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This

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is on the media's midweek podcast.

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I'm Brook Gladstone. When

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Jordan peels horror film get

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out, hit theatres in two thousand seventeen.

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It was a critical success in an unexpected

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blockbuster. The movie follows

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a black man named Chris, played

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by Daniel Kaluga, who visits

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his white girlfriend's eager parents

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in the country.

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By the way, I I would have

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voted for Obama for a third term if

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I a best president in my lifetime

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hands down. But soon, Chris

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sends us that the Armitage family is

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not what it seems. Plus the other

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black people he encounters act

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strangely. Spoilers

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ahead, slowly we learn

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that the arbitages are part of cultivaging

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absolute white people who hijack

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and

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inject themselves into

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young black bodies. Their

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victims are still conscious. but trapped

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in the sunken place, unable

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to change their fate. In the years

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since Getout's release, Gil's work

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has been credited for jumps starting a

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renaissance of the Black Harish genre,

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critics cheered the performance of the

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entire cast. But

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for many, one in particular stood

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out. Betty Gabriel played

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Georgina the maid, whose body

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was possessed by the Armitage's matriarch.

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In that sense, Gabriel played

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two characters at once. I

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owe you an apology How

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rude of me to have touched your belongings without

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asking? I can assure

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you there was no

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funny business This Halloween,

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OTM producer Rebecca Clark Callender

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did a deep dive into the history

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of Black horror films for the show. and

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she sat down with Gabriel to ask about

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how she prepared to play a

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woman possessed. This is an

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extended cut of their conversation. As

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it happens, the genre isn't

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one of Gabriel's favorites to watch.

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Mm-mm. It's

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not something I can handle

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I just definitely get

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nightmares and it just keeps me up at night

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sometimes. Did

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you do anything in particular

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to prepare for the role? I

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definitely

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watched a lot of old

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horror movies, particularly Bryant

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of Frankenstein.

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It was the whole

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science

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and clinical aspect

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of it, the the bizarre breakthrough

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of creating this

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new creature that's

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living but not really.

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Shit.

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and the fact that it

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was a old movie. For whatever

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reason, I was really wanting

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to go really old

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school.

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It's also mostly a

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silent film or there's very little

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dialogue and -- Mhmm. -- so so

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much has to be communicated with

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what you're doing and with your spirit

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and essence and physicality. And,

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you know, Jordan has talked about this in

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interviews that he was inspired by Rosemary's

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baby

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and different wise, so I watched this as

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well.

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You said in an interview

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a couple of years ago that you spoke

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to your grandmother about her

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spirit. Yes. What

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did she say that

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you

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brought to the role?

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Yeah. I totally did. I just

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remember

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this story about how every

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time she walked to school, she was

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being a bit taunted and tormented by this

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white girl.

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And, eventually, she

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she just kinda cracked and had enough and

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ran up to her and pushed her

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to the ground. Anyways,

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so she, like, ran out of pure

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fear and terror. Yeah.

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Something about that to cracking

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like having enough and acting

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out and then being so

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filled with fear and not sure

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you know, had escaped. She eventually did

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go up north, like, after she graduated.

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So she did get out of the south, but

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how much can we really get out?

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Yeah.

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So so obviously, you play

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Georgina to help. And

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I'm gonna be honest, I remember sitting

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in the movie theater. And from

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the very first Hello you

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have with Chris Daniel Hulu's character,

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I was like, nope. Something's wrong.

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Something is really, really wrong.

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But you're not really sure what. So

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you have these amazing moments where you're

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pouring the tea going around the table with

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the family and no one's acknowledging you.

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And then Chris saying, thank

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you. you can see it. It

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almost brings you out. There's then

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obviously some pure creepy moments

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where a door swings open and you're just standing

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there holding a carrot cake. staring

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into oblivion, which is

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obviously equally

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scary.

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Yeah. But

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I

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have to talk to you, of course, about

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this

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singular scene that really

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to me started with the miscommunication

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over the word snitch. I

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wasn't trying to snitch.

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inch,

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ratchet out.

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Total down.

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Yeah.

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Oh, don't you

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worry about that? I

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can assure you. I

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don't answer to anyone.

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The humor and horror are so closely

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tied in this movie. Mhmm. Mhmm.

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I think I saw Jordan Steele at

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some point say that

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you shot the scene

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where you're smiling and

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crying and saying,

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no. No. No. eleven

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times. Oh. Oh. No.

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No. No.

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No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

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No. I do something.

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That's not my experience, not

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at all.

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The Amitages are so

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good to us. They

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treat us like family. I

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was really just

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immersing myself in that reality

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and

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did little playful strange

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things. I

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would like look at myself in the mirror because

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there is

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that part where I have I do look at myself in

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the mirror. Like,

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you're fixing your hair and it's

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like this interesting

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fascination with yourself. Yeah.

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Right? Yeah. So I would do that.

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in my hotel room, and

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it got weird. And and I would

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also do meditations pretending

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like I'm face to face with this white woman

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and there was just like a lot

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of moments of stillness and

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trying to find the connection and

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the

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mutual sort of

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bond that this connection that

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I think is horrifying, of

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course, but I think it's the most intimate

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thing. And so

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I just got really, really intimate

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with this other person

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regardless if it was

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the person who was there originally

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or the person possessing

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that original person. You're

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saying meditation. What does that

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look like where you

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leaning into anger. What were

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the feelings that you were exploring

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there?

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Yes. Definitely some deep sadness

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and grieving and anger,

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but also it's somewhat

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akin to Stockholm

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syndrome when you're when you're

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trapped by someone

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and they become your only life

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source in a

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sense,

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there's just this sort of

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unhealthy and unreasonable

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reliance on them. So I think

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I think to just

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see the anger or just

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see

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the sadness. That's

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the majority of the pie, but I think that's

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not the complete pie. In

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twenty eighteen, you

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and Jordan Peele had to talk at

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the hammer museum where

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you said that you thought peel had

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written a beautiful but tragic love

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letter to black women in

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this film. What did you mean?

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I

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definitely read at

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least one criticism of the portrayal of

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black women in the film,

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and I just

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didn't see it that way. Obviously,

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I'm biased. What was that criticism?

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With my character, it was

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it was

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sort of like Well,

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she's like with strong black female

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stereotype.

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And I just

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kinda went, oh, interesting. Because

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in my mind, yes, on

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the surface, she is a very empowered

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black

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woman, but it's

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the power of the white woman who

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is the matriarch of

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this house and who

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is now in possession. of

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this black woman's body. While

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it's not her story, that

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really embraces the invisibility of

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black women while I'll

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so portraying the very

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visible

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horror of being a black

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woman in the society and how how

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we've been taken and we've been abducted

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and no one sees it, but

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he kinda makes you see it a bit.

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At the end of the day, I

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hope that's what resonates with

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an audience is that I

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think there's so many so

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many ways in which you can translate

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this black American

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experience and black female

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American experience. And

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the only genre that can

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work is horror, like

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pure as horror. That

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was Betty Gabriel who played

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the role of Georgina in get out.

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She was speaking to OTM producer

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Rebecca Clark Callender. Thanks

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for tuning into the midweek

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pod. Tune in to the big

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show on Friday. It posts

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around dinner, eastern

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time. Thanks.