With the Writer’s Guild of America having handed out the 2018 WGA screenplay award to “Get Out,” many are now expecting the Jordan Peele penned social satire to win the Best Original Screenplay Oscar come March 4th. The film was released almost one year ago to this day and it was almost impossible to think that this small-budgeted movie from one half of the comedy duo known as Key and Peele, would be the most critically acclaimed movie of 2017. Alas the times we live in have done an immense service in making Peele’s film such a relevant and visionary masterpiece.
Given that the film is the front-runner in the Original Screenplay category, The Hollywood Reporter interviewed Peele and some of this year’s other writing nominees to take a look at some of the on-set tweaks that were made during the creative process. A particular, noteworthy fact emerged from the THR interview, about a small change Peele made during production which made a twist in “Get Out” more powerful than it was originally intended to be.
After the film’s tense dinner scene with the Armitage family and Chris, the script originally had Daniel Kaluuya‘s character confronting Rose (Allison Williams) on her family’s racism and showing her his intentions to leave. The original draft had Rose pleading with Chris to stay, but Peele decided to axe that and reverse the situation.
“I knew Rose had to manipulate Chris and the audience, so I rewrote the scene as though she is going through her awakening to racism and is the one popping off about leaving,” said Peele. So now, instead of Chris deciding to leave, it was Rose, which consequentially had Chris having to disarm the situation and plead for Rose to stay.
Peele added that the fact that a black character was actually saying, “It’s OK, I can take this kind of racism,” brought an extra dimension to the screenplay, but that it would also make the reveal of Rose’s character being part of the family plot to kidnap Chris even more of a shock. “That switch right there might have been the difference in allowing us to have this conversation now. If 80 percent of the people knew at that point Rose was in on what was happening, as opposed to 20 percent who maybe just figured it out, the movie fails in what it’s trying to do.”
The story truly reveals Peele’s depth of talent and sharp instincts as a filmmaker and storyteller. The 39-year-old is already writing his next movie for Universal, which is set to shoot later this year. Plot details are being kept secret but Peele has hinted that it will very much be in the same socially satirical vein as his first film. It opens on March 15, 2019.
