Joining Brie Larson – and so much for the best person getting the job – as following his recent movie, Us, breaking box office records, director Jordan Peele comes out and says he will not cast a white dude as a lead in any of his movies.
THR recounts how Peele got mad – and high – about not getting let out of his MADtv contract in order to do Saturday Night Live, so in order to get back at the (white?) producers that wouldn’t let him out of his contract, Peele wrote Get Out, which is a movie where black people are victimized with the white people evil (his words):
Get Out was one of those early scripts. “Every two weeks I’d go, ‘What the f-ck am I doing? I’m writing a movie where a black man is victimized and all the white people are evil and I’m trying to get the audience to have fun,'” he recalled. “But if you could make that fun … that’s what brought me back.”
The article continues with mention that following the success of Get Out, Peele has power and plans on wielding it “judiciously,” which includes not putting white people as the lead:
“I don’t see myself casting a white dude as the lead in my movie. Not that I don’t like white dudes,” he said, nodding over to his moderator pal Roberts. “But I’ve seen that movie.” The line drew loud applause and shouts of agreement. “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.”
Similar to Larson, Peele obviously doesn’t have issues with taking the money from a white dude who pays him or goes to see his flicks, now does he? Pretty interesting.
