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It only took two movies for actor Daniel Kaluuya and director Jordan Peele to establish themselves as the next Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. They combined for four Academy Awards nominations for their first film, Get Out. Then they collaborated again on Nope, a summer 2022 hit that melded horror, comedy, and sci-fi. Kaluuya only needed those two collaborations to understand and explain the brilliance of Peele’s horror-comedy blend in his films.

Jordan Peele (left) and Daniel Kaluuya attend the 'Nope' world premiere. Kaluuya needed to work on just two Peele movies to understand why the director's comedy-horror blend is so brilliant.
Jordan Peele (left) and Daniel Kaluuya | Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images

Daniel Kaluuya and Jordan Peele continued their strong working relationship with ‘Nope’

Peele made his directing debut with Get Out, and it proved to be a successful one. Kaluuya earned an Oscars nod for best actor, and Peele won for best screenplay while earning nominations for best picture and best director. The film also earned more than $255.7 million at the box office, per Box Office Mojo.

Kaluuya had to overcome one massive challenge before filming Nope, and it helped him more fully develop his OJ Haywood character. The latest Peele-Kaluuya director-actor collaboration reached more than $100 million in ticket sales in just three weeks, and they’ll team up again in another capacity with Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.

While promoting Nope, Kaluuya explained what he loves about Peele’s creative films and how the director expertly melds comedy and horror.

Kaluuya explains why Peele’s comedy-horror blend is so brilliant

Before establishing himself as a horror-comedy-sci-fi director, Peele performed on sketch comedy shows like Mad TV and Key & Peele. Peele’s mix of horror and comedy impresses Kaluuya because the seamless genre-bending reflects real life.

“That’s what I love about Jordan’s films, because he has everything. He loves horror, and he’s very inspired by horror, and he draws from horror, but because he has that sketch comedy background, he’ll bring comedy into it,” Kaluuya told the BBC (via YouTube). “I see horror and comedy as the same coin but different sides because they’re both the genres that give the audience a visceral reaction, whether it’s a scare or a laugh. So it’s like when you marry the two, you can laugh and then get scared, and it will make the scare more impactful.

“I think what it is about his work is that it’s genre-bending. That’s like life. Horrifying moments could be really funny and funny stuff could be really horrifying. It’s like, let’s reflect life in this genre space.”

Peele can make the audience riotously laugh and jump with horror in the same scene, sometimes in the same moment. It’s a blend that Kaluuya loves seeing in Peele’s work.

Kaluuya will work behind the scenes for his next two movies

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‘Nope’s Jordan Peele and Daniel Kaluuya Will Team Up Again, but not as Director and Actor

Kaluuya won an Oscar for best supporting actor for Judas and the Black Messiah after earning the nomination for Get Out, but his talents extend behind the camera, too. His work for his next two films comes behind the scenes.

In addition to serving as a producer on Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul, Kaluuya’s screenplay for The Kitchen was greenlit for production. It should hit theaters in 2023, and the English actor also produces the movie.

The next time we see Kaluuya on screen comes in The Upper World. He stars in and produces the sci-fi movie about a man who can glimpse the past and future.

Daniel Kaluuya and Jordan Peele will almost certainly work together again, which means there’s a good chance the actor can experience the director’s brilliant genre-bending at least one more time.

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