Understanding Jordan Peele and 'Us'
LOS ANGELES – In the world of Jordan Peele, comedy and horror work together.
“Horror and comedy are so linked,” explained the writer-directorproducer of the hit satirical horror film “Get Out,” which was also Jordan’s directorial feature film debut. “They're so close. They're almost the doppelgangers of one another, right? Horror is the tethered version of comedy. It has all the same ideas of rhythm, of being truthful, except in a much scarier way.”
His latest feature, the psychological horror film “Us,” deals exactly with those doppelgangers. It tells of a family who goes on a vacation just to be confronted by a group of doppelgangers or their evil twins.
Starring Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke and Elisabeth Moss, the movie, according to Jordan, was inspired by “The Twilight Zone” episode “Mirror Image.”
How important is it for him to be understood by his audiences, we asked the 40-year-old auteur.
“To be understood is a tricky one,” he said. “My goal is that people have a fun time while watching, and have a lot to talk about afterward. With my favorite horror movies, and the scariest ones to me, there are question marks at the end and it’s not wrapped up in a neat bow. But it is important for me to understand what’s going on.”
So what was the germ of the idea? Where did it start?
“The germ of the idea was my fear of doppelgangers,” confessed the filmmaker who was born in New York. “Since I was young, I had this vision of myself standing across the subway platform and it just shuddered me to my core. And you ask yourself why that is, and when I decided to make this movie, I realized that if there was a doppelganger family, well that would open up a whole new doorway of possibilities and be something I had never seen in the pantheon of doppelganger films.”
As for his writing strategy, he revealed, “With both ‘Get Out’ and this, I created a pretty detailed mythology, and set of rules, and when it is okay to break those rules and when it is not. The big decision here with this one, when you create the mythology is, how much do you give to the audience at the end versus how much you don’t. And for me, my choice is to give them enough to be able to discuss and to be able to discover things, but with this film, I feel like if you throw everything on there, it ruins the scariness of a film.”
As for its social message or it addressing a collective fear, Jordan disclosed, “This movie was about, like you said, what are our demons collectively? What is the shadow self of the ‘we,’ of the ‘us?’ And I did, I embarked on this, in terms of commentary, my starting point was the faction that is the United States and I used images of the lighter half of the duality of this country, images of hope, images of privilege, to, ultimately, tell this message, to subvert the myth that America is the good guy.
“The privileges that I and we enjoy as Americans are built on the backs of atrocities, and of people who suffer and have suffered for us to have. And, yet, we are a country that tends to point its finger. All of my movies are about humanity and about human demons. I don’t think this is a notion that is unique to America, but in my experience, the imagery of ‘Hands Across America,’ for example, is a very dualistic one. It happened in the ’80s and it sort of suggested, if we all hold hands, we can stop hunger. That intrinsically is scary to me because, is it really a solution? Or is it a way to not have to solve the problem?”
He explained the idea of the doppelganger family. “Every character, I wanted to make sure to not just make this a blanket being that all had the same rules,” he explained. “I wanted to make each doppelganger character be an individual, with their own things. That being said, I started with this idea, I’m terrified of cockroaches. I grew up in New York City, with these big, old cockroaches, and you'd walk into a room and they'd just be right there, still, on your wall.
“In fact, one time, I remember walking to my mother’s room and there were four on the wall, out of nowhere. And I took another step, and they all went (blows lips) and they all skittered. So, from an aesthetic and physical point of view, I started with that, and Lupita was the Queen Cockroach, right? She has to embody a regal sensibility, an erudite aura, which she does so fantastically. Yeah, the project, in terms of the tether and getting the actors on board, was
Horror is the tethered version of comedy. It has all the same ideas of rhythm, of being truthful, except in a much scarier way.
also a give and take. Listening to them, helping identify what's scary about this character and what's unique, because they each have to be scary in their own way.”
What makes Lupita so special and different? “Well, first and foremost, you listen to her,” he pointed out. “She’s an expert at what she does, and the first few days and weeks were spent with listening to how she experienced the role when she was reading it, and building on that, and a common understanding of who this character was, that she could then go on and continue to be the expert on the character. That’s what I’m doing in every facet of the moviemaking industry. I’m hiring experts to help take some of the burden off of me and add new elements that I couldn't possibly have come up with. So, for me, the most important quality in being a director is listening. And she was just an absolute amazing and inspiring performer to work with. Seeing her do these two roles, it was not easy, very difficult for everybody, but she had a really, really difficult task and she just came and delivered.”
Did his success affect his creativity, we asked.
“It inspired me,” he confessed. “It's remarkable to go from making a movie that I feel like they’re going to pull the plug any second and I’ve managed to fool the world into thinking this is a good idea, to go from that state to, I get to make another one and they’re going to trust me. I can’t tell you how much of a lifelong dream this was, so I think the negative aspects of this type of attention, I take with a grain of salt and realize I’m in a very privileged position where I can affect people, affect the industry. If not by making them think then by giving them a good time. So, my mission is clear and it starts with me making the movie I wish somebody would make for me.”
Does he see himself getting out of doing horror films in the near future, we asked.
“Horror is my favorite genre, because I feel like fear is one of the most, if not the most, powerful emotion and one that is responsible for the most evil in the world, because it causes us to ignore and to suppress things. We tend to avoid fear as best as possible. And, specifically, fear in ourselves. Our fear in blame, in guilt. So, I feel like fear is both the most important and underutilized genre in storytelling, but also for me, it's the most effective. Horror movies affect me like no other movie.”
His greatest fear?
“Death. Straight up,” he replied and then added, “Death by cockroach! That’s a movie right there!”