The talent present in the Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay categories at this year's Academy Awards is damn near overwhelming.
From Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird to Virgil Williams and Dee Rees' Mudbound, 2017 cinema was stacked with top-shelf writing that's rightfully being recognized as such. For a new Hollywood Reporterpiece centered on the "on-set tweaks" that inspired greatness in each of this year's nominees, Get Out writer/director Jordan Peele revealed how a pivotal moment between Rose (Allison Williams) and Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) was originally written.
"Right after the dinner sequence, we go up to Rose's bedroom," Peele said. "We don't know it yet, but she is this master manipulator. Originally, that scene was more basic than what it became. I had Chris going off on the fact that his fears were realized having seen the racist dynamic in her family. Rose basically told him, 'It's hard and they made ignorant comments but stay here and be with me and I love you.' The first time I saw the scene in rehearsal, though, as an audience member, I realized I was onto Rose. People would say, 'Why is she doing that?'"
To remedy this, Peele had to show Rose further manipulating both Chris and the viewer. "Chris became the one saying, 'Look, it's cool,'" Peele said. "The subtext is, 'I can take this kind of racism.' That switch had a really profound effect on how we view these characters, most importantly Rose. She gets our trust, so the rewrite was absolutely essential. It was a total victory."
The full THR piece is also full of equally fascinating insight into the fourth-quarter writing changes that resulted in similar victories for The Big Sick, Call Me by Your Name, The Disaster Artist, Logan, Molly's Game, The Shape of Water, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Check it.
Peele recently revealed that he's busy writing what will become the follow-up to Get Out. Though he didn't offer any plot details, we know for certain we can expect it to begin shooting later this year and that Peele will again be injecting originality back into genre filmmaking.
