A horror movie is only as good as the performances of the people
that, you know, are witnessing the horror.
When you see someone's face terrified, you are scared with them, you are scared for them.
Run.
What would you say is the key to making a truly great horror film?
The key.
You know, I think you have to have a certain empathy and compassion
to make a great horror film.
I mean, a horror movie is only as good as the performances of the people that you know are witnessing the horror.
When you see someone's face terrified, you are scared with them. You are scared for them.
And, you know, my other thing is like, reality.
Try and take whatever your premise is and ground it, make it feel real,
make it feel like it could happen to you,
because if you do that,
then it's just so much scarier than a movie where, like, you know,
nobody ever does the right thing.
So, Jordan Peele asked you to watch ten horror films before production.
What was your relationship with horror before taking on this project?
Was it not really your thing?
Well, I'd taken maybe a 20-year hiatus from horror film
before Jordan asked me to watch these.
When I was younger I used to watch them because my cousins would come over,
and, you know, they were older than me and I had something to prove.
So I'd be like "yeah, I'm watching Michael Jackson's 'Thriller,' so what?
You know, and like watching 'Nightmare on Elm Street' and whatnot,
and then I realized when I was like eight or nine,
that I don't have to torture myself anymore, so I stopped watching them.
What was it like acting opposite of yourself?
It was kind of challenging at first, because
I was really trying to figure out how to,
you know, change into my bad self,
because I've never done a horror movie before
but I love watching them, so I think that that's really where I got my references from.
Gabe seems to be the one that's most committed to his idea of the American Dream.
How would you say that idea evolves for him throughout the film?
I think it has to break.
It has to change his position.
He has to now rely on his wife,
to rely on his family,
and he has to find other ways of exhibiting strength and confidence.
It's funny, in a genre where blackness is usually one of the first casualties,
This movie asks you
what other things can be a casualty of this genre?
The construct of the American Dream, of comfort, of privilege,
ends up being broken down,
and you actually get to see people being people.
Loving each other,
and actually getting closer to each other.
Abandoning possessions, you know, because it doesn't serve you in moments of extremis.
And it's not giving an answer it's just saying a "what if?"
Why was it so important to center this story around a Black family?
I think because it wasn't about race.
You know, we haven't seen the horror movie
with a Black family at the center,
and that is a failure of the industry,
and it has ramifications.
African-Americans have never been able to see ourselves portrayed
buying a boat or going to the beach.
It may seem small to some people,
but I think it's really an effective way of normalizing representation
inside and outside of the community.
It's like there is there is a spectrum of the African-American experience,
and, you know, we deserve to see it in all forms.
And I think what's really powerful about this movie,
what's powerful about 'Moonlight,'
what's powerful about 'Sorry to Bother You,'
and all these other movies,
is that it's really giving a peek into
something that's of our time, which is interrogation of Black psychology.
The honest truth is, you are a product of your environment.
You are a product of your community,
and what outside stimuli affect you?
The policies around you, the world that governs you?
And this shows that.
It shows that any of us can be anything at any
given moment and there's a lot of
color in the spectrum.
The voice of Adelaide's Tethered Red
made me so uncomfortable in like, a really perfect way.
Oh good.
How was that voice developed?
It was inspired by a condition known as spasmodic dysphonia,
which is caused by trauma.
Often it can be emotional or physical trauma.
Sometimes it's inexplicable,
and it is where the vocal folds
involuntarily spasm
and they create this kind of irregular air flow.
[SCARY CHUCKLE]
I experienced someone who had that condition,
and then I looked into it
and it felt fitting that
Red would have would have would have gone through such a thing,
because in the script it said she hadn't used her voice for a long time.
And then I built off of that,
and I worked very closely with my voice therapist,
so that I could make sure that I didn't hurt myself in emulating that condition.
What would you say that she learned the most from your on screen mom, Lupita?
Lupita's such a great actress,
and I definitely want to work with her again, because she's such a big inspiration.
But I think that I really just love
how she accepts herself, just how she is.
I watched a lot of her speeches,
and they were mostly just about her,
and about, just her self-love,
and I think that I really like that about her
and I definitely enjoyed working with her,
because you kind of pick a lot up from that just being with her.
Along the lines of knowing yourself,
and really knowing the people around you,
who would you say is one person that you really can't go 24 hours without talking to?
I've got a lot of strong people around me,
and those are the people that I welcome.
My publicist is in the corner raising her hand.
[LAUGHS]
But I would say but you know a lot of who I have around me are really strong women,
and that includes my mom, my makeup artist, my publicist, my agent,
they're all women.
You know, my sister, everything, significant others, like, everything,
you know?
So I don't think I could go a very long time without talking to any of them,
because they're the other ones who actually built me up
and keep me hella grounded.
Like, "you don't look good today."
[LAUGHS]
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!