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a14 people & arts
Tuesday 26 July 2022
Q&A: Jordan Peele on the dreams and nightmares of ‘Nope’

By JAKE COYLE Presence with a capital P. I
AP Film Writer can't describe it, but I knew
NEW YORK (AP) — There's if I could bottle that and
little in contemporary mov- put it into a horror movie,
ies quite like the arrival of it might change the way
a new Jordan Peele film. people look at the sky.
They tend to descend omi- AP: When the U.S. govern-
nously and mysteriously, a ment declassified video
little like an unknown ob- of Navy pilots encounter-
ject from above that casts ing unexplained aircraft
an expanding, darkening — something your movie
shadow the closer it comes. references — how did you
"Nope," the writer-director's react? Were you affected
third film, is nearly here. Af- by those images?
ter Peele's singular debut, Peele: I was. It made it very
"Get Out," about the pos- real, very much in the mo-
session of Black bodies and ment. It's one of the rea-
the fallacy of post-racial sons, I guess, I can proudly
America, and his follow- say this movie is based
up, "Us," a monstrous tale on a true story. But what
of doppelgangers and so- was most nerve-wracking
cietal mirrors, the closely- or scary to me about the
kept-under-wraps "Nope" whole thing is that you'd
brings a new set of hor- like to think that when ac-
rors and unsettling meta- tual video proof of UFOs
phors. For Peele, who writes comes out that something
through shooting and would change in our life-
considers the conversa- style, not it's really business
tion generated by a movie This image released by Universal Pictures shows actor Daniel Kaluuya, left, and writer/director as usual. It just proves that
one of its main ingredients, Jordan Peele on the set of "Nope." there is a desensitization to
"Nope" is far from a finished Associated Press spectacle. We're addict-
project. ed and we're in over our
"Movie's done," Peele said Universal Studios Holly- AP. The Eadweard Muy- Peele: Yes. I've been trying heads with this addiction.
in a recent interview. "I'm wood. Peele's dark world is bridge loop looms over to put that together. It's a We have proof of UFOs or
still writing it." increasingly ours. "Nope'; your characters sequel, it's an antidote, it's UAPs (unidentified aerial
It's Peele's most ambitious For Peele, as he said speak- are said to be descendants a reboot, it's an answer to phenomena), but the inter-
film yet, a flying saucer hor- ing recently by Zoom from from its unnamed rider. To the way films began and est with the major public
ror that digs into the na- Los Angeles, "Nope" is you, what does it mean that have continued. goes so far. It's very interest-
ture of spectacle and the about reaching for a kind the erasure of Black men AP: Why do you think in writ- ing.
desire to document it — a of Hollywood movie once was there at the foundation ing "Nope" your thoughts AP: How focused are you
multithreaded theme that unattainable. He pointedly of cinema? went back to the beginning on crafting your own films
encompasses Hollywood opens the film with Ead- Peele: It's a sad part of this of film? from the bottom up?
history and "Nope," itself. weard Muybridge's 1887 industry. It was something Peele: Part of the the world Peele: Nothing is more re-
Daniel Kaluuya and Keke photographic study show- I was learning at a good of "Nope" is flirting with real warding than being able to
Palmer star as a brother ing a Black rider on a horse. point for myself in this story. Hollywood and the Hol- lead the charge on some-
and sister in a family horse It was one of the first mov- I felt like five, 10 years ago, lywood that takes place thing that comes from
wrangling business for film ing pictures. But while the I would never have been in my liminal dreams and somewhere deep, and to
productions. Their Califor- name of the horse and its able to sell this movie to nightmares. In real life, of get the support of a team
nia ranch is visited by a owner was recorded, the anyone. So I'm juxtapos- the prominent Hollywood on something like that. I
strange and violent force in name of the Black jockey is ing this origin story of film horse trainers, there's not feel like if I were working off
the clouds that they strive unknown. at the same time I'm trying an African American one of someone else's property,
to capture on film. "I feel like this is the first mo- to make a story that's scary I'm representing. The Hay- I would owe something to
"Nope," which opens in the- ment that anyone would and joyous and adventur- woods are a very made- someone else. Besides that
aters Friday, also extends ever allow me or anyone ous and everything I love up family and notion. It core piece of inspiration, it
Peele's own self-conjured to make this movie. And so about film. It just felt very was fun to weave the Hol- just doesn't seem as fun to
mythology. His movies are I had to take advantage. fitting for that starting point lywood fiction with reality me.
very loosely tethered to- I had to go as big as pos- to be acknowledged and and try and make a seam- AP: After "Get Out," you
gether (some fictional es- sible," said Peele. "I was like: have ancestral implications less immersion into what's suggested you would em-
tablishments appear in 'Let's go.'" for our main characters. real and what's not. bark on a series of genre
several of them), and now Responses have been ed- AP: Do you think of your AP: Since seeing your film, films that grapple with big
even encompass a "Nope" ited for brevity and clarity. movie as like an antidote clouds have taken on a societal issues. Three films
theme park attraction at ___ to that film? sinister appearance to me. in, where are you are in
What led you to build your that project?
LIKE US ON film around that image of Peele: I feel like I'm off to
an unmoving cloud?
the races. I just don't know
Peele: The beauty of the if I could limit how many
sky is enthralling — the first films I have that are me. I'm
movies, in a way. Every starting to lose sight of what
now and then you'll see a I would be doing if I wasn't
cloud that sits alone and doing movies like this. So I
Facebook.com/arubatoday/ is too low, and it gives me would say the project has
this vertigo and this sense of extended.q