Universal Pictures released Jordan Peele’s feature directorial debut Get Out in February 2017, a horror entry that, in addition to shock and scares, had much to say about racism and what it means to be Black in America. Audiences went all in: From a $5 million budget, the film raked in north of $255 million and paved the way for Peele to become one of Hollywood’s hottest auteurs.
On Sunday night, ActBlue hosted the filmmaker opposite one of the stars of the film, Bradley Whitford, for Get Out the Vote: A Conversation With Jordan Peele. The virtual fundraiser, which benefited the Democratic Party of Georgia, was one of a slew of high-profile events featuring Hollywood insiders held in recent days ahead of Tuesday’s runoff in Georgia. The election pits Democrats Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff against Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in respective races that will ultimately determine the control of the U.S. Senate.
Whitford kicked off the conversation by saying that more than $80,000 had been raised before he even asked his first question. Once it got rolling, they covered everything from how Get Out got made to how the overwhelming success impacted Peele, who won an Oscar for best original screenplay at the 2018 telecast. Awards aside, Peele said the reception that mattered most to him from Black audiences.
(“I knew I was making a movie for us,” said Peele, who followed it up with a film titled Us, another breakout hit. “I knew I was making a movie for the me that didn’t feel represented in the genre and for everybody, for all the Black people who are screaming at the screen, ‘Have some sense, get the fuck out of the house, get some Black people in here so somebody can do the right thing.’ When that hit home and I felt that, it was just extreme warmth. Everything else after that was just gravy.”
Peele said the film also resonated with white audiences, something that proved to be encouraging. “The one thing I will say about the unconsciously racist white liberals is they’re ready to watch that movie and try to understand, there’s a penance that some people are ready for. … I was happy that white people seemed to get it. It spoke to me about the power of story.”
The film tells the story of Chris Washington, a young Black man who accompanies his white girlfriend for a getaway to meet her parents for the first time. As the weekend progresses, he discovers the family is harboring a shocking secret and he may not make it out alive. Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, LaKeith Stanfield, Betty Gabriel, Lil Rel Howery and Whitford round out the cast.
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Hollywood Reporter