February will mark exactly 4 years since the theatrical release of Get Out, Jordan Peele’s directorial debut, which had a unique take on racism in America.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Peele joined Bradley Whitford, who co-starred in his psychological horror hit for a Democratic fundraiser on Sunday night for Tuesday’s Georgia runoff election, facilitated by ActBlue. “We need to win these two seats,” Whitford urged, referring to the two open U.S. Senate seats (Democrats Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are in a tight race against Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue).
In 2019, Peele followed up with Us, which was also a hit. With acclaimed projects such as Lovecraft Country and anticipated projects such as Candyman, Peele has since been on his producing steez. Naturally, we’re on the lookout for Peele’s next big project—as director or star—but apparently, there had been reports that Peele was done with his tenure in front of the camera. Well, Whitford asked Peele straight up and the filmmaker confirmed he had a “total lack of interest” in being in front of the camera anytime in the future.
“I like watching my movies,” Peele told Whitford. “I can watch the films I direct [but] watching me perform just feels like, it’s a bad kind of masturbatory. It’s masturbation you don’t enjoy. I feel like I got to do so much and it is a great feeling. When I think about those great moments when you’re basking in something you said that feels funny. When I think about all that, I think I got enough.”
I will say, it looks like Peele was careful with his words—it doesn’t look like he wants to give up acting entirely as he seems to have a few voiceover projects on the horizon. According to a 2019 Vulture article, Peele will be reuniting with his longtime comedy partner Keegan-Michael Key in a “comedy revolving around two demon brothers” called Wendell and Wild (each has writing credits on the project) and Peele will be voicing a supporting character in a “surrealistic thriller/horror film performed entirely by lifelike puppets,” called Abruptio. The two upcoming projects are also currently credited on his IMDb page with a “filming” status.
On Sunday, Whitford and Peele also reminisced about filming Get Out and Peele reflected on what the movie ultimately means to the larger cultural zeitgeist.
“I knew I was making a movie for us,” Peele mused. “I knew I was making a movie for me that didn’t feel represented in the genre and for everybody, for all the Black people who are screaming at the screen, ‘Have some sense, get the fuck out of the house, get some Black people in here so somebody can do the right thing.’ When that hit home and I felt that, it was just extreme warmth. Everything else after that was just gravy.”
“The one thing I will say about the unconsciously racist white liberals is they’re ready to watch that movie and try to understand, there’s a penance that some people are ready for […] I was happy that white people seemed to get it,” he added, also noting that they filmed in Alabama among Trump supporter crew members but the tensions were not as high as they would be in a Trump-presidency era. “It spoke to me about the power of story.”