Daniel Kaluuya

[modelista]

Can't believe he doesn't have a thread

tvtropes.org

Daniel Kaluuya (born 24 February 1989) is an English actor and writer. He was born in London, the son of Ugandan immigrants.

Kaluuya began his career as a teenager in improvisational theatre. He subsequently appeared in the first two seasons of the British television series Skins, in which he co-wrote some of the episodes. Playing the lead role in Sucker Punch at the Royal Court Theatre in London, Kaluuya won rave reviews for his performance and he won both the Evening Standard Award and Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer.

He gained further acclaim for his performance in the Black Mirror episode "Fifteen Million Merits", and played Tealeaf in the BBC dark comedy series Psychoville, and Mac in the BBC Three horror drama The Fades. Kaluuya appeared as Agent Tucker in the 2011 film Johnny English Reborn, and in 2013, he appeared in the film Kick-*** 2. In 2015, he played a supporting role in the Denis Villeneuve film Sicario. It was his performance in Black Mirror that attracted the attention of Jordan Peele, who later cast him in Get Out, which proved to be his breakthrough role attracting significant critical acclaim. In 2018, he portrayed W'Kabi in the Marvel Studios blockbuster film Black Panther.

wikipedia

 

[modelista]

2018 Golden Globes Awards.

wireimage.co.uk

 

[modelista]

UK Vogue February 2018
BEST PERFORMANCES
Photographer: Juergen Teller
Stylist: Edward Enninful
Hair: Yusef Williams
Make-Up: Fulvia Faroli
Models/Celebrities: Margot Robbie, Nicole Kidman, Hong Chau, Gary Oldman, Salma Hayek, Timothée Chalamet, Michelle Williams, Tom Hanks, Gal Gadot, Emma Stone, Andrew Garfield, Mary J Blige, Diane Kruger, Daniel Kaluuya, James Franco, Jessica Chastain, Saoirse Ronan, Robert Pattinson & Allison Janney

UK Vogue Digital Edition

 

[modelista]

Actor Daniel Kaluuya attends the Universal Pictures Special Screening of "Get Out", in Los Angeles, California, on February 10, 2017.

Actors John Cena, Daniel Kaluuya, winner of the Next Generation award, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson pose in the press room during the 2017 MTV Movie And TV Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on May 7, 2017 in Los Angeles, California.

Daniel Kaluuya attends Lifetime Achievement Award Reception at Suna Residence during Hamptons International Film Festival 2017 - Day Three on October 7, 2017 in East Hampton, New York

Actor Daniel Kaluuya attends a red carpet for "Anatomy of a Scene: Get Out"; during Hamptons International Film Festival 2017 - Day Four on October 8, 2017 in East Hampton, New York.

Betty Gabriel and Daniel Kaluuya attend the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 9th Annual Governors Awards at The Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland Center on November 11, 2017 in Hollywood, California.

Actor Daniel Kaluuya attends the MoMA's Contenders Screening of "Get Out" at MOMA on November 15, 2017 in New York City.

Actor Daniel Kaluuya attends IFP's 27th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards on November 27, 2017 in New York City.

Daniel Kaluuya attends the British Independent Film Awards held at Old Billingsgate on December 10, 2017 in London, England.

Daniel Kaluuya attends Variety's Creative Impact Awards and 10 Directors to Watch Brunch Red Carpet at the 29th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival at Parker Palm Springs on January 3, 2018 in Palm Springs, California.

Actor Daniel Kaluuya attends the 18th Annual AFI Awards at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on January 5, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.

Daniel Kaluuya attends The BAFTA Los Angeles Tea Party at Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on January 6, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.

Daniel Kaluuya attends The 75th Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 7, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California.

zimbio

 

[modelista]

Daniel Kaluuya is seen at Los Angeles International Airport on January 8, 2018

zimbio

 

[modelista]

Actor Daniel Kaluuya attends the 2018 The National Board Of Review Annual Awards Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on January 9, 2018 in New York City.

Daniel Kaluuya attends the 49th NAACP Image Awards at Pasadena Civic Auditorium on January 15, 2018 in Pasadena, California.

Daniel Kaluuya attends the 29th Annual Producers Guild Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 20, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California.

Actor Daniel Kaluuya attends the 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 21, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.

Actor Daniel Kaluuya attends the premiere of Disney and Marvel's Black Panther at Dolby Theatre on January 29, 2018 in Hollywood, California.

Actor Daniel Kaluuya attends the 90th Annual Academy Awards Nominee Luncheon at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 5, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California.

Daniel Kaluuya attends the European Premiere of 'Black Panther' at Eventim Apollo on February 8, 2018 in London, England.

Daniel Kaluuya attends the EE British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) nominees party at Kensington Palace on February 17, 2018 in London, England.

zimbio

 

[modelista]

Daniel Kaluuya Isn’t Waiting for Your Approval

LONDON — Daniel Kaluuya, the “Get Out” star whose huge, tear-spilling eyes have imprinted themselves on our collective consciousness, was looking rather less vulnerable on a recent wintry day than he does in that memorable scene in which he is hypnotized into terrified, regressive submission.

Crunching nuts and drinking water during an interview here just before Christmas, the actor was in turn frank, guarded and intense: a movie star who hasn’t yet acquired the smooth sheen of the experienced interviewee. Mr. Kaluuya, 28, is British and has been acting since he was in his teens, but “Get Out” — the Jordan Peele spine-tingler that has been described as a mash-up of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” and “The Stepford Wives” — has thrown him into an entirely new kind of spotlight. Which he is sort of ignoring.

“I am definitely not a household face, and I don’t expect to be one” he said firmly. “I don’t think you become a name with just one job.”

Some might disagree. Mr. Kaluuya’s performance in “Get Out” as Chris, a black photographer on an increasingly nightmarish weekend visit to his white girlfriend’s parents, might as well be labeled “Break Out.” Both he and the box office smash have figured prominently on 2017 best-of lists and in prize conjecture; his performance drew an Oscar nomination for best actor (along with multiple nods for the film). “He is victim and avenger, a surrogate for the filmmaker and the audience,” A. O. Scott wrote in The New York Times, adding, “He can’t believe his eyes, and you can’t take yours off him.”

In person, Mr. Kaluuya seems physically tougher — he is built like a boxer, a role he has played — as well as warier than Chris, a photographer trying hard to believe that white people (probably? perhaps?) mean well. Born to Ugandan parents, Mr. Kaluuya grew up with his mother and an older sister on a council estate, the British equivalent of a housing project, in north London. (His father lived in Uganda, he said, and he didn’t connect with that side of his family until he was 15.) Although his mother wasn’t particularly interested in the arts, a primary schoolteacher noted that he was a “very busy” child and recommended acting as an outlet. “So, I wrote a play,” he said matter-of-factly. “The teacher said I was difficult, and I thought, ‘I’ll show you.’”

The play won a local competition and was performed at the well-known Hampstead Theater, where Mr. Kaluuya would later write and perform as a teenager. But after that triumph at age 9, he dropped theater for soccer, later finding his way back through improvisation classes at the Anna Scher Theater, a neighborhood institution that offered inexpensive drop-in sessions.

“Being young, working class and black, everything you do is policed,” Mr. Kaluuya said. “If someone hits you and you hit back, you are aggressive. If you cry, you are weak. You are kind of always pretending to be something. But in those improv classes, there was no pressure to be anything except honest, and that made me happy.” Although he knew he had “caught the bug,” he didn’t have the confidence, he added, to express a desire to act.

“If you are from the estates, you don’t say that,” he said. “Actually, the biggest problem is that you don’t know it’s possible. You don’t have the vocabulary, conceptually, to articulate that wish.”

Seeing fellow students get parts on television shows, he began to attend auditions, and at 16 won a role in the BBC drama “Shoot the Messenger,” starring David Oyelowo. Then came “Skins,” the BBC’s controversial, long-running series about hard-partying teenagers.

Mr. Kaluuya didn’t just co-star in “Skins,” he was also part of the writing team for the first two seasons, even as he was writing plays for the Hampstead Theater’s youth program and completing his A-levels, the graduating examinations in the British school system. (Drama was one of his subjects; his former teacher has written that he was the most talented actor he has ever come across.)

Mr. Kaluuya wanted to go to drama school but couldn’t afford it. Instead he kept writing for “Skins,” and in 2008 got a part in a play, “Oxford Street,” at the Royal Court. “That was a breakthrough for me,” Mr. Kaluuya said. “I couldn’t get seen for theater because I had no training. But that play led to ‘Sucker Punch,’ which changed everything.”

For “Sucker Punch,” written by Roy Williams, Mr. Kaluuya played one of the two leads, both young boxers. “I’d always been overweight and out of shape, but for this I trained for months and lost three stone” or more than 40 pounds, he said. “I gave it my all.” He won rave reviews and several awards, and drew the attention of a number of industry figures, among them the director Steve McQueen, who cast Mr. Kaluuya in his coming movie “Widows.”

“I had noticed him on ‘Skins,’ and then saw ‘Sucker Punch,’” Mr. McQueen said in a telephone interview. “He did this monologue while jumping rope which was amazing, and I was kind of mesmerized. He has that gift you don’t see often, a presence even in his stillness. You feel what he is feeling, you see what he is seeing. When I was casting ‘Widows,’ I knew it was him.”

After “Sucker Punch,” Mr. Kaluuya was cast in, among other things, the television series “Black Mirror,” but he felt frustrated by the response from the British movie and theater industry. “I wasn’t trained, I was too big, they didn’t want black leads, I don’t know,” Mr. Kaluuya said, clearly exasperated even at the memory. “You end up thinking, it’s just a glass ceiling, isn’t it?” He decided to set his sights on the United States, found an American agent and won a part in the 2015 thriller “Sicario.”

Before shooting “Sicario,” he read the script of “Get Out,” sent to him by his agent. “I was like, how do I make this happen?” Mr. Kaluuya recounted. “I totally loved it. I knew it spoke to me and my friends. That rage at the end; I know that.” He thought for a moment. “I was fortunate that I had acting,” he said. “If you had that anger on the street and let it out, you get arrested. I get applause.”

As it turned out, Mr. Peele had seen Mr. Kaluuya in “Black Mirror,” in the episode “Fifteen Million Merits.” In an email, Mr. Peele wrote: “It’s a soul-crushing performance in which he brilliantly performs the full spectrum of emotions I needed for Chris. Through most of the episode he’s restrained and subdued, but by the end his passion explodes into a primal unhinged monologue that is a thing of beauty.”

Although Mr. Peele was initially hesitant about casting a British actor instead of an American (a decision subsequently criticized by Samuel L. Jackson), he said that Mr. Kaluuya convinced him over a Skype conversation. “He put to bed my fears of any cultural rift in regards to race relations,” Mr. Peele said. “He really GOT the script in ways many didn’t. The risk excited him, where it made other American actors nervous.”

After Mr. Kaluuya flew to Los Angeles and performed the hypnosis sequence as his audition, the rest, Mr. Peele wrote, was history.

Mr. Kaluuya sighed wearily when asked about the controversy over his casting. “It speaks to the fact you are still getting policed,” he said, adding: “Even in the positive there is critique that a white person wouldn’t get.”

The success of “Get Out” hasn’t immediately led to other roles, he said, although he is thinking about a script he likes. Meanwhile, he isn’t exactly idle; he is writing a television series, as well as a film that he workshopped at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, and has two movies (“Widows” and the Marvel “Black Panther”) due in 2018.

“It’s still a hustle!” he said cheerfully. “You crack on.”

nytimes.com

 

[modelista]

Interview Magazine February 2017
DANIEL KALUUYA’S NEXT MOVE
By Emma Brown
Photography Jason Hetherington

Daniel Kaluuya never went to university. Instead, the 27-year-old North London native joined the British youth drama Skins as a writer and actor when he was still in his teens. “Skins was like our uni,” he explains. “I’m tight with everyone from Skins because we had that special experience together. We always meet up, always go to dinner, always have Christmas dinner. Everyone’s started having kids now and getting married, so we’re all part of it.”

Kaluuya’s professional career has evolved in fits and starts: Skins was a huge hit in the U.K., and led to a starring role on stage in the Olivier Award-nominated play Sucker Punch. In 2011, Kaluuya appeared in “Fifteen Million Merits,” the second episode of Charlie Brooker’s dystopian anthology series Black Mirror and arguably one of the best to date. But it took time for Black Mirror to become a phenomenon, and it wasn’t until four or five years later that Kaluuya really began to profit from his astonishing performance. “It’s really quite surreal,” he says. “Every British show comes and goes, and it was before Netflix was a thing. Then Netflix became a thing and I was in New York [two years ago]—I think for Interview—and I kept getting stopped. I was like, ‘I don’t understand what’s going on. This is really weird.”

Now, with Universal’s Get Out, Kaluuya has his first starring role in an American feature. Written and directed by Jordan Peele, the film is an astute satire that uses genre tropes to question the role of race in contemporary America, particularly within the context of white liberalism. Chris, a young black photographer, agrees to a weekend trip with his relatively new white girlfriend, Rose (a very chilling Allison Williams) to meet her parents in their affluent suburb. Once there, things become increasingly uncomfortable for Chris, from shameless othering at the hands of Rose’s family and friends, to bizarre interactions with the family’s all-too-chipper black household staff. While Chris grapples with his experiences—is he rapidly unravelling because of a childhood trauma that has come to the fore, or has he found himself in a Stepford Wives community?—his best friend, a TSA agent played by comedian LilRey Howery, provides perceptive comic relief via phone. The result is both laugh-out-loud and disturbing.

Though Kaluuya still lives in his home borough of Camden, he is currently in Atlanta filming Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther. He is also working on a few of his own scripts, including a feature and a television series.

interviewmagazine.com

 

[modelista]

+ cont....

EMMA BROWN: How did you get involved in Get Out? Was it the usual way—your agent sent you a script and you auditioned?

DANIEL KALUUYA: I got an email from [my agent] and read it, and I was like, “Aw, man, this is crazy. My boys would love this.” I actually called it “12 Years A Slave: The Horror Movie.” I was like, “Yo, how do I make this happen? I’m a massive fan of Jordan.” And [my agent] was like, “Oh, well, he’s a fan of you.” And I was like, “What the hell? He knows I exist?” So we Skyped a long time ago, probably about this time two years ago, and I was just saying how much I loved the script. It was a visceral reaction; I would watch the **** out of it, and all of my friends and anyone I care about would watch the **** out of it. Then it kind of fizzled out. I didn’t hear anything for a couple months. Sicario came out and I went out to L.A. after and I read for it. He literally said in the audition that I’d got the part, but I don’t really trust anyone. I waited a long time before it happened.

BROWN: When people like Jordan say that they’re a fan of your work, do they usually mention anything in particular and is often Black Mirror?

KALUUYA: Yeah. In America, what’s happened is that Black Mirror has come out on Netflix. Jordan said he watched that and he really just thought of me for the role.

BROWN: Did Black Mirror change your career in England when it came out?

KALUUYA: No, which is why I’m in America. I haven’t really had a lead role in England on-screen since that. A lead role is pretty rare for me—this is the first one since that on-screen. I’ve had a couple on-stage. So no, it didn’t really get people to go, “I’m going to cast Daniel in something.” That’s when I realized that I’m not really going to do anything that I believe in as much in England, so I started looking to America. I think I’m always going to be the risk [in England], for obvious reasons. So you go, “I’m just going to keep it moving and find my tribe.” With Jordan, I feel like I found someone that gets me. I don’t have to convince him, he just gets it. I think a lot of American people get it a bit more.

BROWN: What’s Jordan like as a director?

KALUUYA: He’s amazing, man. He’s so collaborative, he listens to all the notes, and if you’re having a problem. It was a 23-day shoot, so there wasn’t a lot of time, but he did it for us and made us feel welcome. Obviously, he has an acting background, but also he has an improv background, which I have as well and Allison [Williams] has. He allowed us to go off-script and, if it was not feeling right, just free up. Then there were some days he’d direct us as Tracy Morgan, which was incredible. He was just really fun, really welcoming, and really open and trusting.

BROWN: I really love the scene where your character gets hypnotized for the first time. You go through so many different facial expressions. What was that like to film?

KALUUYA: It was intense. But for me, it was just so well-written in terms of the dynamic and the conflict of the character—of not wanting to face something that he has to face. It’s also so interesting that he’s a black guy, because a lot of black men have problems being emotionally vulnerable because of the boundaries and parameters that have been put onto them by society. It felt really truthful that he has this backstory that’s tormented him, this shame and this guilt. He’s internalized it, and someone’s bringing it to the fore. It was so rich, there was a lot to play around in.

BROWN: I felt so bad for him at the end. He’s going to be very traumatized.

KALUUYA: He’s not going to date a white girl soon.

BROWN: I don’t think he’ll date anyone.

KALUUYA: Yeah. That’s what happens, though. That’s what happens when you open up and you go through an experience like that. It’s traumatizing. He has to seek help in order to get through it, but that’s another thing, will he seek help? A lot of people go through trauma—not exactly what’s happened in the film, but traumatic situations at that level—and they don’t, and then just have to live it and get by, which is what got him in that situation in the first place. He had the death of his mum, which is a massive loss as a kid, and he just cracked on and he internalized it.

BROWN: Obviously there are laughs in the film, but Chris is also a serious character and, like you said, he’s got a real emotional depth. Was it hard to find that when you have someone directing you as Tracy Morgan and you know that people are going to gravitate towards the comedic moments while watching the film?

KALUUYA: No, because I felt like Chris’s coping mechanism is humor. My experience growing up in London and growing up in a working class background, is that when people are down and out, that’s when they’re probably the funniest. They have to be. That’s what they do to cope, to find joy, cause they don’t feel the joy inside. Or they use humor to keep people out. I felt it was really honest because, as human beings, we don’t really make sense. I understood the serious stuff, but I didn’t want it to be transmitted as overtly. He has to be functional and open enough to even have a relationship in the first place, to be in that situation, and to have friendships and to enjoy life. And Jordan picks a time to be Tracy Morgan, so it’s all good.

BROWN: Do you remember the first time you met a significant other’s parents?

KALUUYA: My first girlfriend, we went to a play. She got a text when we were coming out of the play and she said, “sh*t, my dad is here. I haven’t told him about you.” We went downstairs and he was outside in the car, and he was just like, “Come here! Come here now! What are you doing?!” It was a bit crazy. I’d never, ever met him, so it was a pretty weird situation and she was really frustrated because obviously he didn’t want his baby girl to start dating. That’s life though.

BROWN: Did you go out again?

KALUUYA: Of course! That’s my girl! I don’t care! I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do. It was all good, it was just a tricky situation.

BROWN: When we last interviewed you, you talked about a script you were writing. Are you still working on that?

KALUUYA: Yeah, I went to Sundance Screenwriters Lab. I’m still writing it. I’m going to go full steam ahead, but because of my work schedule, it’s just been a delayed situation. I went Screenwriters Lab and then I came to Alabama to shoot Get Out. That delayed the redraft process. Now I’m in Atlanta doing [Black] Panther, but I still have to deliver a script at the same time. It’s happening. I wrote a TV series back home, as well.

BROWN: Who was your mentor at the Screenwriters Lab? Did you have one?

KALUUYA: We had Thomas Bidegain, who wrote A Prophet and Deephan. He’s amazing. He’s so smart. Kasi Lemmons was one. Tyger [Williams], who wrote Menace II Society. I had loads of really cool people with really cool outlooks. It was an awakening. If anything, it was a place where I thought I knew how to write, but I had no idea. A lot of people have an opinion on scripts, but they aren’t equipped to diagnose what the problems are. You realize that scriptwriting is such a specialist subject, but because it’s so common, everyone thinks that they can talk about that. I think it’s something that writers only know, that they can see. I was doing these drafts and everyone that I was speaking to for notes weren’t writers—they were really smart people with great notes, but the problems with the script, [the people at the Screenwriters Lab] could diagnose specifically. That was what was amazing about it. Someone like Bidegain, listening to him talk about story and script is just amazing. A Prophet is one of my favorite films of all time.

BROWN: How long have you been working on this script for?

KALUUYA: I have been on working on the script since 2013, 2014. It’s been a while. It took Jordan five years to write Get Out, so I’m realizing it takes that long. It’s a process. Especially if you want to say something real about London, and what happened in London in terms of gentrification of housing and you want to be really cinematic and ambitious about it. The process takes a while. It’s cool, I’m ready for the long run. I think a lot of writing is, “What is this story trying to be? How do I get out of the way?” So it’s kind of like, “Oh, I found another bit where I’m in the way, and another bit.” But I don’t think writing stops until the film is out. In the edit, it’s another draft. [The script] is the food for set, and then the set is food for the edit, and the edit is food for the screen. It’s constant, and this is just the first stage of it.

BROWN: When you were little, were you always writing stories? Did you always know that you wanted to be a writer?

KALUUYA: I wrote my first play when I was nine. It was performed at Hampstead Theatre. I won his competition. It was really weird. The teacher thought I was an idiot. I was messing about a lot, and she’d go, “Look at Shafi”—Shafi was Bengali, she couldn’t speak English—”Even Shafi is working. What’s wrong with you?” And I was like, “Alright, listen. I can do this.” I just wrote something, it won, and it got performed. They were like, “Keep writing!” and I was like, “No. I want to play.” I wanted to play football and it didn’t really work out. At 12 you really know that this is not going to work out for you, so at 12 I was like, “I should retire from football.” Then I got into acting through improv. Improv is like writing. It’s actually a different discipline to acting. It helps acting greatly, but it’s completely different. It’s the same side of your brain when you write as when you improv. So I did that, and I started writing plays and directing them at Hampstead Theatre, youth theater. Then I got a job acting, then I got Skins. I joined Skins as a writer and actor when I was 17.

BROWN: Do you remember what that play was about when you were nine?

KALUUYA: That play was based on Kenan & Kel. I just liked their dynamic. I was obsessed by their dynamic, and it was just two guys that worked at McDonald’s or something. I can’t really remember it. I remember my whole year at school came out to watch it. It was quite an intense experience. I think it had an orange soda moment, but it was McDonald’s, so I made it Fanta or something. I would love to find it. Hopefully it’s in my room somewhere.

BROWN: I don’t know what Kel is doing now, but if you ever met Kenan, would you tell him about writing this play when you were little?

KALUUYA: I would tell him I wrote a play, but what I’m finding about being in L.A. when you meet people that you know, it’s really intense to do stuff like that. I saw the Chance the Rapper the other day. Chance the Rapper did a screening of Get Out, and I was like, “Yo, man, I went to your gig!” And I showed him my friend dancing at his gig in Camden, cause I’m from Camden. I showed him and it’s just really intense. Like, “Why are you showing me your friend dancing?” My instinct is always to keep it cool, and I went up to him, and I was like “**** it.” So maybe if I saw Kenan … but then I’d have to find Kel. I can’t leave Kel out. That’s not fair. They’re one. They’re a duo. Life goals.

BROWN: Has anyone in L.A. done something like that to you? “I have to show you the text I sent after I watched your episode of Black Mirror!”

KALUUYA: In L.A. I’ve had weird situations. You just don’t know how to react: “Okay. Cool. That’s a very visceral reaction you had from watching that and you’re communicating that to me. Great.” I’m just happy people give it time and that they wanted to watch it. I really believe in that episode and Charlie Brooker as a writer. So, the fact that it’s out there and people felt something, that’s what you do it for. It’s the same with Get Out. I went to a screening the other day—the Chance the Rapper one—and people were whooping and going crazy. People were present. It’s an experience; they’re not passive within it.

BROWN: People were definitely cheering in my screening, even at some of the more violent moments.

KALUUYA: Yeah, and that’s interesting as well. I did a play called Blue/Orange. It was last summer at the Young Vic [in London]. It was about mental health in the black community, but this character was quite funny. Camden had a massive amount of mental health people and people that did drugs, so I’ve been around it my whole life. It was so interesting when the audience laughed. There are bits that are really funny, but they are bits where you kind of shouldn’t have laughed. And that’s like life. So the reaction in Get Out, it means that the audience is part of the art piece. You can watch the film and that’s revealing, and then you can watch the audience as well and it says a lot about who they are and how they feel.

interviewmagazine.com

 

[modelista]

Get Out's Daniel Kaluuya Talks Jordan Peele and Being Instagrammed by Nas

Photo of Zach Baron
BY ZACH BARON
PHOTOGRAPHS BY BILLY KIDD
December 4, 2017

A conversation with the breakout star of one of 2017’s best movies.

Daniel Kaluuya, the 28-year-old British actor, has been working for nearly a decade at this point and so is used to a certain level of recognition. For a while, he was that guy from Skins. Then he was the guy from Black Mirror. Fine. But Kaluuya will admit that things, in the months since he starred in Get Out, have taken a turn for the surreal. “People look at my face,” he says, “and go: ‘Oh. Sunken place.’” If you’ve seen the film, you know what this is: that liminal black hole where you suffer in silence, trapped in your own body. You’re picturing Kaluuya in it right now, probably. A man paralyzed, in extreme distress. Tears tracking down his cheeks. Kaluuya will be walking around an airport, or buying a slice of pizza, and that’s what people see when they see him: sunken place.

Get Out grossed about $175 million and made an instant Hollywood heavyweight out of its director, Jordan Peele. It gave us the language, and the images, to make sense of an awful year: Allison Williams on a staircase, dangling car keys in her hand, snatching away the audience’s hope and trust; Lakeith Stanfield, in a straw hat, blood dripping from one nostril, trying to warn of the horror to come. And it gave us Daniel Kaluuya, who played the film’s lead role and who has been the face of Get Out—the face of a phenomenon, really—ever since.

The Hollywood Breakouts 2017
For what it’s worth, he’s cool with that, he says. Things have been, uh, going well for him in 2017. There may or not be an Oscar campaign coming for him and Get Out. In February, he’ll appear in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther. His next film after that is Steve McQueen’s Widows. Viola Davis as a bank robber—who doesn’t want to see that? There’s just something about Kaluuya as an actor that directors respond to. As Peele puts it: “As a protagonist, he has this inherent goodness of spirit that you can feel; he has an intelligence that you can feel.”

We talked to Kaluuya about his very good 2017 and what comes after it.

GQ: Get Out is a potential Oscar contender now, but I imagine when you were making it, it felt quite different. What were your expectations at the time?

Daniel Kaluuya: Everyone was a fan of Jordan and Jordan’s voice, but I don’t think anybody had any expectations as to what it would do. I mean, we knew it would have an impact, because racial relations are still kind of taboo, or people don’t say their views on them as regularly. So you’re just kind of like: This is going to shake something up. But it was a 23-day shoot. We were just trying to survive and get it done.

At the time, you were working with a new director, in Jordan Peele, on a film with a small budget. Did you ever doubt the outcome?

A lot of times, the people who have the confidence to say “I don’t know what the rules are, so I'm just going to do what I want” are the most exciting people. And I don’t think you ever know what you’re doing. You just kind of deal with the problems as they come. I was really excited Jordan had that much at stake, because it’s more than just a film. He’s saying something that is actually really personal, and he had the courage to go in. I was like, “Well, I’m going in with you, if you’re showing that much courage.”

When did you first realize the film might actually be a big deal?

I got a text from someone in America who works in the advertising world. She said, “Oh, Daniel, the advert for the film was during the Golden State game.” So I was like, “Wow.” That’s a thing. It means everyone’s seeing it. But when someone like Nas Instagrammed it? That made my head explode. That didn’t even make sense! Nasty Nas Escobar…Nasty Nas…Nas?! That’s crazy. That was the stuff that was wild to me. I’ve done jobs that people in the industry have seen, but this is going further than that. Nas is such a touchstone in my world.

It’s one of those movies that has diffused out into the broader culture in a hurry. Where do you encounter it the most?

I think the “sunken place”—that term is what I hear when I’m just casually living my life. People say it around me. Not because they’re around me; they’re saying it because it articulated a state of mind. Lil Wayne’s rapped about it. And then also, when you get into certain situations, or in a very micro-aggressive place, you share a look with someone, and it’s like, “You know what it is.” Everyone knows what it is now. That’s what Jordan’s done: articulated an experience that everyone kind of has but that they didn’t have the words for.

It’s a film that a lot of people understand in a lot of different ways, depending on their race and life experience; I imagine you kept getting mixed up in that whenever you had to talk about the movie.

The beauty of any artwork is that it becomes the person that’s watching it: What do you take out of it? But there was this racial stuff, and it was like, “Oh, you don’t really understand it, so you’re asking me a question from a place, and you’re not aware that you’re asking me a question from that place.” With both American and British press: You don’t realize you’re reflecting stuff in the film.

I’ve been guilty of this, too, but so often an actor’s personal identity and life experience are dredged up and mined to explain the character they play.

It’s like, “Why? Didn’t you believe it anyway? Why do I have to give something of myself or say something that I’ve been through in order for you to connect to the movie more?” But it’s only a thing if you make it a thing.

It’s pretty obvious how a movie like this changes Jordan Peele’s trajectory and options. How does it change yours?

I’m noticing it now. At the time, there was so much happening. But now? There’s certain people that contact you, there’s certain people that you meet, there’s certain people that you see on a plane and you’re a fan of, and they come up to you? It’s that access. And what people think you can do. I get noticed a bit more now. So you’re navigating that as well, which is interesting.

What do you hear about an Oscar campaign?

I’ve…heard stuff. I’ve heard stuff. I don’t know what I can divulge, but I’ve heard stuff. Even the fact that it’s in that space…What’s amazing to me is that you can bring that up as a question. And then whatever happens happens.

Not to be overly blunt about it, but that stuff doesn’t happen by accident. Do you have a sense of what will be required of you this fall in terms of awards-season campaigning?

[laughs] I don’t. I’m always in and out of America, so I’ll be in and out of America—I have no idea to what extent. I just don’t know. We’ll just take every day as it comes, and we’ll see what happens.

Did you learn anything about Hollywood and your industry from this past year that you didn’t already know?

Having something that makes money changes everything. I’m from England, and it’s very much about credibility there. And yeah, it is about that. But the money can change things. And so you understand: It’s a business. Whenever I’ve been in L.A. or New York, I’m meeting people that I find interesting. So it probably gives you more access to that. Certain people are more interested in meeting you and sitting down with you that wouldn’t have before.

After Get Out, which was a relatively small production, you went directly to working on Black Panther, which is a giant Marvel thing. Was that jarring?

I wouldn’t say jarring. It was like, “Okay, this is new. This is different.” But I signed up for it because I hadn’t experienced a movie of that scale. I want to understand that and have that comparison to see what I like and what I don’t like. There’s stuff that’s really cool, and there’s stuff where I’m like, “Oh, I need to grow in this.” But it was still a group of people that really believed in the filmmaker and the story and the characters, and giving their all for that.

What was the Black Panther set like? You guys were making an entirely new thing.

It’s the same way I felt with Get Out. Saying “I’ve never seen this before” when I was shooting scenes.

What’s an example of something you hadn't seen before?

There’s a waterfall scene. I mean, I can’t divulge exactly what happens in it. But the scale of Black Panther, and what’s within that scale, it’s so exciting. The fight scenes are so exciting, but even certain exchanges between the characters reflect an experience that hasn’t really been explored yet. We’d do two lines between two characters, and I can have a full-blown conversation afterward about why those two lines resonated. And so that stuff makes me feel like, Okay, cool. If I was living my life and I worked at a bank? I’d watch this. And it’s always cool to be in stuff like that.

You haven’t made a ton of movies, but you’ve worked with some of the best directors already: Denis Villeneuve on Sicario, Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler, and Steve McQueen, who directed you in Widows. Are you choosing them, or are they choosing you?

When you say it like that, it makes me sound like a kind of guru who chooses all these people, like, “Oh yeah, it’s a plan.” I can choose people, but if they don’t choose me, it ain’t happening, is it? So it’s me putting my front foot forward and saying, “I believe in your work, and I want to be a part of this journey,” and them accepting me and wanting me to be a part of it. I did a play back in the day, called Sucker Punch, and it meant so much for me. I was 21. And I went, “I just want to do work like that.” Stuff I believe in. And when I have compromised, I’ve never really felt good about it.

But it’s crazy, because I was doing a different play in England, and it was in the space of like a week when I got a call from Ryan [Coogler] and Steve [McQueen], who both wanted to meet me in separate ways about projects based on stuff I did in 2010 and 2009—plays I’d done that were unrelated to Get Out. Or because of the Black Mirror episode I did, which I did when I was 22. That was six years ago. It just happened that it came to fruition years later.

Hearing from Ryan Coogler and Steve McQueen in the same week is…a good week.

Zach, it was cool. It was a cool ****ing week. Because there was a lot of stuff in England that I wasn’t getting because of the politics of this industry. It was nice that people whose films I was watching anyway were like: “I see you. I see what you’re doing.” It makes you feel like you’re not crazy for sticking to your guns—sticking to doing stuff that you believe in. And the reward for that is working with people who you dreamed of working with anyway. You know?

A version of this story originally appeared in the December 2017 issue under the title 'The Breakouts 2017.'

gq

 

[modelista]

Black Panther's Daniel Kaluuya Is in His Own Space Now
MARK ANTHONY GREEN
February 16, 2018 8:00 AM

Black Panther and Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya talks about the awards-season hustle and his favorite performances of the year—and shows off the 14 essential fashion pieces of the season.
Daniel Kaluuya is in the thick of awards season. His British accent is thick. It's morning. He looks tired but remains super focused. Pensive. Serious. "I don't have time for ****ing race debates," he says. His breakout role in Jordan Peele's Get Out—which scored him a Best Actor nod at this year's Oscars—has guaranteed that in every sit-down, he's gotta talk about race. "I just rebuke all of this ****." He's looking at the long game. This isn't just some handsome actor—destined to live a life of following directors' orders and collecting trophies. This is a serious artist, someone who's been "plottin'." Look at these three films: Get Out will be heralded as the standard of black surrealism, possibly sparking its own genre entirely. Black Panther is on track to break box-office records. And Steve McQueen's forthcoming Widows will likely land him back in this seat next year: answering questions over breakfast, smack-dab in the middle of awards season.


Listening to him, I'm reminded of a young Sidney Poitier. He's shrewd. Charismatic. Unapologetic. Important. "This house didn't want me for the longest time. I kept trying to get in, and they wouldn't let me in. And I didn't even like the house!" He takes a bite of his omelet. "So now I'm building my own house."

GQ: Do you expect to win?
Daniel Kaluuya: What? Anything?

Anything, yeah.
No way.

You expect to lose?
Yeah.

Why?
I didn't come here to win.

Why'd you come?
To check it out. [laughs] I'm not here to win. I'm not here to lose. I'm here to check out. Go to the fire. Sometimes you go to the fire. Sometimes you put your hand in there. Oh, that's hot, okay? Or I like pain. You know what I mean? It's like I'm here to check it out. I didn't choose to do Get Out so I could have this experience. I never thought about it. So if this is on the table, I'm like, Okay, let's see.

That's an empowering place to be in.
Yeah, but like what's winning and what's losing? According to who? Who are these people?

People say that, ya know? That they don't care about winning. But I think most do. Like, you'd be disappointed a bit, right? That's human.
You know what it is? The minute you try on the suit, you're in. The minute you try on the suit and actually think about how you want to look, you're in. You're invested in the result in some capacity. But when someone gets called out, I don't know. I don't feel down. I don't feel down. I think there's a lot of things I need to get in order in my life to have that next step.

And in the big picture, your career is just starting.
This is the warm-up, bro.

What about the film? How'd you feel if Get Out doesn't win? Would that disappoint you?
For Jordan. Because he deserves it. Because he's special. But things happen. If you ignore [Get Out], then ignore it. Then we know what you are. You get what I'm saying?

What is your favorite film of 2017 that's not Get Out?
Ah, that's a good question. Jesus…I can only pick one?

Just one.
Good Time.

That's your favorite film of the year?
It's my favorite. It's good. I like Lady Bird, too. A lot of people don't like Lady Bird. I liked it. I love that indie ****. A lot of that Sundance kind of vibe. But Good Time is cold. Good Time is like a film for now. The Good Time directors directed "Marcy Me" [Jay-Z's music video]. I thought the film was cold. Raw. Current. This is a current filmmaker. Robert Pattinson is the lead. It's that edgy ****! But I Am Not a Witch is a close second.

Who do you think should win Best Actor?
I want to say Gary Oldman, because Gary Oldman is a don. But I haven't seen Darkest Hour yet. Daniel Day-Lewis is a don. I really liked that performance. I thought Timothée Chalamet was amazing. I thought Timothée killed it in Call Me by Your Name. Such a mature performance.

I'm always envious of non-Americans because we have such a race complex here. Of course there's racism everywhere, but you guys don't seem to have that complex. Is it weird to come here and work with people and it almost feels regressive that we're so fixated and we want to talk about it?
No. I think in England they talk about race debates.

A lot?
Yeah, there's a thing called BAME. That's what they're calling us now. And I don't ****ing understand. Because I'm not a ****ing BAME. Don't call me a ****ing—

BAME is—
BAME: British, no Black-Asian-Minority-Ethnic. I don't know, man. But I said I'm not a ****ing Batman character. Don't call me a ****ing BAME, man. You know what I'm saying? It's like, I just rebuke all this ****. Some people want to be let in the house. Some people want to make a new house.

Explain that.
This house didn't want me for the longest time. I kept trying to get in, and they wouldn't let me in. And I didn't even like the house! I want to build a house with other people that want to build a house—and build that house together. And that whole conversation, being let in the house, I can't be honest. I can't be bothered with it. And so I don't think like the race fixation is a Western phenomenon—

Sickness, really, it feels like to me.
It's not a sickness. Sometimes it's how we define ourselves. You know what I mean. It's in conjunction with how white people see us. It's a response. And I'm trying to remove myself from that response. I'm trying to go, I am a black man in my own space, as opposed to I'm a black man in relation to racism.

You said a bit ago that you weren't a household face. But you're definitely on your way. Are you apprehensive at all about that?
I don't know. I didn't have to think that far. I didn't think it was possible.

You still don't think it's possible?
Now I do think it's possible. But I didn't think it was possible. So that's why I sit there like, I don't think so? Because yeah, it's like my second American job.

Do you want a family? Kids?
Yeah.

Do you want a bunch of kids?
Yeah. We'll see if she's willing to squad up.

Would you ever move to America?
I think I'll have a space here. But I think there's something about London that I need.

And what is that?
It's the shorthand, man. They just see me. I think a lot of people in America don't. They can't engage me. Don't understand.

If you weren't acting, what would you do?
Probably radio. I love music, man. I would like—

Like rapping or singing?
I don't think I have the personality to rap. I think I would have been a producer if I was making music. I would have been geeking out on that. I can't be bothered with it, though, the rapping.

What's one thing that you need every day?
Headspace.

What do you mean?
Sometimes I wake up really early just to think or to do what I want to do. Because a lot of my day is doing what other people want me to do. So I watch a film or read a book. Sometimes I used to wake up really, really early. Do something for me. Which means I'm better for others. And I realized when I didn't do that, I'd be really down. Get what I'm saying. Because I'll feel like I'm me. I was on the treadmill, and that really helps me. So it's just headspace and kind of feeling like you're in control.

If you had to mirror your career after any previous actor, who would it be?
Donald Glover. The way he moves is righteous. What I love about Donald Glover is he just does stuff and doesn't apologize for it. He'll drop an album, go away. Drop a TV show, go away. Drop a film, go away. Doesn't have to over-explain it. Just does what he does.

Are you a competitive person?
No. When I see Beckham, that inspires me. When I see Mike B., that inspires me. They're moving amazingly, man. And they're amazing people. So like, I'm trying not to be like, where is Jack O'Connell or Dev Patel? That's not good for you. You're not being good to yourself when you do that.

What do you want from acting?
I guess to express myself. But it's more pinpointed than that. To be a reflection of what me and what my people are feeling. That's what I want to represent. When I was doing Get Out, that's where I was at. Black Panther, that's where I'm at. That's how I feel with the roles that I do. That's where my space is at. For whatever reason, that's how I was feeling.[/quote]
gq

 

[Cinthia]

I watched some of his interviews he has the most charming personality!

 

[rubydon]

Chanel Pre-Oscar Awards Dinner at Madeo in Beverly Hills on March 3, 2018



melindadaily

 

[HeatherAnne]

^ Perfect there. Rooting for him tonight!

 

[jexxica]

Daniel Kaluuya attends the 90th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on March 4, 2018 in Hollywood, California.

zimbio​

 

[Cinthia]

Looking dapper!

 

[jexxica]

Daniel Kaluuya attends the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion & The Catholic Imagination Costume Institute Gala at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 7, 2018 in New York City.

zimbio​

 

[Yohji]

Introducing British Vogue’s 2021 Hollywood Portfolio, Featuring 27 Of The World’s Biggest Stars

Daniel Kaluuya
‘Judas and the Black Messiah’

Londoner Daniel Kaluuya brings so much charisma to the role of Fred Hampton, chairman of the Black Panther Party’s Illinois chapter in Judas and the Black Messiah, that it’s hard to take your eyes off him. From hypnotic political speeches delivered with Shakespearean verve (Kaluuya worked with an opera coach to maximise their effect), to the complexities of love and betrayal against a backdrop of the civil rights movement, it is a career-defining moment.

vogue.co.uk
​

 

[puresoul]

2022 Academy Awards, March 23, 2022

people.com​