Dev Patel and Jordan Peele Talk Directing and Producing Monkey Man
Click to viewI started transcribing the beginning of the interview and then just summarized the rest of it under the cut for those that are interested; there are no spoilers for the film but if you watch the video of the interview itself, it does have some clips from the movie just to give warning for those wanting to go into it blind like I did!
Dev: Let me ask you the first thing
Jordan: Okay
Dev: What attracted you to this little gremlin of a movie?
Jordan: When I first heard about the film, I didn't actually even realize that you directed. I just heard that Dev Patel is starring in a revenge, action movie. I got to see this, this is perfect casting. And then when I saw it and realized that it had an incredible director, whoever this was, and then when I realized it was you, I was like "oh, man..., this guy's about to go on the ride of his life."
Dev: It was like a pretty magical moment for me, I was like, because the film had been dropped by our previous studio, He Who Shall Not Be Named, and then I'm like kind of licking my wounds. I'm in the countryside of England doing a low-budget horror film (OP wants to know when this film is coming out!!!) and then I get this call from our agent and he's like "have you heard of this guy Jordan Peele?" I was like "come on" and he's like "Jordan's seen it, he wants to talk to you and today" and we got on the phone. And you, the first thing you said is "tell me everything, like I know you've been through the works, tell me everything." And we spoke for like three hours, it was like a therapy session for me.
Jordan: Wow. I knew you had been through a lot and by watching the film, you can see someone who, you know, from a directing standpoint - from an acting standpoint alone, this is an incredible feat but from a directing standpoint, I was just blown away and I mean I think, to really get down to it, what I saw immediately in that cut was like, this guy is making movies the way they used to be made. He's making a good film here and he's giving us everything, it's so generous. We do, we get the action that's better than any modern action I'm looking at and then the amount of depth and the amount of attention to story and us believing in this particular revenge, [makes chef's kiss gesture]
Dev: Thank you, man
Jordan: Love it
Dev: And it was like you spoke to all of the kind of corners and intricacies of the film, like you understood what I was, I mean, as one of the kind of heavy weights of kind of genre film making right now, you know and you've really kind of busted the door open for a lot of people that look like myself and yourself.
Jordan: Thank you, man
Dev: You know, the first time we spoke and you spoke about like culturally, what this could mean, you know, infusing the genre with, you know, our kind of breed of action and also like giving people like vegetables in an entertaining manner, that was huge.
Jordan: I mean, it's a perfect movie for Monkeypaw Productions because they ain't ready for it, you know what I mean? It's one of these movies they ain't ready for and so in some way, you sort of saw the future and saw a film that kind of shouldn't exist but should and, you know, you fought it. So anyway, I love the film and I want to ask you about what you went through so this is a good question; you write the script and at what point did you know you had to direct it, was it from the beginning or was it somewhere along the process?
Dev: Man, to be honest, I came up with the idea and I didn't think I had the tools to be able to birth that vision. Whoever was closest to me, my friend Paul, I pitched it to him, he started writing and very early on he's like, "look man, every time I'm on the phone with you, you're kind of like, it's flowing out of you, you gotta write this with me". So I reluctantly like took a seat, you know, in front of the computer and started writing; I kind of locked myself away in a cafe in Koreatown in L.A. for about a year and we just lived and breathed this thing and then I sent it to Neil Blomkamp, the director of District 9 and I was like, yo Neil, we'd just done a film and I was like, you could do this and you could get it off the ground and I went to Canada and hung out with him in his studio and he's like, "look man, again, this is you, it's in your paws, like I've never been to India." And I reluctantly kind of like fell into the driver's seat, the director's seat and that's kind of been the process throughout. It's like not taking no for an answer, wherever there's a glimmer of light to try and see this thing through and get one more foot on the ladder, that's been the process. It's kind of like, it's been a ferocious process, there's been a lot of prep but actually it's a lot of adapting, a lot of things that went wrong, a lot of chaos, and you know, it's kind of just by any means necessary type of film making.
[Summary of the rest of the interview here :)]Dev proceeds to ask Jordan what making Get Out was like; Jordan says "every film I've made has been just a horror show, both in genre but in the making of it". He talks overcoming some particular hard obstacles when filming Get Out, though not in specifics and Dev agrees, "it's the restrictions that make you more creative". Dev mentions the irony of his film Monkey Man being produced by Monkeypaw productions but also goes into his love of Key & Peele and admiring Jordan's acting and humor in the series, then talks about Jordan swinging in a whole new direction into the horror genre. Jordan says that his comedic background makes him obsessed to get everyone in an audience engaged and that Dev's film shares that vision. Dev replies, "It's a full meal." (OP agrees that both the film and Dev are a whole ass meal) Jordan agrees that he and Dev come from different places but they arrive at some of the same principles in their film making. They talk about the collaboration process and Jordan mentions how he read about Steven Spielberg's process of producing films, looking for people who have crazy immense talent. Jordan asks Dev how his directing with the script was; whether he was strict with the words on the pages or fluid and Dev answers that it was very case dependent and goes into examples of the actors he was working with and the conditions on set changing constantly, making for quick changes of the script. Dev turns the question back around on Jordan, also mentioning that he had a "tadpole" budget on Monkey Man but Jordan now is working with NOPE-level budgets. Jordan answers that it's the team that you put together and the people that support you and have your back on a film which leads Jordan to compliment the Monkey Man cast. They then go a little bit into the music on the film and Dev says Jordan "managed to get us some cool songs". Jordan asks Dev about the directors he's worked with and how he views them now that he's "gone through the gauntlet". Dev says Jordan's one of them now, in a different capacity and Jordan says "I hope we get to do one, it's coming". (OP begs them both to make this collab happen!!!) Dev responds to the question, saying he doesn't think he's a technical actor so he just relies on putting all of himself into a role and that the directors instilled confidence in him, so if you can do that as a director, the pressure is taken off your shoulders when you know the director is in it with you. Dev says it was a blessing to have Jordan on those last crucial moments of finishing the film and Jordan replies that it was an honor to produce the movie, saying Dev directs and acts the hell out of it. They hug and Jordan says: "This is the beginning of a beautiful thing, my friend"!
I also wanted to include this other spoiler free video of Dev and Jordan on Snack Wars because their banter is super fun to watch :)
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Mods, I haven't submitted a post in ages. Lmk if I did anything wrong :|