**Spoilers for Jordan Peele’s “Us.” You’ve been warned.**
If you’ve seen “Us,” the latest horror film from writer-director Jordan Peele, you’re probably left with many questions. The trailers and marketing for the horror film are great teases for “Us,” but they sure don’t cover everything the filmmaker throws at you over the run-time. And while you are probably on the hunt for the answers to all those questions that you left the theater left, it doesn’t appear that Peele is going to give you everything you want. However, there is one answer he and star Lupita Nyong’o are willing to share, particularly with the character of Red.
Red is the doppelganger character that Nyong’o plays in the film. As you find out fairly early on, Red and her Tethered brethren have come from the underground to kill their above-ground doubles and take their place. However, most of the Tethered aren’t able to communicate, except Red. (Of course, you find out why later on.) And when Red opens her mouth the first time, the voice that Nyong’o uses to differentiate the character from the other, more normal version, is haunting.
And according to a new interview with the New York Times, Nyong’o went to a very odd place to find inspiration for Red’s very unique voice. In the script, there wasn’t a real description of the voice that Red uses, as Peele explained.
“I described it as a voice that hadn’t been used in years,” Peele said.
Nyong’o started her search for the voice by looking at Robert Kennedy, Jr., the famous political figure (and son of the deceased Senator and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy). RFK, Jr. suffers from a rare illness called spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological disorder that causes involuntary spasms of the larynx.
“I was fascinated, and I started doing research,” Nyong’o said. “I met with people who have the condition and built it from there.”
She added, “It’s not really understood why it happens, or how it happens. It could be a trauma in your life — someone dying, or a physical assault. It varies. For me, it felt very organic as an inspiration for Red, who’s had this kind of strangled past.”
The past that is hinted at is further explained in the film, and we’re not going to spoil that here. Needless to say, it’s traumatic and unlike anything you’ve probably seen before.
“Red’s character is very id-driven, so one of the things that we were looking for was for that to come across in the quality of her voice — just the raw emotion, the raw rage,” Nyong’o said.
So, with this new voice in tow, Nyong’o went to Jordan Peele to see what he thought. And unsurprisingly, he was creeped out.
“It was like nothing I had ever heard,” Peele said. “So creepy.”
“Us” is in theaters now.