience in other aspects of the industry and I was very very lucky to have you know wonderful career in comedy and acting but coming around to making this movie was that the first dream come true when that not those nominations came together last week you know I really realized that this the awards and the acknowledgement is bigger than me and it's bigger than my own personal accomplishment and that by seeing my work could be recognized in this way there's a whole generation of people who will be uplifted by that and realize that they can achieve their dreams too so anyway that's why I'm here [Applause] how did it feel to make a movie like that about white supremacy and the contemporary sense knowing that there's very few black directors and how are you able to navigate doing that in these type of spaces being that it's only John Singleton or Spike leaves very minimal as far as black directors so how were you able to do that and achieve that so did you guys have a question and Mandy Thank You Mandy asked being a black director in a in a field where there are a few black directors how do you how do you make a film about white supremacy about racism in a world where were we start from his marginalized place it's a great question you know I think one of the big breakthroughs for me in my own personal inspiration and that gave me the confidence was Straight Outta Compton and the reason was because that was a film you know the industry follows the money right that was a film that was an opportunity that the filmmakers that F gary Gray that everybody that put together that that wonderful film that's you know another uni film that was a situation where felt like we proved that the business is there mm-hmm and so once that door was open I felt extremely relieved because up until then they're they're part of the the racism part of the the systemic racism and the sunken place that was taking place was this notion that oh you know black movies don't do well hmm white people don't want to come see black protagonists black films don't do well overseas and that prevents anybody from giving black artists shots so to me realizing that the world was coming coming to accept the fact that story is story and sometimes the stories that we haven't seen are exactly what's going to business that's what we're seeing with confidence after you see you football games on PDT is all this stuff that just now it's time present but there is a resurgence now like you said try to pop in your stuff and you have like search I'm wondering like you know how do you think that's gonna do you think that's gonna again somehow fall away into the abyss forgotten or how are you planning to or is there is there like a conscious plan to keep this going like this fantastic question you know the question is is this Renaissance that we see happening right now with directors like Ava Duvernay and Ryan Coogler F gary Gray Barry Jenkins degrease amazing directors and filmmakers right now and then in film as well Lisa Ray Donald Glover see like the very the pinnacle of art in these fields is being made by black people so am i afraid that that will go away so Obama has this thing he says progress is a straight line I think there's something to that that and if you look at what happened after his presidency and the shift that this country makes it almost feels like it's going back you know far before where we were before he was even elected I think that there is going there is an ebb and flow and there are backlashes but I do feel like this time that we're in right now is of the the greatest time in black film I think we might be in the greatest time in film right now so that to me shows me that though there is this thing going on that there is progress Oh something I know your film another your work potential like a lot of money social issues I was wondering why have you seen Black Panther last night like a lot more tension there - I wonder like how much is cut out by Hollywood how much hunting time do they come in like oh you can't put that in there it's too political or or things like that how much do you feel I'm limited well so you know the question is a great question how how much does Hollywood the studio the producers it sort of interfere with my vision now my perspective speak from my personal experience which is you know I made a cheap movie I'm in believer four point five million dollars part of part of the reason that was a good fit for my first movie was because you know that's that's very little money in the film industry so because of that I knew I had the leverage to push boundaries to push buttons to stand by my you know what the film was meant to be for me you know when there were debates and when there were differing opinions of how something should go my strategy was not to was not to pop off I felt I feel like every note that somebody can give you has something of worth in it has something of value so if somebody tells me hey don't you know you shouldn't have this happen in the movie because it's too violent well I'm thinking well what what I don't do is go in and change my movie and take out the violence what I do do is ask myself how can okay I hear that so how can I put in something earlier that makes that violence how can I make how can bring this person into the perspective of the person who's committing the violence enough that I will never get that note again from anybody so I think it's important to be respectful of people's opinions even if they're they're wrong there's there's some there's some reason they're having that reaction and then to engage in dialogue with them and stand stand up for what you know the film needs to be I do not have that problem with this film my next movie you know I could probably be making a more expensive movie but I'm sort of just going one step up because I know they trust me and but I also know when it gets into a certain area of money they can't afford to trust me so I'm gonna take that next step and hopefully you know I'll crush it you know eventually I can work my way up to where you know what nobody gets to do which is get big budgets for original content hmm you know I mean it's like they can give you they can give me a big budget for if I'm doing you know some kind of superhero movie or something of something that exists but the Holy Grail for me is to get to convince them like let me create a world let me make that new star right and so you see and I show them the way that Chris is reacting to the situation so even when the groundskeepers running right he doesn't write even when things are popping off but all around like you just stay silent where right but he chooses to hide behind awareness what I think is symbolized through the fact that you of the Parker recommends camera was a tool of steam right and so I when I said like 27000 autobiography like you're in the same position where you're a Trekkie also behind the camera and telling the story right but it's like you're also experiencing a lot of [Applause] my reaction to that was is this a long answer and every piece I ever do is has to be an automatic you have to start with the imagery that means something to you and you have to feel the emotion of the character by the way if you're ever working on on writing something or creating something and you're not feeling that connection finding that connection could help you break through and solve a lot of problems for yourself so yes the you know the the main position of Chris that that that you're speaking of that that feels autobiographical is that you know operating in white spaces often requires a certain patients and often requires a certain emotional and mental stamina and and you know what happens is you end up internalizing a lot it was very important for me to make a character in Chris that isn't necessarily doing what we all wish we could do in some of these situations but is resonating as what we have what we have to go through and I think that that's that is a part of the black experience that a lot of white people don't understand is that we're not angry people we're not we're not we're not it's not that we have short fuses is that were put to the test yeah 24/7 so so that was very personal to me another the moment that really came together Chris is trauma his his the moment where he he remembers sitting at that television while his mother was outside dying in the street and sort of knowing something was wrong when we got the therapy scene I knew that Missy needed to get at something personal and something real and so I went to my own personal memories of my sort of most afraid moments and I remember you know as you know I grew up was just my mother and I'm growing up and you know a couple times maybe she would come back home from work a little later than I thought and I would go through this process of paralyzed paralyzation and then fear yeah and I'd be watching the television and remember asking myself why I'm not I'm not doing it I'm just watching the TV I'm letting this contraction sort of offer me a way out of my responsibilities and this was like this made me think of a whole lot of things like you know this is this you know this is this is partially because I'm you know as an adult I realized well this is my responsibility of feeling like the man of the family my father's not my feelings of just awful guilt of abandoning my family I've connected that to Chris and his feelings of abandoning his blackness mandating his mother for the second time to go find this new family and what that means that's part of personalizing it [Laughter] so great question the question of communicating my truth through a row that's a heightened genre it's not realistic if I'm interpreting your question right does that take away from the message does that complicate the message because it's not grounded in a drama you know I feel like truth is due north and in any creative project I do it has to feel true it has to feel honest my personal belief is unless it's really really good I don't like drama too much it's you know it can be amazing it could be beautiful but I'm not somebody who necessarily likes to be told the truth I'd like to find the truth mm in what is presented to me and that's where the benefit of genre comes for me is that I can engage the audience on this level of their imagination and this this level of entertainment this level of emotion and that within that if it is done right you've left the bread crumbs for people to acknowledge the truths that they found and by the way it only works if it feels true any genre if you if all of a sudden you just making up like really making up I'm not talking about like you know cars they can fly whatnot but making up like that the car doesn't make a sound when it lands and there's a two-ton car or whatever then the audience starts to back away from it and it doesn't work so for me that that's what was the difficult task about canal because how do I do justice to the victims of racial violence how do I do justice with this the history of oppression and this and the systemic racism and at the same time entertaining people and you know I I knew for example I knew yeah I thought of this movie in in some ways is the entire audience needs to be served like I can't I can't it can't be just a movie for black people but I also felt that if if it doesn't work for black people it's not worth doing this had to communicate a collective truth of the african-american experience you know I as I talked about it and see what's going on in the country I also I believe that the the sunken place is something that exists not just for black people but for women yeah you know Latino brothers and sisters for any marginalized group that gets told not to say what their experience yeah that that's what my the sunken place it really is we talked about it a lot last time I was here that is this it's the system yeah it's all these these these columns in the wheel that sort of keep us where we are it's it's it's external its internal I think the thing that really has emerged after I've seen what has happened this year for me is that when Chris screams we don't hear it when he's in the sunken place we don't hear it when are when we're in when black people are in a horror movie and we yell at the screen come on [Laughter] do that and so for me what the sunken place is is is the silencer it's the taking away of our expression of our art and it's the very fact that this movie has never been made before yeah many levels right there's no there's no movie where I mean there's a couple of movies with that have a black rooms I have a black protagonist you know Tales from the Crypt demon night Night of the Living Dead the people under the stairs very few and far far between what I was what I couldn't understand was what I was most worried about was that at the end of this film I got a black man killing a white family all of whom are evil and I was like whoa I've got the you know any movie where the hero overcomes the the villains at the end we cheer and we we applaud and to me that was the thing that was going to be the biggest roadblock in this movie was that I felt like I was not allowed to do that we're not allowed to do that we're not allowed to that we would be the movie would be accused of instigating violence that the the system would continue to talk down to black people as opposed to appreciating and understanding that no we just want some elevated that's good that that's that's best bond that's meaningful like where you we need we need this some of this content anyway I'm all over the place okay well so to answer your first question what were the influences behind the vibe you know I've referenced them often but if I had to break it down to five I think it would be I think that categorized Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives is one movies that dealt with gender dynamics in a way that led me to have a handle race I would say Night of the Living Dead I would say the shining I would say I would say Halloween and then let you know Jonathan Demi's sounds of the Lambs you know the sequence is between Lecter and for restore very inspiring for me for the therapy yes now you know I I saw oh boy a while ago so I don't actually remember the hypnosis part of it I I'm very influenced by Korean cinema and in fact this movie was very successful in South Korea that was it was it was a an explosion and we you know I've talked to my assistant about it you know in Korea there's a concept called Han which is kind of an example of this idea we've been talking about about where the Kris character lives and so apparently Han is this is this idea of anger that is stuffed down so deep that when it finally explodes it explodes in these crazy ways and so I think for what up for what it's worth I think it very much relates to a lot of Korean cinema a lot of revenge movies in Korea and also South Korea I feel like is having a moment of african-american fascination [Music] and then so you know I was discussing Akira which is one of my big huge influences or masterpiece if you haven't seen it should see Akira you know for me I just felt like I can I can create my own and then I would be doing a disservice to my fans and people who sort of supported me to jump ship do one of these ten pole things that already exists and so yeah I chose to make a much smaller movie that's my own creative vision the Japanese guy is the question it's a great question you know this this was something I put in there for many reasons you know we know the concept of the model minority and that there's a sort of certain unspoken hierarchy and really and a certain relationship between different races that was part of it Rosemary's Baby there's a Japanese guy at the end and it's a scary development in the movie because it sort of suggests that this these are just devil worshippers these are the devil worshippers on some international but you know ultimately it was it was kind of it was those things I felt I felt like it was interesting I felt like it rang true when I find though and when I find with this movie in many situations as people are expecting every little detail because it is very detailed I have all these Easter Egg every detail to be my outlook and so that character was not meant honestly for to be a statement about Asian people or Japanese people it's a commentary on something that I feel like rings true that we can all kind of like process but it it certainly wasn't meant like this what Jordan thinks all Asian people also wasn't trying to say that I think white people are villains you know the the villain in my movie is the system is the system that all the characters are connected to and you know some more than others but maguet tricky when we take the the symbolism from this movie and start applying it to further generalize people and how I feel about them part of what what these these these choices that I made are are mischief on my part [Laughter] part of it is mischief part of it comes from my my button-pushing background of provoking and you know it's like you know this there's parts of the concept of this movie that's like someone living color shift you know but but it's interesting I I now I have to sort of deal with the fact that my little button-pushing movie means a lot and it carries a lot of weight for people and so I get that question probably probably as many as much as any other question what's with that asian guy what are we saying about Asians you know that that one could be there we have time for one more question well when we say rod has stereotypical you mean that yeah okay well you know I never thought of him in terms of the magical Negro archetype you know the key for me was that rod I wanted rod to feel like the most real character ever and there is a part of the black experience where I think we are keyed into certain ways that this could go that are wrong it was also important to me that he's not entirely right you know he's like the conspiracy theorist friend who happens to be on to some because it's actually happening but he also kind of thinks it's like sex slaves so I mean that was my answer my question I was very aware of the fact that if rod go if rod is not played realistic and we gave him too many jokes or that we start getting into a tricky category with that character so the key for me was you know casting the brilliant little rel Howery who just brought himself to that role and was just real and and what I wanted the audience to have is a representative that we we've been like where where is and and by the way representative that also points out in this fact that like who would you have to be in this situation to actually think that there's some which secret society you know we we know we're watching a horror movie but if we were actually in the movie it would take somebody who's like you know I don't know you know like you know has his wild imagination so the character ultimately was meant to ground the entire experience all right all right well thank you very much [Applause] to give him a paw he has to go he's doing an interview but thank you so much [Applause]

Channel: Tananarive Due

Views: 143,327

Rating: 4.9414062 out of 5

Keywords: Jordan Peele, Get Out, Horror, Oscars, Tananarive Due, Black Horror

Id: wpGmCLcqgAw

Length: 39min 3sec (2343 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 02 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/barc0debaby]

In my early morning haze I thought this said "Jordan Peterson discusses 'GET OUT' at UCLA" and was ready for a wild ride.