Jordan Peele’s surreal Oscar journey after ‘Get Out’ struck chord with audiences.
Jordan Peele wasn’t sure how “Get Out” would fare with audiences, up until the moment the movie was released. But the writer-director says his confidence soared that weekend when he decided to sneak into screenings as a civilian — and saw people laughing, being challenged and being terrified in all the ways he intended. “It was surreal, and there was nothing like it,” Peele says. “I did that a couple of times. I saw the movie maybe 10 times in the theater. That’s the best reward after years of work — feeling the audience respond in a way that the movie was designed to have them respond.” “Get Out” has experienced a whirlwind of success
since then, and the mood continues to be surreal for Peele, less than a week before the Academy Awards on Sunday, March 4. “Get Out” is a best picture contender, and the first-time filmmaker was nominated for directing and screenwriting awards.
It wasn’t easy to get funding for the unusual sociological thriller. “Get Out” features a black man named Chris (best actor nominee Daniel Kaluuya, who most recently stars in “Black Panther”) who meets his girlfriend’s white parents and becomes ensnared in their house of racial horrors. The anticipated box office numbers were high when “Get Out” was released last year on Feb. 24, but not off the charts.
Then the Universal Pictures release had an unusually strong Sunday — even though it was the night of the 2017 Academy Awards. The following week, the film’s take dropped less than 20 percent, another sign of incredible word of mouth. After a sustained original theatrical run and couple of re-releases, the $4.5 million movie has grossed more than $250 million worldwide. All for a movie released in February, which — before “Get Out” and “Black Panther” shattered the rules — was a month considered a dumping ground for movies.
Even more important to Peele than the box office return was the personal response from fans. “Get Out” has themes surrounding the frustration and helplessness that black people feel in America, with Chris being hypnotized and falling into the “sunken place,” a quicksand of the soul that immobilizes him as he watches his fate.
Peele says the paintings, digital art, drawings, poems and photography portraying Chris, the sunken place and other movie symbols started pouring in pretty much simultaneously.
“The ... film spoke to people, and specifically the concept of the sunken place seemed to resonate with people,” says Peele, who has some of the artwork in his office. “It really stuck out to me as a special part of the accomplishment.”
There are other underdog stories among the best picture nominees, including “Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut. But Peele’s “Get Out” backstory is one for the ages. The “Key & Peele” co-star made it to Oscar night with a horror film. The last horror genre film to receive a nomination was “The Sixth Sense” in 1999; the last one to win was “Silence of the Lambs” in 1992.
Peele is busy for the near future, co-creating TV versions of “Lovecraft Country” and a “Twilight Zone” reboot through his company Monkeypaw Productions. But he is writing another film, scheduled for a 2019 release by “Get Out” distributor Universal Pictures.
And Peele says he wouldn’t mind setting a film in San Francisco someday. His wife of two years, actor/ writer/comedian Chelsea Peretti, is from the East Bay.
“I really love San Francisco and the Bay Area, mostly for Hitchcock,” Peele says. “Movies like ‘Vertigo’ and ‘The Birds.’ There’s just a really magical aesthetic.”
After talking San Francisco films — he’s a fan of Philip Kaufman’s 1978 “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” remake as well — Peele comes back to “Get Out” and that opening weekend, almost exactly one year earlier.
He admits that he didn’t think “Get Out” would be a major Oscar contender, but it was because of factors outside the actual film — the release date, the challenging subject matter, the fact that February movies aren’t usually remembered at the end of the year.
“I’m in a perpetual state of denial and ‘pinch me.’ I’ll kind of have to look back when it’s over and say, ‘Wow, that happened?’ ” Peele says. “Just to be able to be a part and a fly on the wall in that world and that environment, and be honored that night with three nominations. There’s no context that makes that make sense yet.”