美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'Get Out,' Jordan Peele Tackles The 'Human Horror' Of Racial Fear

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

If you're a fan of sketch¹ comedy, then you very likely know the name Jordan Peele, along with his partner Keegan-Michael Key. He wrote and performed in the show "Key And Peele" that ran for five seasons on Comedy Central and earned both a Peabody Award and two primetime Emmys for its hilarious² and deeply pointed³ take on race and culture. And one thing you might have picked up if you watched the show is the way it sometimes mixed humor and horror. The sketch about the zombies who refused to eat black people comes to mind.

So now Jordan Peele has taken that strategy with a new movie "Get Out" to a new level. He wrote, directed and produced it. It's already being called a bombshell social critique, fearless and a must-see after its debut⁴ at the Sundance Film Festival. It comes out on Friday, and Jordan Peele is with us now to tell us more about it. He's at our studios at NPR West. Jordan Peele, thank you so much for joining us.

JORDAN PEELE: Thank you so much for having me. It's so great to be here.

MARTIN: Well, I think I have to start with congratulations on everything. You've had a busy couple of months. You wrote and co-starred in the comedy "Keanu" with your friend Keegan-Michael Key, and I also hear, if I may say, you're expecting your first child. Is that true?

PEELE: I am.

MARTIN: Well, congratulations on all of that.

PEELE: Thank you. It's absolutely terrifying and wonderful at the same time.

MARTIN: Even more terrifying than making this movie?

PEELE: Oh, absolutely. As a horror fan, it's like kids are scary. Like, I'm already dreading⁵ waking up in the middle of the night to see a child standing⁶ in the doorway⁷ or something.

MARTIN: (Laughter).

PEELE: Daddy - I don't know.

MARTIN: Well, as a parent myself, you're right.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: And you have no idea, so...

PEELE: I have no idea. OK.

MARTIN: You have no idea. But anyway - so let's get back to the movie.

PEELE: OK.

MARTIN: So some people have called "Get Out" the most woke horror film of 2017. How did you get the idea for this?

PEELE: 2017 - this is the only woke horror movie of all time - save for "Night Of The Living Dead." But that's just it. You know, I felt like race has not been dealt with in, you know, my favorite genre⁸ which is horror. Every other human horror has it's sort of classic horror movie to go along with it, so I kind of wanted to fill the gap in that piece of the genre conversation.

MARTIN: The opening scene starts with something very disturbing. It's a black man walking alone in a leafy green suburb attacked out of nowhere. You don't know who attacked him at that point, but it's - echoes of - if I may say Trayvon Martin, for example. I wondered is that what you had in mind?

PEELE: Obviously, the tone of this movie was a big question mark. We had to get it right because it is dealing⁹ with subject matter that hits home to a lot of people, but I wanted to represent the fact that what many people may not understand is the fear that a black man has walking in a white suburb at night. It is real, and I wanted to put the audience in that position so they can see it and feel it.

MARTIN: And then you take it to another level. At the core of the story is Chris who is black, goes home with his white girlfriend, Rose, to meet her family. And they're very polite and seemingly liberal, and they, like, make a point of telling him how much they love President Obama, for example. But there's just something that is just off. But anybody who's been in an interracial relationship, I think, can relate to that kind of feeling out like, OK, what's going on? And you - do you want to talk a little bit more about that?

PEELE: You know, I took a lot of cues from "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?" The first act of the film kind of resembles that movie. And one of the reasons that movie, I think, was so successful and important was because, you know, aside from being a racial commentary, anybody can relate to the fear of meeting your potential future in-laws for the first time. It's a very scary thing, and you want to present yourself right.

But when you add race to that equation, there is this fear. If they don't know that I'm black, for example, I don't want to see them realize, oh, this is not what I had expected. So in this movie, the parents are very welcoming. They don't skip a beat. They don't care about the color of his skin which to me was like almost creepier because of what we know this world to be.

MARTIN: But then the film at some point takes this kind of sharp U-turn where it goes into another fear - or shall I call it resentment¹⁰ that many African-Americans have, that they feel that white America doesn't just want to enjoy the talents that black people have, they want to be black people without actually having to pay the social price.

PEELE: Yeah. I mean, I think you're really talking about the party sequence. Chris arrives at this party which is populated with Rose's grandfather's friends, all of whom are white. You know, everybody wants to connect with him. Everybody wants to say, hey, you know, I know Tiger Woods or feel his muscles. It's all a form of the very true cliche¹¹ of can I touch your hair?

MARTIN: Does any of this come from your own life experience?

PEELE: My wife Chelsea Peretti is, you know, of course, white, and I did write this movie before I met her. Without taking it that literal, this is about the African-American experience. It's about the feelings of being an outsider of being the other that we confront and also the presumptions¹² that I make as a black man about others.

MARTIN: Well, obviously, you know, I'm dying to know how it went when you met your wife's parents for the first time. Clearly, you survived the experience, and they didn't (laughter) - but they're cool.

PEELE: They're pretty cultured people, and...

MARTIN: None of their friends felt up your muscles?

PEELE: I don't have muscles, so that's probably why. But my in-laws are amazing people, very intelligent, very warm, very empathetic. I think one of the big problems with how we talk about race, though, is us versus¹³ them. They're racist¹⁴. I'm not. This movie is not about this idea that white people are racist, and no one else is or that white people are villains¹⁵.

We all have issues to deal with in regards to race internally. It's part of being a human being, unfortunately, is the urge to prejudge people. So I think the only way we can really approach this is to say, look, this is a human trait, and it's how we as individuals choose to deal with our own internal racism¹⁶ and face it. That's our only way out.

MARTIN: Jordan Peele, thanks so much for talking to us.

PEELE: Thank you so much.

MARTIN: That's Jordan Peele. His movie "Get Out" is in theaters nationwide this Friday.

1 sketch   

n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述

参考例句：

• My sister often goes into the country to sketch. 我姐姐常到乡间去写生。
• I will send you a slight sketch of the house.我将给你寄去房屋的草图。

2 hilarious   

adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed

参考例句：

• The party got quite hilarious after they brought more wine.在他们又拿来更多的酒之后，派对变得更加热闹起来。
• We stop laughing because the show was so hilarious.我们笑个不停，因为那个节目太搞笑了。

3 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

4 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

5 dreading   

v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She was dreading having to broach the subject of money to her father. 她正在为不得不向父亲提出钱的事犯愁。
• This was the moment he had been dreading. 这是他一直最担心的时刻。

6 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

7 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

8 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

9 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

10 resentment   

n.怨愤，忿恨

参考例句：

• All her feelings of resentment just came pouring out.她一股脑儿倾吐出所有的怨恨。
• She cherished a deep resentment under the rose towards her employer.她暗中对她的雇主怀恨在心。

11 cliche   

n./a.陈词滥调(的)；老生常谈(的)；陈腐的

参考例句：

• You should always try to avoid the use of cliche. 你应该尽量避免使用陈词滥调。
• The old cliche is certainly true:the bigger car do mean bigger profits.有句老话倒的确说得不假:车大利大。

12 presumptions   

n.假定( presumption的名词复数 )；认定；推定；放肆

参考例句：

• Much modern technological advance is based on these presumptions of legal security. 许多现代技术的发展都是基于这些法律安全设想的考虑。 来自互联网
• What visions, what expectations and what presumptions can outsoar that flight? 那一种想象，那一种期望和推测能超越他之上呢？ 来自互联网

13 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

14 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

15 villains   

n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 )；罪犯；（小说、戏剧等中的）反面人物；淘气鬼

参考例句：

• The impression of villains was inescapable. 留下恶棍的印象是不可避免的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some villains robbed the widow of the savings. 有几个歹徒将寡妇的积蓄劫走了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

16 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。