Unlike last year, Jordan Peele doesn’t have a film of his own in the Oscar hunt. However, that doesn’t mean that Peele didn’t have his hand in at least one of the films being recognized this year. The filmmaker helped produce Spike Lee’s film “BlacKkKlansman,” which finds itself being nominated for all sorts of awards. And in a new interview, Peele and Lee talk about the success of “Get Out,” and how that led to the creation of “BlacKkKlansman” and the future of diverse cinema.
“I saw ‘Get Out,’ and I said, ‘Holy shit,’” Lee said, in a new interview at THR. “I saw it with a black audience first, [and] I said, ‘Let me do an experiment.’ The next day, I saw it with a white audience. The film was hitting at both levels, but there were certain things that the black audience laughed at — I mean, it was insider stuff — but it did not stop the white audience joining.
READ MORE: Spike Lee Credits #OscarsSoWhite Movement For His ‘BlacKkKlansman’ Nominations
He continued, “That’s when I got your phone number, I called you up. I said, ‘Brother, man. You’ve got something here.’ Another thing is how the film has done internationally. Historically, they say, ‘Black folks don’t travel the globe.’ Your film and ‘Black Panther,’ too, it’s going to be very hard [now] for these guys to use that argument again. You were very, very, very important in getting rid of that narrative. That narrative is a lie.”
Peele added, “But my response to that theory of black films don’t travel, I’m like, ‘How do you know? You’re not letting enough black people make films. How many white films don’t travel? You’re not talking about that.’ There is this enormous lack of balance that has prevented black filmmakers from getting opportunities.”
The partnership between Lee and Peele has already reaped some great rewards. In addition to the film festival love and the box office success, “BlacKkKlansman” was nominated for numerous Oscars, including Spike Lee’s first Best Director nomination. And when Lee talks about his thoughts about the nomination, his emotions can best be summed up as conflicted.
“It was great. Here’s the truth: I was happy, I was elated, but a lot had to do with [the nominations] before that,” Lee explained. “My longtime composer Terence Blanchard got his first nomination. My longtime editor Barry Brown. Adam Driver’s first nomination. Whether be it Grammy or Tony or Oscar: As an artist, you need to be very careful about that stuff, because if you start chasing those awards it’s a detrimental effect to your art.”
The filmmaker continued, “I understand that the agent can ask more money for nominations and Oscars, but when you start chasing that it can be very dangerous. [You’ve] given a group, a body, an organization the power to validate your work. Now, everything I’ve ever done is no good because I haven’t won an Oscar? I mean that can be … that’s kind of shaky.”
We’ll have to see if “BlacKkKlansman” earns a coveted trophy or two at this year’s Oscars, which airs on February 24.