When writer-director Jordan Peele and British actor Daniel Kaluuya teamed up to make the 2017 film Get Out, they proved that horror was a genre as worthy of awards as any other.
The movie took a win for Peele in the best original screenplay category and made a star of London-born actor Kaluuya.
Since then, they’ve both been busy, with Kaluuya getting his own Oscar last year for his portrayal of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah.
Now their latest film Nope sees them working together again, and again stretching a genre – this time sci-fi with a flying saucer movie which examines our obsession with spectacle, exploitation and the film industry itself.
Kaluuya plays horse handler OJ. Pic: Universal
While stars like Kaluuya may represent the glamourous side of the business, the reality is that there are many unsung workers who are the backbone of Hollywood.
The actor told Sky News we should recognise movie-making for what it is: “Glamour is how you sell the film, but the reality is it’s a job.
“You’re making something that doesn’t exist, so that’s always challenging, you know? It’s always a graft… There are so many people that go into making a film – there’s the grips, there’s the camera department, there’s the sound, there’s so much kind of graft.
“So, it’s good that this film shows the kind of reality of one of the crew members on the shoot, and it’s not all glamour.”
Kaluuya’s co-star Keke Palmer agreed: “There are a lot of people that are forgotten, and they’re only forgotten because everything they do is not on film.
“How we believe that something isn’t happening or something isn’t valid because you don’t see it filmed – I think that is also so much of what it’s about, is sometimes the best moments you’re not going to catch on camera, you know, and that happens a lot in film.
“You don’t see the best moments – you just see the part that we captured.”
Keke Palmer plays Em, OJ’s sister. Pic: Universal
With its themes of introspection, as well as genuinely scary moments and some unanswered questions Nope will stay with audiences long after they’ve left the cinema.
Kaluuya says he’s only interested in making movies that have that kind of impact: “I’m not fearing of being bad, I think [I’m in] fear of being forgettable.
“You know, it’s like when you put so many hours and time into something and people go ‘huh’ and carry on with their lives.
“So, the fact that we make films that whether it stays in your mind or stays in your heart or whatever is it, it stays with you.”
Peele with his Oscar for best original screenplay in 2017
He says he was keen to work with Peele again, and that despite their careers both rocketing since the success of Get Out, not much has changed between them.
“There was a change in the sense that we were just a bit more sure of what we were doing,” he explained.
“But we just did what we used to do when it comes to set, when it comes to character, when it comes to scenes, we just locked in and [focused on] how do we make this work and how do we bring the character to the audience?”
Palmer, who plays the sister of Kaluuya’s character, says she too concentrated on the acting job in hand.
She says it was only after making the film that she let herself get absorbed by its wider context.
“I was so focused on my character, I knew the big themes of what it was about, but I don’t think I was really able to start truly unpacking it until I saw it all together.
“Because if you kind of think about the whole thing while you’re filming, it could be distracting in terms of the part you’re playing in it all, so I really wanted to be the tool for what Emerald was meant to, you know, assist within the story.
“So, after I’ve been able to really kind of get into the entirety of it all.”
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Kaluuya says playing horse handler OJ – a man of few words – gave him an opportunity to learn something new.
“As Keke was saying, it was like I was just focused on OJ – we’re the acting department, so we just kind of look on that and focus on that.
“We understand the themes, we understand what’s happening and then you have to zero in and talk about the truth, what is the truth for this scene?
“So [with] OJ I learnt a lot about stillness and calmness and how you can connect to beings without communication, without vocabulary – that was a big thing that I took away from the film.”
Nope is out in UK cinemas now.