'Get Out': Jordan Peele Reveals the One Easter Egg He Didn't Think You'd Spot (Exclusive)
Warning: Major Get Out spoilers ahead.
Get Out is one of those movies that demands revisiting. Jordan Peele’s biting commentary on race in America-slash-scarefest about a black photographer whose weekend away at his white girlfriend’s country home turns into a nightmare is chock-full of foreshadowing, subtext, and Easter eggs.
Internet sleuths have been dissecting the deeply layered film since the film’s release, and Peele himself will occasionally chime in on Twitter to confirm or deny their findings.
At this week’s press event for Get Out‘s home release in Los Angeles (the film is now available on digital services and will be available May 23 on DVD/Blu-ray), the writer-director revealed to Yahoo Movies the hidden reference he was most impressed viewers recognized. It comes in the film’s third act, when Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) is strapped into a leather chair in the basement of the house. He’s being mesmerized by eerie television transmissions as his girlfriend’s family prepares to lobotomize him. To block the spellbinding sounds of the TV, Chris literally picks cotton out of the chair’s upholstery to plug his ears, a clear nod to slave labor.
“I remember to saying to one of the producers, talking about the choice of picking cotton out of the chair, and the thematic relevance of that,” Peele said (watch above). “He was like, ‘That’s so cool. No one’s ever gonna get that.’ And I totally believed that.”
Peele admitted he was impressed with the determination of fans to seek out all the film’s hidden hints and messages. “There is this layer of Easter eggs in this movie that the scholars who really go that extra mile will get,” he said. “I was so surprised that everybody seemed to latch onto that and loves the treasure hunt of it, loves the intellectual stimulation of it.”
While Peele was surprised fans picked up on the cotton-picking moment, there was another Easter egg that remained undiscovered — and unrevealed — until now. Shortly after speaking to us, Peele and his cast participated in a panel discussion with the media, where he divulged his hitherto secret cameo: as the voice of the deer struck by a car early in the film.
“That is something that people don’t know, but it is one of my special skills. I didn’t want anyone to know because I thought it would ruin [the moment in the film], but now is a good time,” the filmmaker said before recreating the pained creature’s haunting howl. “I’m also available for animal noises.”
He continued: “On set I would do it, and we thought, ‘Not even a real deer noise is going to beat my deer.’ It’s my little Hitchcock moment.”
It’s actually one of two Hitchcock moments Peele has in the movie. As the filmmaker previously revealed on Twitter, he also reprises his Mad TV bit in which he mimics Morgan Freeman intoning the iconic slogan of the United Negro College Fund, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste,” heard as TSA agent Rod is watching TV while dog-sitting Chris’s pooch.
Get Out is now available on Digital HD and arrives May 23 on DVD and Blu-ray.
—Additional reporting by Marcus Errico.
Watch Peele talk about the possibility of a Get Out sequel:
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