Jordan Peele on Kanye West Falling Into the 'Sunken Place': 'He's Trying to Tell His Truth'

Jordan Peele is a man of many projects, producing four new TV series this year alone.

Jordan Peele
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Jordan Peele

Jordan Peele is a man of many projects, producing four new TV series this year alone. Perhaps more exciting, however, is the impending arrival of Us, the follow-up to his immensely successful directorial debut Get Out. One of the biggest contributions that 2017 film had was introducing people to the idea of the "Sunken Place," something Kanye West faced accusations of falling into when he started wearing a MAGA hat. In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Peele talks about all his upcoming projects as well as what it was like seeing Kanye make reference to his first film as a director.

Following all the discourse surrounding Kanye's Donald Trump support, Peele admitted that he got a "chuckle" out of people saying Yeezy had fallen into the Sunken Place from Get Out. "The Sunken Place is a new term we have to aid us in the discussion of what appears, to me, to be black people choosing an ideology that is racist against black people," he added. As for Ye's recent antics, Peele is both appreciative of his attitude and frustrated with him.

"However frustrated I am with what he’s doing, the artist in me is like, ‘He saw my movie!’ ” Peele explained. Clearly not a fan of Ye's unfortunate embrace of Trumpism, he still seems interested in whatever it is that he has to say. "The thing about Kanye is, it feels to me that, whatever he’s going through, he’s trying to tell his truth. And there’s something magnetic about people who are trying to tell the truth. I might be wrong, but my feeling is that even when he’s saying something I disagree with, he’s trying to tell his truth, and that’s more than you can say about 90 percent of people." 

In the new profile feature, Peele's new film is discussed although he wisely kept details slim. "After this movie the world 'Jordan Peele-ian' is going to the enter the film lexicon, and I stand by that," Winston Duke said of the film, referring to phrases such as Lynchian or Kubrickian. High praise, indeed, although we'd suggest sticking with just Peeleian. Read the full interview here.

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