In Universal Pictures’ Get Out, a speculative thriller from Blumhouse (producers of The Visit and Insidious series, The Gift) and the mind of JORDAN PEELE, when a young African-American man visits his white girlfriend’s family estate, he becomes ensnared in a more sinister real reason for the invitation.
Now that Chris Washington (DANIEL KALUUYA, Sicario) and his girlfriend, Rose Armitage (ALLISON WILLIAMS, Girls), have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate with Missy (CATHERINE KEENER, Captain Phillips) and Dean (BRADLEY WHITFORD, The Cabin in the Woods).
At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries leads him to a truth that he could have never imagined.
Equal parts gripping thriller and provocative commentary, Get Out is written and directed by Peele (Key and Peele) and produced by Blumhouse’s JASON BLUM (Split), as well as QC Entertainment’s SEAN MCKITTRICK (Donnie Darko, Bad Words), QC’s EDWARD H. HAMM JR. (Bad Words) and Peele.
The film Variety calls a “bombshell social critique” that “proves positively fearless,” and The Hollywood Reporter raves is “one of the most satisfying thrillers in years,” co-stars CALEB LANDRY JONES (X-Men series) as Jeremy, Rose’s younger brother; STEPHEN ROOT (No Country for Old Men) as Jim Hudson, an eccentric art dealer who takes a liking to Chris; MILTON “LIL REL” HOWERY (The Carmichael Show) as Rod Williams, Chris’ best friend and the amateur detective who refuses to believe his buddy is safe; BETTY GABRIEL (The Purge: Election Year) as Georgina, the Armitage’s housekeeper; MARCUS HENDERSON (Pete’s Dragon) as Walter, the family’s groundskeeper; and LAKEITH STANFIELD (Straight Outta Compton) as Logan King, a young guest at the weekend celebration who seems oddly out of place with his elderly wife.
Joining Peele behind the camera are a talented group of collaborators, including director of photography TOBY OLIVER (upcoming Insidious: Chapter 4), production designer RUSTY SMITH (Meet the Fockers), editor GREGORY PLOTKIN (Paranormal Activity series), costume designer NADINE HADERS (TV’s Into the Badlands) and composer MICHAEL ABELS.
The executive producers of Get Out are RAYMOND MANSFIELD (The Messenger), COUPER SAMUELSON (Whiplash), SHAUN REDICK (The Messenger) and JEANETTE VOLTURNO (The Purge series).
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
An American Monster:
Get Out Takes Form
When most audiences hear the name Jordan Peele, they think of one-half of the brilliant duo of Key and Peele and the star of Keanu. An actor known as much for his comedic writing as he is for starring in film and television comedies, Peele is equally accomplished in voiceover work and impersonations. But what many do not realize is that the comic mastermind and Emmy Award winner has long been a fan of a genre of another sort. His directorial debut would occur with Universal Pictures, the studio that had invented the monster movie of another kind, and it would happen with Universal’s partner in horror, Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions.
Peele, who got his start as a writer and actor on MADtv, has long been a fan of horror movies and believes that terror and comedy draw from the same well of inspiration…and that both are grounded in our need to explore the absurdity of our humanity. He appreciates the fact that we deal with our troubles and fears through the visceral, cathartic experience that comes from laughing or allowing ourselves to become scared. In sum, if we can master the emotions, we can move through the experience.
The filmmaker offers that this tension and release can be viscerally satisfying for the audiences: “In one, you’re trying to get a laugh, and in the other, you’re trying to get a scare. It was exciting for me to use everything I’ve learned in comedy for my favorite genre, which is ‘thriller.’”
No stranger to mining the absurd from reality, when he began the screenplay, Peele outlined a premise that was equal parts terrifying and social commentary. The result was Get Out, a provocative thriller that blended humor, satire and horror…and wasn’t afraid to tackle the current state of race relations in America head on. “This idea came from my wanting to contribute something to the genres of thriller and horror that was unique to my voice,” he says. “The fact that it goes to race goes to the area I’ve worked in a lot, which is comedy. This was a movie that reflects real fears of mine and issues that I’ve dealt with before.”
Peele imagined a protagonist named Chris, an African-American photographer and artist in New York City who is taking his relationship with his Caucasian girlfriend to the next level by meeting her parents over a long weekend. As soon as Chris arrives at the family’s rural, upstate home, he begins to suspect that everything is not as it seems. When he discovers that a number of black men have gone missing in that suburb, his suspicion reveals itself to be more than unfounded paranoia. What starts out as a mundane, obligatory weekend spirals and builds toward a crazy, horrific, thrilling, terrifying, and likewise fun, conclusion.
The filmmaker admits that he enjoys playing with the audience’s expectations of what could happen and upending a foregone conclusion. “A big piece of the premise to Get Out is that you have white girl bringing a black guy home, and she hasn’t thought through all of the social ramifications of that,” Peele gives. “She assumes her family is going to be fine with it. They turn out to be, but there are some subtler works at play that we begin to see a part of something much more sinister.”
This series of not-quite-right moments that make Chris more and more suspicious unfold slowly. Whether it is curiosity about the odd behavior of the Armitage’s help—or feeling like he stepped into another world during the family’s annual celebration of their departed grandfather—Chris realizes that he isn’t the one who is going insane. “The trick was to make sure that nothing so crazy happened so fast that we wouldn’t believe the characters would stay in this situation,” Peele reveals. “The element that starts to alarm Chris is meeting the help, and finding that they’re a little off. “They’re not like anybody he’s ever met.”
Still, the writer/director says that it was of the utmost importance for the hero of the thriller to never do anything the audience wouldn’t. “I hate that in a movie,” laughs Peele. “Especially in a thriller, when you want somebody to just pick up the phone, call the damn cops and get out of the house. That’s what I allowed Chris to be—an actual, smart, logical human being—because it is so satisfying.”
As do the most provocative of horror offerings—from George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead’s exploration of the height-of-Vietnam era to Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left examination of the inherently violent nature of humans—Get Out greets audiences with a provocation that is much more than simple entertainment. “This movie is about a lot of things,” states Peele. “It’s about the way America deals with race and the idea that racism itself is a demon; it’s an American monster. It’s also about the notion of neglect and the idea that, if we allow ourselves to do so, humans can stand by while atrocities happen.” He felt it was critical to mine the genre and discuss how race can have an impact on horror. “It’s an important piece of this conversation.”
While many would have expected the multihyphenate to make his theatrical debut with a light-hearted physical comedy, Peele knew he wanted Get Out to be his fore into directing. “Writing and directing are easier than not doing both,” he says. “The beauty is that they’re done at separate times, so you don’t have to overlap the responsibility. It’s a great advantage to feel the confidence to change something on set, and know that you’re not missing what the writer intended.”
To help him bring his screenplay to the big screen, Peele and veteran producers Sean McKittrick and Edward H. Hamm Jr.—who have guided many actors making their directorial debuts, including Jason Bateman on the ingenious Bad Words—turned to producing maestro Jason Blum, who has reinvented the genre since he shepherded Paranormal Activity to staggering heights. His latest project, Split, from writer/director/ producer M. Night Shyamalan, recently hit No. 1 for three weeks on the box-office charts, and the distribution deal Blum has with Universal offered Peele his entry point into theatrical distribution.
Blum reflects on his reason for wanting to join Peele on this journey: “Jordan is a unique combination of someone who is incredibly talented and collaborative. I see every scary movie and read every scary script, and never saw anything like this. As for Jordan making the transition, I believe there are a lot of parallels between comedy and horror; they are the two types of genres in which people have physical reactions in the theater. The timing of a joke and a scare—as well as the way you construct both in a movie—are very similar. The combination of that and the way Jordan talked about Get Out gave me the confidence to roll the dice on this movie.”
McKittrick first connected with the writer/director through a mutual friend: “I get to thank Keegan-Michael Key, who introduced me to Jordan, mainly because Jordan is obsessed with horror films. He pitched me the idea for Get Out, and I had never heard anything like it. Whether they are The Stepford Wives or Rosemary’s Baby, the greatest forms of horror unveil the social commentary that leaks beneath the surface of our society. I immediately said, ‘We absolutely have to make this movie.’”
The producer, who cut his teeth in the industry by producing the cult-classic Donnie Darko, was more than impressed with the burgeoning directorial talent he found in Peele. McKittrick commends: “It’s been one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. Jordan is an incredibly hard worker who knows exactly what he’s doing. Comedy and horror are such close cousins that he was a master of this before he even came in. He studied horror his entire life.”
Blum is the first to admit he is drawn to films that are so much more than linear fare. “Get Out gives you all the thrills and the scares of a great scary movie, but there’s more to it,” he reflects. “It reminded me of what we did with The Purge, which is a scary, thriller, action franchise, but one that also says something about our society. Get Out works in a similar way in that it delivers everything you want from a great genre movie, but it also says a lot about the world. Jordan has figured out a terrific way to shine a light and talk about race…then take this to a level that’s grotesque. The story is very disarming because you are convinced you’re going to see certain events unfold in a way that you’re used to; in fact, they unfold in exactly the opposite way.”
You’ve Been Chosen:
Casting the Thriller
To set up the culture clash at the heart of Get Out, Peele cast a wide net to find his players. From critically lauded performers to young upstarts who are just breaking into the business, he filled the thriller’s roster with an unexpected array of talent. For Peele, all his experience as a performer would prove quite valuable as he directed his actors. “Jordan’s been in front of the camera for so many years that he understood what they were going through,” says McKittrick. “He was able to put all the actors at ease. He has complete control and understanding of what each character is because he created them. Each actor was able to bring a different perspective to their part, which Jordan fed on and added to.”
Central to the thriller is Chris Washington, an aspiring photographer and an artist with whom Rose has fallen in love. Peele explains that his protagonist has a complicated past: “Chris is a highly intelligent guy who has had emotional trauma, and someone who expresses his pain through art.”
For Peele, it was important to cast a performer who could emote the confusion Chris has—especially toward his preconceived notions of how he will be received by a white family. “The element that makes Chris the most nervous is the fact that Rose gave them no warning that he’s black. He’s anticipating an awkward situation. I would say that Chris is ‘woke.’ He’s in love, but he’s approaching this situation with an open mind.”
Chris needed to be portrayed by a performer who could walk the line between agreeable newcomer to the Armitage family and credible outsider. The production team found their hero in British performer Daniel Kaluuya. “Daniel is a total star,” lauds Peele. “He has a relatability that is infectious, and he has an ability to be in the moment that is totally masterful, and I love him from Black Mirror and Sicario. He carries the film.”
While Chris tries to put his suspicions behind him and enjoy the weekend, he begins to feel that he should trust his instincts about the Armitage family, especially Rose’s mother, Missy, a psychiatrist who insists that her daughter’s new boyfriend should try her unique brand of therapy. Although Chris wants to quit smoking, he is no rush; still, that doesn’t stop the good doctor from pushing the issue. “Chris sees that Missy is intense,” explains Kaluuya, “and that she is an in-your-face kind of woman that gets what she wants without trying. He finds himself late at night in her room hypnotized.”
The reason Rose chose this weekend to bring her new boyfriend up is to celebrate the annual tradition of her late grandfather and grandmother’s garden party. The gathering of friends and extended family to honor the patriarch is initially heartwarming for Chris, as he lost his own mother at a young age and has had to fend for himself for the majority of his life. Kaluuya sets up the scene: “So much of this film is about the anticipation of what is going to happen. Chris notices that something is off at this party, and he senses an intense amount of undercover racism. He has an interaction which immediately proves the environment isn’t for him, and he’s ready to leave. He knows he does not fit in, and is not feeling good about it.”
In the character of Rose, Peele wrote the perfect girlfriend for the story’s hero; indeed, she is just as mortified by her family’s behavior toward Chris as he is embarrassed about it. “It was very important for this film that, at its core, it’s a love story,” he says. “This is a couple that we’re rooting for. She’s not perfect, because there are elements to being in an interracial relationship that she wakes up to as the movie goes on, but she is trying to understand what Chris is going through. She’s a very supportive, understanding and funny-smart character.”
To portray the young nurse Rose, the production brought aboard Allison Williams, a performer whose stand-out work in HBO’s Girls and work in musical theater brought her to the team’s attention. For Blum, this offered the chance to work with a dear friend. “I have been friends with Allison for a long time,” he states, “so it was a really cool opportunity to finally get to work with her. She did an amazing job.”
“Allison gives us the comfort and the love that is at the core of this movie,” agrees Peele. “She gives us something to root for in their relationship.
“Rose is the girl next-door, very progressive, liberal and loving,” adds McKittrick. “She has her own reservations about what her parents are going to think of her black boyfriend, but you never get the sense that she’s siding with what might be wrong with the family. You believe she’s always on Chris’ side and is truly in love with him.”
The actresses appreciated portraying a young woman whose true intentions are just beneath the surface. She introduces us to her character: “Rose takes her black boyfriend home to meet her white family, and something is not quite right once they arrive. Rose is torn between her allegiance to her family and her new boyfriend, but she is committed to Chris. She is willing to shake things up with her family in order to salvage their relationship.”
Williams appreciated Peele’s interest in pushing the story outside of horror tropes, and sums the cast’s feelings about working with him on set: “It is a bonus to have the writer also be your director—that there is a continuity of vision, thought and intention.”
The young performers are in the majority of scenes of Get Out, and their chemistry and skills was not lost on the filmmakers. Shares McKittrick of the pair: “Allison was the first one to board the film, although Daniel had been chasing the film for quite a while. They are the two anchors of the film. Allison is an incredible actress; both on- and off-screen, she’s a wonderful person. Daniel is an exceptional actor who acts with his entire body. I’ve never seen anything like it. He put so much into it that he’s actually exhausted between takes. His intensity anchored the film entirely because the audience has to relate to Chris as someone who is an everyman.”
When it came to casting the parts of Rose’s parents, the retired surgeon Dean and psychiatrist Missy, the team selected two performers who have navigated the worlds of comedy their entire careers. In two-time Oscar® nominee Catherine Keener, as riveting in Being John Malkovich and Captain Phillips as she is The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and three-time Golden Globe Award nominee Bradley Whitford, who was just as fascinating in The West Wing and Transparent as he was The Cabin in the Woods, the producers found actors to play anything but stereotypical villains.
What Blum appreciated about the heads of the Armitage family is that they embody the liberal elite that Peele skewers in his screenplay. While Rose hasn’t told them that Chris is black, she is certain they will be fine with his being of another race. What Chris finds, however, is far from that. “The parents start to say things that are on the edge of racist. They just make everyone feel uncomfortable,” says Blum. “They ask Chris if he likes golf…then tell him they’re big fans of Tiger Woods. They are painted as part of the white, liberal elite—very sensitive about race. In fact they’re quite the opposite.”
As was Williams, Whitford was thrilled to be a part of the production. “I am such a fan of Jordan’s that I would have done yard work for him,” the actor laughs. On the shock factor of the film, Whitford says: “I think people will have an odd reaction to this. It flips your idea of genre upside down.”
Peele shares a bit about their characters and the actors’ work: “Bradley plays Dean Armitage, the disarmingly kind, and kind of goofy, father. With him, it turns out there’s more than meets the eye. Catherine does this beautiful performance as Missy, who hypnotizes Chris and gives him an experience completely out of his comfort zone. She is the perfect mother-in-law on paper, and then as the movie goes on, you realize, ‘Oh. There’s something darker going on here.’”
The final member of Rose’s immediate family is her younger brother, Jeremy, who is as interested in provoking Chris as he is in getting to know him. Portrayed by Caleb Landry Jones, who first came to audience’s attention with television’s Friday Night Lights, and then rocketed to fame as the memorable Banshee in X-Men: First Class, Jones brings to the role of Jeremy an inexplicable creepiness that sets Chris off from the moment he encounters him. Raves Peele; “Caleb can channel so much menace, and yet he’s so fun and infinitely engaging to watch. He’s a great tonal centerpiece for the movie, in that way.”
Portraying the parts of the Armitage’s live-in help are The Purge: Election Year and Amazon’s Good Girls Revolt’s Betty Gabriel as Georgina, the family’s housekeeper, and Django Unchained and Pete’s Dragon’s Marcus Henderson as Walter, the groundskeeper. When Chris first encounters the pair, he finds them symptomatic of just how strange the rural community is toward African-Americans. Whether it is Walter’s dead-eyed run about the grounds in the middle of the night or Georgina’s staring blankly into a mirror, neither of them seem like they are all there.
With every black person Chris encounters during his trip upstate, he gets the opposite of what he expects. The situation in which Chris has found himself is just as uncomfortable for him as it is for the audience. Peele crafted his story to make sure that was the case: “They are sort of traditional African-American servants at this place, and Chris is being brought in as a family member. With Georgina and Walter, Chris doesn’t get the African-American camaraderie he’s looking for in them, and that proves to be very isolating and alienating.”
While the set-up is par for the course for the Armitage family, it feels very uncomfortable for their weekend guest. “It’s so weird for Chris,” explains Kaluuya. “Rose’s family is white, and the servants who are helping are black. That’s just a bit odd for him, especially coming from the city in New York, which is one of the most modern cultural cities in the world.”
The charming Chris often encounters Georgina glaring at him…or herself. “Georgina has a love of herself,” states Gabriel. “She likes the way she looks, so she looks at herself as often as she can.”
The character begins to show her true colors at the Armitage annual get-together. “The party is a family tradition to honor Rose’s grandparents and keep their memory alive,” explains Gabriel. “It is shocking for Chris, and everyone is genuinely interested in him being there… Maybe a little too interested.”
Chris gets the feeling that the groundskeeper is just as protective of the Armitage secret as Georgina is. “Walter is the Armitage’s groundskeeper, and he is very attached to the family,” adds Henderson. “Something is a little off about him, the way he sees things comes from a different place.” The performer appreciated that the story is cloaked in shadow…until it all explodes. “My character is hiding a huge secret. Jordan gave me a note on set that said, ‘You have this secret you really want to tell, but you cannot,’ which lit my five-year-old self up. That made this production fun.”
Georgina and Walter are not the only African-Americans that Chris encounters when he makes his way to the primarily-Caucasian enclave over the weekend. Lakeith Stanfield, who stole his scenes as Snoop Dogg in 2015’s smash Straight Outta Compton was brought aboard the team to play Logan King, a young man just as remarkable in his old-fashioned dress as he is speech and mannerisms. The only other guest who is also black, Logan seems quite out of place with his elderly white wife. “Logan knows Rose’s family intimately,” explains the performer. “He has known them for years, and is glad to celebrate with them at the party.”
Much like his counterparts, Logan isn’t remotely who or what he seems, especially with a flash from Chris’ cell phone gives him an apparent seizure…one that makes him grab Chris and scream at him to get out of the house. “He undergoes a scary transition during the film,” says Stanfield. “During this transition, he turns into someone who is a separate cultural expression of the guy everyone thinks they know.”
McKittrick explains the instantaneous transformation: “The flash on Chris’s phone as he takes a photo of Logan triggers something inside of Logan where he attacks Chris. He has blood coming out of his nose, and we know it’s something that’s serious. It takes Missy, who is a psychiatrist, to bring Logan back to what they want him to be.”
Peele could not have been prouder of the work of his core young supporting cast. Of their talents, he lauds: “Betty just did this-ass performance as Georgina, as did Marcus as Walter, the groundskeeper. Lakeith plays such a unique character; he shows this range that is totally impressive, and he committed himself fully for the role.”
One of the final principal curious guests of the annual garden-party celebration is Jim Hudson, played by the inimitable character actor Stephen Root, known for his brilliant voiceover work, as well as comedy in films from Dodgeball to Office Space and serious fare in Boardwalk Empire and Trumbo. “My character is blind and might be a person that you would not want to cross, or he might be a swell man from the city,” explains Root.
It remains just as important to the cast as it does for Peele and the other producers that the secrets of Get Out remain intact for the audience. Root typifies that mandate when he coyly states: “Chris is a handsome young man, and everyone wants to meet him—just not necessarily for the same reasons. Nothing is quite what it seems, including the party and the guests. The audience does not find out what is actually going on for a while.”
The film’s knight in shining armor is in the form of an annoyed TSA agent who also happens to be Chris’ best friend back home: Rod Williams. Played by Milton “Lil Rel” Howery, a stand-up who has taking his whip-smart timing to TV series such as The Carmichael Show, Rod is the voice of the audience. “Rod is the character giving us that voice at a horror movie where everybody should be screaming, ‘Get out! Get out of the house. Don’t turn around. Don’t back up into the closet. He has several phone calls with Chris throughout Chris’ time at Rose’s family’s house. At the same time, Rod is figuring out some of what’s going on, and he’s also getting a lot of it wrong. He’s our comic relief and our voice of reason at the same time.”
Something’s Weird:
Design of the Thriller
The production of Get Out took place in Mobile, Alabama, and Peele set up a core team led by production designer Rusty Smith, cinematographer Toby Oliver, editor Gregory Plotkin, costume designer Nadine Haders, music supervisor Christopher Mollere and composer Michael Abels. The film had its share of good-weather shooting between rain spells—and trying to keep the extras dry—and the general feeling of creating a project that was more than the sum of their parts permeated the production.
While the team had many challenges that lie ahead—notably shooting in the dark corners of the Armitage house in the middle of the night—perhaps the most complex was the garden party sequences in which Logan attacks Chris. Whitford sets up the scene: “This auction is the most important charity. There are a lot of charities that deal with sickness, difficulties in the world, but what we’re supporting here is something that transcends illness.”
Haders outfitted the party guests in finery befitting a bespoke group of upper-crust members of the upstate New York elite. Smith crafted a setting designed to make every single guest feel at ease…save the one member of the party who is certain he doesn’t belong with his odd hosts. Each shot from Oliver was intended to amplify that feeling for Chris. Even though everyone is genteel and patronizingly sweet to him, the menace lurks just outside every frame—as close-up shots of staring partygoers leer when they think Chris isn’t looking.
“It is a scene that is a great representation of what the movie is,” shares Peele. “It’s both a scary sequence, but also kind of funny. Chris’ feeling of isolation at being the only black guy at the party is all over his face. Everybody who speaks with Rose and Chris is bringing up their connection to the African-American culture.”
This moment struck a chord with many of the players. “This happens in real life a lot,” states Peele. “Chris is denied an experience where he’s anything but the token black guy. That scene is a symbol for the deeper horrors going on. At one point, Chris sees Logan at the party. There’s a sigh of relief to see another African-American guy, but when Chris goes up to say what’s up, it becomes clear that Logan is not having the same experience as Chris is. He is in this weird Stepford-zone, where he feels more aligned with the party than with Chris.”
****
Production wrapped, the team reflects upon their hopes for Get Out. “First and foremost I want audiences to feel like they had a fun ride,” says McKittrick. “Then I want them talking about the social commentary in the film, which is our own natural prejudices that are built from birth, from wherever we were raised and whomever raised us.”
For Blum, Get Out proved to be a successful exercise in genre-blending, which makes for his favorite type of film. “While this is a scary movie and not a horror-comedy, it’s important for horror movies to have comedy in them,” he ends. “It makes the horror work much better when you give the audience a chance to laugh. That disarms them, and then when you scare them, they’re much more scared after all.”
For the man who created the universe we’ve just discussed, his hopes for moviegoers is that they enjoy his film on the multiple levels it is intended. Concludes Peele: “First and foremost, I always want to entertain, so I hope people experience that in the theater. Get Out is a loud experience. It’s fun, scary and titillating, and I want audiences to laugh. After that, I hope that they have a discussion about race and horror films that they haven’t had before.”
****
Universal Pictures presents a Blumhouse/QC Entertainment production—in association with Monkeypaw productions—of a Jordan Peele film: Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out, starring Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Stephen Root, Lakeith Stanfield and Catherine Keener. Casting for the film is by Terri Taylor, CSA, and the music supervisor is Christopher Mollere. Get Out’s music is by Michael Abels, and the costume designer is Nadine Haders. The film is edited by Gregory Plotkin, and its production designer is Rusty Smith. The director of photography is Toby Oliver, ACS, and the co-producers are Beatriz Sequeira, Marcei A. Brown, Gerard DiNardi. The executive producers are Raymond Mansfield, Couper Samuelson, Shaun Redick, Jeanette Volturno. Get Out is produced by Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Edward H. Hamm Jr., Jordan Peele. The film is written and directed by Jordan Peele. © 2017 Universal Studios. www.getoutfilm.com
ABOUT THE CAST
British actor DANIEL KALUUYA (Chris) will next star opposite Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Forest Whitaker and Lupita Nyong’o in Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War spinoff, Black Panther. In 2015, he appeared in Denis Villeneuve’s drug-war thriller Sicario for Lionsgate, which also starred Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin. Kaluuya came to prominence when portraying wannabe gangster Posh Kenneth on the British teen drama Skins, the BAFTA Award-winning show for which he was also a member of the writing team.
Other film credits include Kick-Ass 2, Eran Creevy’s Welcome to the Punch and Working Title’s Johnny English Reborn opposite Rowan Atkinson.
He is a celebrated stage actor having won the 2010 Evening Standard Theatre Editor’s Award for Shooting Star and the 2010 Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer for his performance as a boxer in the play Sucker Punch at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Kaluuya’s theater credits include Trelawny of the Wells at the Donmar Warehouse and A Season in the Congo opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor at the Young Vic.
On television, he will next be seen starring in Danny Boyle’s satirical police miniseries Babylon for Channel 4. Other notable television credits include Black Mirror also for Channel 4 and Jack Thorne’s The Fades and Psychoville for the BBC.
He was born in London, England, and was cited as one of BAFTA’s 2011 Brits to Watch.
ALLISON WILLIAMS (Rose) is best known as Marnie on HBO’s Primetime Emmy Award- and Golden Globe Award-winning television series Girls. The Lena Dunham and Judd Apatow comedy is about four friends facing the ups and downs of life as 20 somethings in New York City. The sixth and final season of Girls will premiere on February 12, 2017.
Williams won over critics from The New York Times to The Hollywood Reporter when she starred as Peter Pan in NBC’s live-action musical event Peter Pan Live!, which aired on December 4, 2014.
Williams is currently a face of Keds and the former face of Simple skincare.
In January 2013, Williams guest-starred on the television series The Mindy Project. In 2011, she starred as Kate Middleton in a four-part, self-written original miniseries for Funnyordie.com called Will & Kate: Before Happily Ever After.
In spring 2010, Williams graduated from Yale University. Afterwards, she began working on a video that was released on YouTube in October 2010 entitled “Mad Men Theme Song…With a Twist.” She moved to Los Angeles just before releasing the video, which quickly became a viral sensation and garnered much attention in the blog and entertainment world. Among the video’s fans were Judd Apatow and the executives at HBO, who, upon seeing the video, reached out to Williams for an audition for Girls. Ironically, within a month of moving to Los Angeles, Williams was back in New York, filming the pilot episode.
While she may have found success quickly, Williams has been honing her craft for years. She has been involved in theater since an early age and, while at Yale, she refined her improv skills as a member of the improvisational comedy group Just Add Water. She graduated with a bachelor of arts in English and is trained in acting and singing as well.
Born and raised in Connecticut, Williams declared to her parents at the age of four that she wanted to be an actress. Brian and Jane Stoddard Williams—who required their daughter graduate from college before pursuing an acting career— are both involved in the media. Jane has a weekly radio show on Bloomberg Radio called Bloomberg EDU which discusses the education issues in the U.S. Brian is the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News. Williams enjoys singing, improvisational comedy and writing fiction. She currently resides in New York City.
BRADLEY WHITFORD (Dean), a classically trained stage actor, quickly gained overnight fame as the sarcastic yet vulnerable Josh Lyman on NBC’s The West Wing. One of the few actors working successfully and simultaneously in theater, film and television, Whitford has become one of Hollywood’s most sought-after talents.
Whitford can currently be seen in the Netflix-acquired independent film Other People, written and directed by Saturday Night Live writer Chris Kelly. Whitford stars opposite Jesse Plemons, Molly Shannon, Zach Woods and June Squibb. The film was nominated for the Grand Jury prize at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and has earned four Independent Spirit Award nominations.
Whitford recently wrapped production on the TNT pilot Civil, written and executive produced by Scott Smith and directed by Allen Coulter. The ensemble cast includes Courtney B. Vance, Enrique Murciano and Toby Jones. Prior to that, he starred in HBO’s Lyndon B. Johnson biopic All the Way, opposite Bryan Cranston. The film received numerous accolades such as four Critics’ Choice Award nominations and eight Primetime Emmy Award nominations.
Whitford currently recurs on Amazon’s award-winning comedy series, Transparent, opposite Jeffrey Tambor, which won the 2015 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series—Musical or Comedy, and for which Whitford won both a 2015 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series and Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series. Additional television credits include Showtime’s comedy Happyish, opposite Steve Coogan and Kathryn Hahn; ABC’s comedy series Trophy Wife, opposite Malin Akerman and Marcia Gay Harden; The Good Guys, which also starred Colin Hanks; Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip; ER; The X-Files; and NYPD Blue. His performance as Josh Lyman on The West Wing earned him a 2001 Primetime Emmy Award as well as Golden Globe Award nominations in 2001 and 2002.
He will next be seen in Megan Leavey, starring opposite Kate Mara and Edie Falco; The Philosophy of Phil, which also stars Greg Kinnear who also made his directorial debut with this independent film; A Happening of Monumental Proportions, the directorial debut of Judy Greer, which features an ensemble cast including Jennifer Garner, Allison Janney, Common and Anders Holm; Jon Avnet’s independent film Three Christs, the adaptation of the Milton Rokeach book “The Three Christs of Ypsilanti”; and Unicorn Store, Brie Larson’s directorial debut based on the screenplay of the same name about a woman who moves back in with her parents and receives an invitation to a store that will test her ideas of what it really means to grow up.
Whitford’s additional film credits include Sony Pictures Classic’s Hank Williams biopic I Saw the Light; Walt Disney Pictures’ Saving Mr. Banks, opposite Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell, Paul Giamatti and Jason Schwartzman; The Cabin in the Woods, written by Joss Whedon; the gritty true-crime drama An American Crime, which also starred Catherine Keener and Ellen Page; The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Alcon Entertainment’s adaptation of the best-selling Ann Brashares book which also starred Amber Tamblyn and Alexis Bledel; Little Manhattan, a romantic comedy directed by Mark Levin and written by Jennifer Flackett; Miramax’s romantic comedy Kate & Leopold, opposite Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman; The Muse, which also starred Albert Brooks; Bicentennial Man, opposite Robin Williams; Scent of a Woman; A Perfect World; Philadelphia; The Client; My Life; Red Corner; Presumed Innocent; and My Fellow Americans.
Growing up in Wisconsin, Whitford studied theater and English literature at Wesleyan University and attended the Juilliard Theater Center. Whitford received rave reviews for his return to the stage in the production of Boeing-Boeing at the Longacre Theatre opposite Mark Rylance, Christine Baranski, Kathryn Hahn, Gina Gershon and Mary McCormack. Whitford appeared on Broadway in Aaron Sorkin’s military courtroom drama A Few Good Men, and his professional performance debut was in the off-Broadway production of Curse of the Starving Class opposite Kathy Bates. Additional theater credits include Three Days of Rain at the Manhattan Theatre Club, Measure for Measure at Lincoln Center Theater and the title role in Coriolanus at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.
One of Hollywood’s top emerging young actors, CALEB LANDRY JONES (Jeremy) will next be seen in Doug Liman’s American Made opposite Tom Cruise and Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri opposite Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell.
In 2012, Jones starred in Brandon Cronenberg’s directorial debut Antiviral, which also starred Sarah Gadon and Malcolm McDowell. Antiviral premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released by IFC Films. Cronenberg won Best Canadian First Feature Film at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Jones’ performance was cited as one of the Best Performances of 2012 by Indiewire alongside the likes of Daniel Day Lewis, Joaquin Phoenix, Denis Lavant and Michelle Williams.
In 2014, Jones starred in Joshua and Benny Safdie’s Heaven Knows What, which was released by RADiUS-TWC and was awarded the Tokyo Grand Prix at the Tokyo International Film Festival after premiering at the Venice Film Festival and it screened in Toronto and New York. That same year, he starred in John Boorman’s Queen & Country, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and he was seen in John Slattery’s directorial debut God’s Pocket, which starred the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Other film credits include the upcoming Gerardo Naranjo’s English-language film Viena and the Fantomes, opposite Dakota Fanning and Evan Rachel Wood; Roland Emmerich’s Stonewall; and John Michael McDonagh’s film War on Everyone, opposite Theo James and Michael Peña.
In 2012, Jones starred opposite Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Arterton and Sam Riley in Neil Jordan’s Byzantium, in which he played a young man dying of leukemia and struggling with his mortality. He also starred in 20th Century Fox’s summer blockbuster X-Men: First Class and in Universal Pictures’ box-office hit Contraband opposite Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale.
Two-time Academy Award® nominee (Capote, Being John Malkovich) CATHERINE KEENER (Missy) continues to be a dominant force on screen appearing next in Sony Pictures’ highly anticipated crime-drama November Criminals, directed by Sacha Gervasi opposite Chloë Grace Moretz and Ansel Elgort. 2017 will mark Keener’s directorial debut with Friend of Bill for Gloria Sanchez Productions which stars Lizzy Caplan. She will also be seen opposite Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro in Black Label Media’s Sicario sequel Soldado, written by Taylor Sheridan and directed by Stefano Sollima.
In 2015, Keener was seen in Paul Haggis’ six-part HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero, which also starred Oscar Isaac and was written by David Simon. In 2013, she was seen in longtime collaborator and acclaimed director Nicole Holofcener’s Enough Said, alongside Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the late James Gandolfini. That same year, Keener voiced the role of Ugga in the animated hit The Croods for DreamWorks Animation (with a sequel set for release in 2018), and in John Carney’s Begin Again, which also starred Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley.
Share this:
