“Don’t quit your day job.” It’s advice most of us are wise to follow, but not Jordan Peele. He quit his day job and became an Oscar-worthy director for Get Out.
The Key & Peele creator, who also appeared on Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp and Fargo (and a Panic! At the Disco music video), told CBS Sunday Morning that he’s done with acting. “That’s the idea. Daniel Day-Lewis and I are both out,” Peele said, referencing DDL’s final theatrical role in Phantom Thread. “Acting is just nowhere near as fun for me as directing.”
You’d probably give up acting, too, if your directorial debut made $250 million, and you were nominated for Best Director at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards and Independent Spirit Awards, and your film was given top-five odds to win Best Picture at the 2018 Academy Awards. For his follow-up to Get Out, Peele will write, direct, and produce an untitled “social thriller” that’s set to be released in 2019; he’s also re-booting The Twilight Zone for CBS All Access and producing HBO’s Lovecraft Country with J.J. Abrams and a drama series about Nazi hunters in the 1970s. Not bad for a former-actor.
Peele’s interview airs this Sunday.
