Source: YouTube
Jordan Peele has been making history with his directorial feature film debut Get Out since it first dropped, with his most recent accomplishment being the fifth black director to be nominated for the Oscars' Best Director award (as well as receiving three other Oscar nominations).
READ: Why 'Get Out's' Golden Globe Comedy Submission May Help It Get The Last Laugh This Award Season
However, Peele revealed in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times that he once gave up his dream to be a director which, had he gone through with it, we never would have seen the greatness that is Get Out.
"I left my dream of being a director behind long ago, and I think that was because, while I have a great respect for film, I didn't really believe there was a place for very many black directors," Peele said. "I thought it would be harder for me as a person of color to convince someone to let me use their money to make a movie. Many years later after an odyssey through acting and comedy, I came back to my original dream. And the fact that it's been received the way it has been received teaches me a lot about how I internalized the system."
The answer is both poignant and triumphant, with Peele speaking to how Hollywood's still-predominantly white industry omits stories from people of color. And yet, Peele returned to his dream and became a breakout director through Get Out, the film being a critical and commercial success.
In the interview Peele also speaks on how America is still in "the sunken place," and being the fifth black director to be nominated for Best Director.
"It's such a cool honor, but to be part of the great African American artists acknowledged in this way means a ton because John Singleton, the Spike Lees of the world, are the people who gave me hope," Peele said. "I feel like I'm standing on the shoulders of them, I feel like I'm standing on the shoulders of Ava DuVernay and Ryan Coogler and F. Gary Gray and Dee Rees, who are all just as deserving of this honor, and I know that they'll receive it."
Source: Los Angeles Times
