美国国家公共电台 NPR Jordan Peele Looked Into The Mirror And Saw The Evil Inside 'Us'

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Director Jordan Peele has followed up his 2017 hit "Get Out" with a horror movie that will scare the hell out of you. The film's called "Us," and it starts with a black family having fun on vacation. They go to the beach. Dad buys a boat.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "US")

TIM HEIDECKER: (As Josh Tyler) You hear Gabe got a boat?

WINSTON DUKE: (As Gabe Wilson) Crawdaddy (ph) (laughter).

SHAHADI WRIGHT JOSEPH: (As Zora Wilson) He's kidding, right?

LUPITA NYONG'O: (As Adelaide Wilson) He's not kidding.

CHANG: But then things start getting really creepy. One night, another family shows up in front of the house, and it quickly becomes clear that each member of this new family is an identical copy of the mom, the dad, sister and brother inside the house. They're doppelgangers.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "US")

DUKE: (As Abraham) So once upon a time, there was a girl. And the girl had a shadow.

JORDAN PEELE: It starts with the fear that I can't explain, which is this idea that if I saw myself on the street, you immediately know that one of you must go, you know. It's only room for one.

CHANG: That's director Jordan Peele. When we spoke¹, I asked him, what is it about looking into a mirror that's so terrifying?

PEELE: It makes you question, you know, your identity. You know, the one thing we can count on in our own consciousness is that it's ours, and this place in the universe is ours - the one thing that we can know for certain. And when that is put into question, it's just this existential crisis.

Now, I mean, throughout history, the doppelganger mythology² exists. And what I think it represents is this is everything that we don't face about ourselves. It is a representation of the guilt³, the trauma⁴, the fear, the hatred⁵ that might be buried underneath⁶ layers of pleasantry, all that stuff that we don't deal with. When it comes out, it'll come out in crazy ways.

CHANG: I mean, even the song "I Got 5 On It," which gets played near the beginning of the movie...

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I GOT 5 ON IT")

LUNIZ: (Singing) I got five on it...

CHANG: ...That song comes back in this creepier slowed-down version.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "US")

LUNIZ: (Singing) I got five on it.

CHANG: Even that song has an evil doppelganger in this movie.

PEELE: Yeah. Yeah. I tried to apply this idea of duality to everything in the film. And, you know, I think the piece of the puzzle that pushed me to embark⁷ on this is this idea of the doppelganger family. That's when the movie sort of went from being about self-introspection to this idea of a societal or collective introspection.

CHANG: Which makes me think about the title of the movie. Your film is called "Us." Who is us ultimately, or who's them?

PEELE: Well, that's the question. You know, I mean, I think everybody thinks of the term us in different ways. It can be us the family, us the town, us the country, us humanity. I think the, you know, in the simplest form, the very nature of us means there is a them, right? So that is what this movie is about to me is that whatever your us is, we turn them into the enemy. And maybe we are our own worst enemy.

CHANG: I notice how you use comedy to ratchet down the tension in this horror movie. There is this one scene where the family has a chance to escape the house. There are just seconds to spare. And then they're having this argument in the car about who gets to drive. And part of me is laughing, but the bigger part of me is like, you idiots, just go.

PEELE: (Laughter).

CHANG: How do you release tension in a movie without destroying it completely?

PEELE: Well, you have to try to portray⁸ as real a world as possible. The reality of how we act in emergency is not necessarily what we assume. Sometimes somebody says something to break the ice or break the tension. Other times we will get caught up in something petty, even in an emergency.

CHANG: Right.

PEELE: So, you know, what I'm trying to do is actually make something that feels more realistic than your average genre⁹ film in that there's a lot of ways we respond.

CHANG: Why don't we see more black families starring in horror films? I think I read that you were telling a reporter like, look, you see a black family at the beach. And a black man actually buys a boat in this movie. Tell me why those details were important to you.

PEELE: Well, you know, so just by putting a black family in the center of this movie which is not about race, we see shades of what it means to be African-American that aren't out there. You know, part of the systemic failure in representation is that we are relegated¹⁰ to boxes.

And I think, you know, even if it's something that feels simple or, you know, not particularly imaginative - like a black family on the beach - I think it's important and has a great effect both within the community and outside the African-American community to continue to present the spectrum¹¹ of what we are and how we deserve to be represented.

CHANG: Something else you seem to explore in both "Us" and the movie "Get Out," there are these stories about pleasant picture-perfect surfaces hiding some ugly underbelly. Is that connection between the two movies deliberate?

PEELE: I think that's my style. My favorite horror images are the beautiful ones that are subverted¹². You know, this is why I was drawn¹³ to "The Stepford Wives," and movies like "Jaws¹⁴" and "The Shining" appeal to me is that when you have something idyllic¹⁵ and beautiful and sort of perfect, that's where true horror lies. In this movie, it's even, you know, to present the shiny, happy, hands across America version of our culture with the promise of the darkness underneath.

CHANG: Do you plan to live in the horror genre for a while? Why do you love scaring people so much?

(LAUGHTER)

PEELE: I think it is connected to getting over my own fears and my fears growing up, my fears as a kid, you know, watching movies. You know, I always - I'd watch these commercials for the Time-Life "Mysteries Of The Unknown" books...

CHANG: And you would freak out.

PEELE: And I would freak out. And I would - but I would want it. And I had this, you know, this weird¹⁶ love-hate where I would, you know, if I got to sneak¹⁷ a horror movie at a friend's house, I would - there's nothing more I would want to do. And then, of course, it would keep me up at night.

CHANG: Right. So making scary movies is like exposure therapy for yourself.

PEELE: Exactly. Exactly.

CHANG: (Laughter).

PEELE: And, you know, watching them does that for me to an extent. But creating them, I think, helps me deal with fear and makes me feel stronger and braver.

CHANG: Jordan Peele is the director of the new horror movie "Us." Thanks very much for talking to us.

PEELE: Thank you so much.

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 mythology   

n.神话，神话学，神话集

参考例句：

• In Greek mythology,Zeus was the ruler of Gods and men.在希腊神话中，宙斯是众神和人类的统治者。
• He is the hero of Greek mythology.他是希腊民间传说中的英雄。

3 guilt   

n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责

参考例句：

• She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
• Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。

4 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

5 hatred   

n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨

参考例句：

• He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
• The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。

6 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

7 embark   

vi.乘船，着手，从事，上飞机

参考例句：

• He is about to embark on a new business venture.他就要开始新的商业冒险活动。
• Many people embark for Europe at New York harbor.许多人在纽约港乘船去欧洲。

8 portray   

v.描写，描述；画(人物、景象等)

参考例句：

• It is difficult to portray feelings in words.感情很难用言语来描写。
• Can you portray the best and worst aspects of this job?您能描述一下这份工作最好与最坏的方面吗？

9 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

10 relegated   

v.使降级( relegate的过去式和过去分词 )；使降职；转移；把…归类

参考例句：

• She was then relegated to the role of assistant. 随后她被降级做助手了。
• I think that should be relegated to the garbage can of history. 我认为应该把它扔进历史的垃圾箱。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

12 subverted   

v.颠覆，破坏（政治制度、宗教信仰等）( subvert的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某人）道德败坏或不忠

参考例句：

• Their wills could be subverted only by death. 只有死神才能使他们放弃他们的意志。 来自教父部分
• Indiana State laws deliberately subverted the intent of the constitutions 14th Amendment. 印第安纳州的法律有意歪曲联邦宪法第十四条修正案的愿意。 来自辞典例句

13 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

14 jaws   

n.口部；嘴

参考例句：

• The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。
• The scored jaws of a vise help it bite the work. 台钳上有刻痕的虎钳牙帮助它紧咬住工件。

15 idyllic   

adj.质朴宜人的，田园风光的

参考例句：

• These scenes had an idyllic air.这种情景多少有点田园气氛。
• Many people living in big cities yearn for an idyllic country life.现在的很多都市人向往那种田园化的生活。

16 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

17 sneak   

vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行

参考例句：

• He raised his spear and sneak forward.他提起长矛悄悄地前进。
• I saw him sneak away from us.我看见他悄悄地从我们身边走开。