On Monday, as the town buzzed about new box office records set by Us, the film’s 40-year-old director, Jordan Peele, was not wiling away the hours in a Universal lot bungalow fielding congratulatory calls from studio execs. Peele was on a cramped stage in East Hollywood at improv mecca Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, the starriest guest yet for the school’s new conversation series.
There was a sense of familiarity hovering over the proceedings. No surprise, as Peele got his start in improv before landing on MADtv in 2003, then achieving sketch-comedy stardom with Comedy Central’s Key & Peele in 2012.
Peele gave the standing-room-only audience — a diverse set of 20-something improv students, aspiring storytellers and fans — about an hour and 20 minutes of his time in a wide-ranging conversation that covered his hugely successful career, his marijuana dependence (a double-edged sword), the making of Get Out, inclusive casting and his favorite Twilight Zone episode.
The audience gave Peele a raucous standing ovation when he entered the room, a conquering hero dressed down in dark denim jeans, black Nikes, an Aviator Nation hoodie and T-shirt with Corey Feldman’s face on it, for some reason.
UCB co-founder and moderator Ian Roberts, who executive produced Key & Peele, began by mentioning Us‘ $88 million global box office haul — the “second-biggest opening for an original live-action film,” he noted. Added Peele: “That’s after Avatar. The stats get cooler when you say the thing that beat me.”
“The best way to end this great weekend is with you guys,” Peele told the crowd of 200. The moderator asked Peele when he first recognized his earliest glimmers of talent. That would be when Peele was in fifth grade doing a stint at TADA! Youth Theater in New York City. He recalled feeling a “burning sensation in my gut” that was hotter than his shyness. Peele was cast in a show that proved to be “the first win in a long career of wins and losses.”
From an early age, Peele showed natural skill at drawing, painting and other visual arts. “But the performing part came out of nowhere,” he recalled. “It surprised everyone.” No one more so than his single mother. “When I was 7, I did an impression of Ronald Reagan and my mom gave me great feedback,” he said, before launching into that wobble-headed impression with a raspy, “Hello.”