Q&A Hollywood
Q: I just watched the movie “It Lives Inside.” I heard it was made by Jordan Peele, but I didn't see his name anywhere in the credits.
A: Bishal Dutta, writer and director of 2023 horror film “It Lives Inside,” would argue that there are ways of “making” a movie that don’t include having a hand in the production.
“None of us that are getting to make interesting cultural horror films right now — none of us get to do it without Jordan Peele and his incredible work on ‘Get Out,’” Dutta told ScreenGeek.net in August.
“Get Out,” Peele’s 2017 horror movie, has been credited with revitalizing the horror genre, while also giving it a social conscience. However, many have since said that Peele’s movies — which also include similar followups “Us” (2019) and “Nope” (2022) — are just building on a longer tradition within horror of being concerned with things like marginalization and oppression.
Either way, Dutta says his movie, a demonic horror story from an Indian American point of view, wouldn’t have been possible without Peele’s success.
That’s also true in more practical ways. “It Lives Inside” was produced by Raymond Mansfield and Sean McKittrick, who also produced “Get Out,” which was by far their biggest hit.
That’s why the film poster said, “From the producers of ‘Get Out,’” which may have caused your confusion.
But Peele’s legacy factors in here, as well. Without the runaway financial success of “Get Out” (it earned $256 million worldwide on a budget of just $4.5 million), Mansfield and McKittrick may not have had the resources, or the boldness, to take a chance on an unknown like Dutta.
Q: Why did Tom Bergeron leave “Dancing With the Stars”? And what's he doing now?
A: Host Tom Bergeron was clearly a little embittered by his exit from “Dancing With the Stars,” but it hasn’t dimmed his enthusiasm for showbiz. Lately it seems he’s been hustling as hard as ever, but for smaller-scale projects that are meaningful to him.
That includes showing up on the podcasts of old friends like former “DWTS” pro Cheryl Burke. On an episode of her podcast, “Sex, Lies and Spray Tans,” Bergeron opened up about his exit from the reality dance competition, saying it was due to them casting former White House press secretary Sean Spicer as a contestant.
He said he pleaded with the producers to keep politics out of the show. He felt that “DWTS’s” value — especially on the cusp of an election year (Spicer appeared on the show in the fall of 2019) — was being “the show that gives people a break from all this bull— —.” [Expletive deleted here because podcasts generally don’t have censors.]
But they went ahead with the casting anyway, and when Bergeron asked to just take that season off, they offered instead to let him out of his contract entirely. So Bergeron said he had to quit. “At that moment, I knew this is probably my last season, because of that one betrayal.”
Since then, he hasn’t taken on another real fulltime gig, instead bouncing between smaller, fun projects. Projects like “Hollywood Radio Players,” an online-only series Bergeron hosts, where actors perform ‘40s-style radio plays, but on camera. It’s a limited, low-budget project that raises money for the Motion Picture and Television Fund.
And he’ll be appearing in what promises to be a pretty heartwarming documentary called “Finding Happy,” about a woman healing herself while doing the same for a rescued sparrow. It’s reported to be filming now, with no release date planned yet.
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