In Universal Pictures’ Get Out, a speculative thriller from Blumhouse and the mind of Jordan Peele, when a young African-American man visits his white girlfriend’s family estate, he becomes ensnared in a more sinister real reason for the invitation.
Now that Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate with Missy (Catherine Keener) and Dean (Bradley Whitford). At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he could have never imagined.
The Knockturnal attended a private screening of the film at The Crosby Hotel on Monday evening with stars Daniel Kaluuya, Lil Rel Howery, Allison Williams and writer/director Jordan Peele and producer Jason Blum. The film hits theaters this Friday.
Read highlights from the panel below:
So Jordan let me kick off with you. So you are familiar to many people out there for your comic work on screen. What propelled you to do the horror genre for your directorial debut?
Jordan Peele: Well I’m just horror fan, I’m a horror nerd. All the classics are my favorite movies. So I’ve always wanted to do this. This is a dream of mine. Just being here, hearing the sound that an audience makes watching a horror film that I got do. It’s a surreal journey to come to this moment, but it’s a dream. Horror is my dream. To make that more clear, horror is my dream.
Have you been surprised by any of the audience reaction that you’ve seen?
Jordan Peele: You know the only surprise is like a good surprise. Everybody seems to get what I was doing here and this is a movie I didn’t think would ever get made in the first place. The fact that every beat plays, is awesome.
Speaking of getting a film made. Jason can you talk about coming to the movie in the first place and what attracted you to it?
Jason Blum: The script had been around for at least two or three years.
Jordan Peele: Yeah around three years ago.
Jason Blum: And I read it and I love to do low budget movies because you can make movies that should never get made and definitely this movie fit into that category. I’d never read anything … there was no comps. It wasn’t like we went in on Monday and said no it’s like this one and this one. It’s like no one and when we say that, we tend to make those movies. So it was really from reading the script for me and seeing how unique this was.
So Jordan, 2008 Obama becomes President. There is this kind of crazy idea going around about a post-racial America. We know that’s crazy now. This film is premised on the idea that white liberals had just become very very skilled overtime at hiding their racism. That’s what this film is about. Can you just talk about that idea and how you’ve used it in the film?
Jordan Peele: Well I think first of all, I think we all have issues of our own racism. Every one of us. I think it’s a human trait and I happened to be exploring the white liberal part of that. It was almost as if talking about race would somehow perpetuate the act … racism itself as opposed to address these things that are happening. This movie is about a lot of things, one of the things that struck me while writing it was the disproportionate amount of black men in the prison system. There is this silent abduction happening and we toss them to the back of our minds, figuratively. So this movie is about taking black people and tossing them into the back of our minds literally. The sunken place itself is kind of about representation and he has this personal demon which is this element, this idea of inaction, being paralyzed by fear in the moment when he needed to step up. I think black horror audiences is a very loyal horror fan base. I think Jason can attest to that because we’ve made him millions of dollars … I felt like we yell at the screen because we cannot affect what’s happening on the other side, people making stupid choices, people making the choices we wouldn’t make and we cannot get represented on the other side of that screen is how I felt. So it’s not a mistake that the sunken place, that place of paralyzation, marginalization is like a darkened theater, where you have a screen and no matter what he says he cannot break through.
You know Ishmael Reed has talked about how from slavery onwards the African-american experience has been kind of like Horror and Sci-fi anyway and that this film really struck me as commenting on that. From the very first moment you can’t help but think of Trayvon Martin, in that very first scene you’re on edge. Daniel you’re from London like me. We have our own issues in London with police and so on and so forth. Can you talk about what you learned about black American experience, making this film?
Daniel Kaluuya: I feel like we are so exposed to the black American experience around the world. I’ve got family from Uganda and they’re watching Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne videos so it’s worldwide man. And everyone is invested in it so … I lived it and I felt it as opposed to seeing and reading about it. Black American content, were were always drawn to it as young black western people because it just resonates more than the other stuff … To speak to that point there was something in the scene and it kind of broke me man when I said it during the script. It was the bit when Chris was in the chair he said, “Why us? Why black people.” And it was like yeah, “What the f— have we done? What have we done?”
All this is happening, but what did we do, we’re getting persecuted, battered and everything, killed. What have we done and that kind of shook me, man. Every day you live your life in London or everywhere you go and some bullsh*t happens, what did I do to you man? I came in the game in the 80’s. What happened before I came here that I have to like live this. I have to navigate my whole life in order to go through all this, in order to live my dreams, do you understand? And I feel that’s everywhere. That happens in the fact that the majority of Africa was colonized by England, it’s that same thing. It’s quite frustrating when I go in to do interviews and people are like, “oh, that’s really timely now” like what Racism is new? Racism is just mainstream now. It’s just you guys are seeing it but it’s been happening for centuries … I just got empathy and I feel it and I feel bad when I see these stories and I see people dying for no reason, I feel bad.
Jordan Peele: Daniel’s whole process is led with this amazing empathy. Everybody works different. All Daniel needs is to get in touch with the emotion that I’d like to get him to. And from that point forward, you can sit and react and he can do it in subtly different ways but real ways each time. You can just see, the hypnosis scene for example, I have four equally beautiful performances from him that are all different. It’s like which one do I choose. Like the one where tears started coming out of his eyes in minute 04:10 or minute 04:12, like who the f–? is this guy? So he’s the real deal and one other thing I’ll say is that I didn’t really think about it until I started looking for black actors, specifically a black leading man, 26 years old; that you realize how few people have gotten a shot. That there are dudes like this who should have done been a leading man in a film for a long time and I know you will be for a long time to come. If someone will put you in them!
***For those who have seen the film, there are some additional cast comments on the next page. Major spoilers ahead! Only read the next page if you have seen the film!***
Daniel I mean I heard you really fought to get this part. When you first got the script, what did you think about it, what was it about the film that made you want to be in this so much?
Allison Williams: Warning, he’s really English and it’s kind of shocking just from experience.
Daniel Kaluuya: I said this today actually you know this is a lot of things that black people say in private. And just seeing it in the film and I was like “can you actually do that?” And so I was like, I thought it would shake things up and I just wanted to be part of something that just f-ed sh-t up to be honest. That’s what it is. It’s Jordan … I just wanted to help Jordan tell his story.
Jordan Peele: [Jason] asked me, is that true? That stuff in the script. I said, Yes it’s all true … Yeah actually you talk about reactions I wasn’t expecting … I thought one of the scariest parts about this movie from an industry standpoint would be the fact that at the end of it, a black man was killing a family of white people and the theater was like, “Yessssssss.” And I thought that was impossible and I remember we took a lot of care to make sure that Chris was getting out right, that he wasn’t becoming a monster and in fact he gets right up to that moment of killing someone … Rose who kind of out crazies him at the end there and he realizes that he cannot let her take his soul basically. That he can leave her to die on the side of the road like his mother did essentially. But I always thought the moment where he puts his hands on her neck I always thought the reaction of any crowd would be like “Oh I can’t even … this is like … but no Motherf—er lets cheer on that sh-t.” And I was like damn this must be working, the audience cheering the white chick murder and white people cheering. It’s a full feat ladies and gentlemen.
Allison Williams: I’m very proud of it.
Jason Blum: I wanted to run her over but I’m glad that we didn’t. And it was the right choice not to but I really wanted to run her over.
Jordan Peele: It’s true. Jason did pitch … nah some of you are gonna be like that’s a good idea. He pitched that before Rod takes off he puts it in to the reverse gear and just boom boom boom. Twice.
Jason Blum: Forward run her over and then back …
Jordan Peele: Tonally, tonally that would have been a complete f—-ing ridiculous move. I mean that’s what Marlon Wayans is going to do in the parody of Get Out. What’s it gonna be called? Get The F-ck Out Of Here.
So Allison I’ve seen this movie twice now and you’ve got a really difficult role to play because you know I didn’t suspect too strongly, the first time, but the second time watching I was looking for clues.
Allison Williams: Yeah the second time it’s totally different. You’re with me the second time.
Yeah, how did you get that tone right? And how did you work with Jordan who just kind of nailed that down?
Allison Williams: Yeah the three of us spent hours crafting all it, making sure all the scenes with us together felt really real. And essentially like … I mean this is what I wish I could talk about in press but I don’t want to spoil it for people. Rose was trained to do this since she was little. And basically she becomes whoever she needs to become to attract whichever gentlemen it is she’s trying to bring home. So she became this person that she thought Chris would love. Don’t be mad, it’s not real … And so we kind of worked on who that person is and then we also worked on who the person is that … That very blank slate that she refers back to. She’s like frozen in time hence the Dirty Dancing and the Fruit loops and the milk and that all came from this person’s brain.
Jordan Peele: That’s like my favorite scene. It’s so weird and f—ed up but you cannot figure out why but she’s just such a unique psychopath to get just that. It’s like we want answers but all we get is that weird scene.
Allison Williams: Yeah I focused a lot of attention on figuring out who she is when no one is looking, so that I could figure out who she is when everyone is looking. I’m happy to report it’s not easy to play the psycho one. It was really hard. I had to be alone. I had to listen to “Let The Bodies Hit The Floor.” I’m not kidding that’s literally what I listened to. I would just stand alone and no one would talk me and I didn’t even say no one was allowed to talk to me. Like people just did not want to be around me, I was not pleasant to interact with.
Jordan Peele: It’s creepy, it was really creepy. That was like … you went in when you were Ro-Ro. It was so cool to watch you … we talked about Rose, we talked about the first two-thirds of the movie. The whole idea was like lets not even acknowledge … she’s so good at this, you don’t even need to know the truth yourself when you’re playing it. It’s just so cool to see the flip.
Allison Williams: I think that just for most of it. We treated each of those scenes as what they were. Rose is a really good actor or at least as good as I am. So like medium good, good enough whatever you guys decide. She takes him to the lake because they need to do their auction but she makes him feel that she takes him to the lake because … you know, “let’s go away, let’s talk about his.” Like she won’t let the cop take his ID because then he can identify him when he goes missing but she always makes him feel like … yeah I know. That second viewing is really fun by the way.
Jordan Peele: One of the great feats that she did. I remember at one point … Whenever I say this is impossible but people surprise me but with that phone call with Rod I was like “I don’t think we could do this without special effects but if you could have the creepy face of Ro-Ro but have like the natural bright sunny voice.” She was like, “give me a half hour.” She went and she nailed that scene. There’s no audio effects on that, it’s just sick performing.
Allison William: Thanks.
Let me bring in Lil Rel here. You have a kind of comic performance in the film which is really crucial because otherwise it might be completely unbearable. You have a great relationship with Daniel. Did you kind of get to hang out? Most of it is just via the phone so how did you guys work together?
Lil Rel: It’s more or less on set and just talking but I think just the way Jordan explained, Rod and Chris’s relationship. And I’m just a friend that keeps it 100 with him … which is why I love the role. I feel like I represent the audience that’s watching the movie. And from the beginning of the movie, he ain’t bulls—ing like,”No get the f— out, I think this is some crazy sh-t.” And that’s one of the reasons I fell in love with the script. It’s a realism to it. Like you said earlier this movie is probably like everything my aunty said would happen if I brought home a white girl like, “Okay good luck…”
I mean that’s what attracted me to the role and Jordan did a good job of just letting us put our own cadences to each character and every time I watch it … this is like my 5th time watching this, I’m just gonna keep watching this, I don’t care. I like how real Rod is. Even the sh-t he saying. Like Jeffrey Dahmer sh-t, that’s Jeffrey Dahmer’s business. That just cracked me up and I love the crowd reaction … we used to the police coming and, “Here we go, this the real sh-t.” Just to see the reaction.
Allison Williams: That’s what Rose expected too!
Lil Rel: But people … That’s a legit thing but to see Rod show up and you see that friendship. Just him being an asshole, he just murdered all these people, there’s blood all over. “I did tell you not to go in there, brother.” Which is why I appreciate being in this movie too, so Thanks Jordan.