Jordan Peele Says 'Get Out' Was "Meant to Be a More Direct, Brutal Wake-Up" | Writer Roundtable - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

"The power of story is that it is one of the few ways we can really feel empathy and encourage empathy," the writer/director says.

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00:00Did you write because you liked the fun of doing a horror story or because you

00:09wanted to convey ideas about racism? It it began as the fun of a horror story I

00:15wanted to I wanted this my favorite genre I wanted to have fun while writing

00:19and it turned you know in the middle of the process it turned into something

00:24more important the power of story is that it is one of the few ways we can

00:32really feel empathy and encourage empathy built into the idea of story is

00:38the idea that you have a protagonist when you have a protagonist the whole

00:42trick that all of us are trying to do is bring the audience into that

00:48protagonist's eyes behind their eyes and so this is you know a well-crafted

00:54story and a good story is one of the few ways we can really not tell somebody

01:00you have to feel for somebody else but make somebody feel because they're

01:04they're experiencing it through entertainment sir can I see your license

01:08please wait why yeah I've stayed I B no no he wasn't driving I didn't ask it was

01:16driving I asked to see his ID yeah why that doesn't make any sense here you

01:21don't have to give him your ID because you haven't done anything wrong maybe

01:24baby baby it's okay anytime there is an incident we have every right to ask ma'am

01:31I was worried at several stages during the writing of the movie that this

01:39would be this horribly divisive project where you know I thought I thought maybe

01:44I'd lose black people because it's you know we're victims in the movie and that's

01:49hard to watch that's not fun maybe I'd lose white people because white people

01:54are the villains in the movie and that would be an assault that would be and so

01:58but I stuck with it and one of the you know just the most fulfilling and

02:04validating things to see was how an audience you know would sort of go in you

02:11know with their different preconceived notions of what the film were but by the

02:15the middle they were all Chris they were all the main character and that's kind

02:20of the it's a really good horror movie

02:28I'm curious is it I had heard that there was a time in your writing process when

02:34the police car showed up and it was the police and it was the bad ending that we

02:39all feared is it is that true so that's true I wrote the movie primarily

02:44during the post racial lie so the Obama era when everyone was saying hey we're

02:49past racism right we did it we did it and the the notion of sort of bringing up

02:56racism was almost thought of as like the perpetuating it and so the movie was

03:01originally meant to be a more direct brutal wake-up call to say no the the the

03:08horror movie guess what the horror movie with a black protagonist the cops showing

03:12up at the end is a different that's that's a different thing and it became

03:16very clear by showing people the movie that they want they needed a hero they

03:21needed they needed and the movie to be an escape what I love about the current

03:26ending is that moment you're talking about where the the police show up the

03:31audience does all the work of the original ending and then I so it's have my cake and eat it too

03:38yeah you really do that's exactly right

03:40I'd like each of you to name one screenplay that has particularly influenced you or stuck out for you

03:50you know I want to go back to the Stepford Wives and Rosemary's Baby as well

03:57both both Ira Levin good Lord stories and yeah for me the those those movies were

04:04both extremely inspiring because what they did within the thriller genre was this

04:13very delicate tightrope walk that sort of honored the protagonist in a way that you

04:21you rarely see in in in the genre these days and I guess what I mean is they the the the characters

04:33in that movie the protagonists are are smart and they're investigative and they're on the trail

04:39and there's never a point that every step into weird town that those movies makes it doesn't equal

04:48there's an equal effort to justify why the character doesn't run screaming and that to me is that that

04:56that sort of dance between showing something weird and over the top and then showing how easily it can

05:03be replaced with how weird reality is was that's you know that's the technique I brought to get out

Jordan Peele Says 'Get Out' Was "Meant to Be a More Direct, Brutal Wake-Up" | Writer Roundtable

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