Jordan Peele can pretty much write his own ticket at this point. He took a lot of people by surprise with 2017’s Get Out, a breakout hit that earned over $250M on a meager $4M budget and became one of those cultural touchstones that comes around only so often. Peele proved himself again with the $71M opening weekend of Us, but what he accomplished is more than just box incredible box office numbers.
The success of Get Out took the industry by surprise, not just because Peele was an unproven filmmaker, but the cast was largely African-American which is atypical of the horror genre. As Peele went on to show again with Us, casting black leads is something Hollywood should be embracing as audiences are clearly responding to it.
Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (via THR), Peele says he has no intention of going backwards. He could’ve taken any blockbuster gig he wanted and had some studio dictate who his stars would be. But now he’s earned the cred to do his own thing and make the movies he wants to make with the actors of his choosing…
“The way I look at it, I get to cast black people in my movies,” Peele said. “I feel fortunate to be in this position where I can say to Universal, ‘I want to make a $20 million horror movie with a black family.’ And they say yes.”
Peele continued, “I don’t see myself casting a white dude as the lead in my movie. Not that I don’t like white dudes. But I’ve seen that movie. It really is one of the best, greatest pieces of this story, is feeling like we are in this time — a renaissance has happened and proved the myths about representation in the industry are false.”
I love it. Peele is telling stories that audiences haven’t seen before and creating new stars in the process. Audiences are responding to it, and there’s no reason for Peele to turn back now. Next up for him is his Twilight Zone revival over on CBS All Access. You can watch a new trailer for that below.
