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Jordan Peele has already made history with his latest horror flick, Us and we’re still thinking about the film’s masterful performances and riveting messages.
TheGrio sat down with the award-winning director to find out what went in to crafting his latest masterpiece and why he used bunnies to scare the hell out of us.
“There’s many reasons,” he says when asked about the real reason behind the bunnies. “You know there’s some some allusions to ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and they’re very scary to me. But also as somebody who’s seen the film, you can understand there is a an Easter allusion to this movie. There is a sort of a a dark dark rising of a messiah…so Easter.”
‘Us’ puts the genius of Jordan Peele and Lupita Nyong’o on full display
The film that reunited Black Panther stars, Winston Duke and Lupita Nyong’o offers plenty of reasons to marvel, but perhaps the most memorable aspect of the movie is the stirring performances Nyong’o served up. While contemplating his complicated story, Jordan Peele knew the Oscar-winning actress was the right one for the job.
“I had her him in my mind when I was writing the script because she’s such an iconic performer. And when it came time to cast it I think that was the the thing,” he says of choosing Nyong’o. “She’s a singular performer. There’s only been one Lupita. There’s only ever been one Lupita…It also hit me she just commits so hard to everything she’s doing. This is a movie that takes full commitment, so I thought it would be an iconic match of actor performances.”
Although Peele set out with a vision of what Us would be, he reveals the film that’s full of social commentary and underlying messages eventually took on a life of it’s own.
“You do a lot of work in the beginning stages to sort of create a foundation of themes that connect to each other and have a sort of structural integrity to them. When you do that, the the movie begins to tell you what it is at a certain point,” he explains. “At any juncture at any point making this film I’m making I’m also a realization…you just try and put as many layers as possible in there.”
Us is in theaters now.
Check out the full interview above.