Hollywood legend Norman Lear took the stage to present the 2018 Producers Guild Stanley Kramer Award to Jordan Peele’s Get Out tonight at the PGA Awards, calling the film “terrifying and groundbreaking.” He added, “It’s a horror movie where a black guy isn’t the first one killed.”
“Ummm…alright, that’s cool,” said Peele after Lear’s introduction. The writer-director said he was honored to know Lear as a friend, adding, “You can use my body for your brain anytime.”
“This is so f*cking surreal,” Peele said after recognizing F. Gary Gray and Christopher Nolan in the audience.
Peele went on to say that when he went out to do this movie, he had to ask himself what really scares him. He joked, “it’s not white people.”
“It’s silence,” he said. “Get Out is my protest against that.”
He continued, “That’s how I came up with the idea for the sunken place. The sunken place is the system that silences the voice of women, minorities, and of other people…the sunken place is the President who calls athletes sons of bitches for expressing their beliefs on the field and the homeland of our most beautiful immigrants sh*tholes. Every day there is proof that we are in the sunken place.”
“I usually don’t go to a dark place like that,” said Peele to lighten the mood in the Beverly Hilton ballroom.
The Kramer award honors a production, producer or other individuals “whose achievement or contribution illuminates and raises public awareness of important social issues.” Get Out joins Jeff Nichols’ Loving, which was honored last year.
Get Out was produced by Peele as well as Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Edward H. Hamm Jr. and Peele, who made his directorial debut on the pic, which bowed in February via Universal and grossed $254.3 million at the global box office.
Get Out was recently a double nominee at the Golden Globes and has earned a SAG ensemble nomination, along with several best picture wins from critics groups.