The film won for Peele in the Best Original Screenplay category and made London-born actor Kaluya a star.
Since then, they’ve both been engaged, with Kaluu receiving his Oscar last year for his portrayal of Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah.
Now their latest film Nope sees them working together again, and pulling off a genre again – this time sci-fi with a flying saucer film that examines the spectacle, exploitation, and our obsession with the film industry. Is.
While stars like Kalua may represent the glamorous side of the business, the reality is that there are many unsung activists who are the backbone of Hollywood.
The actor told Sky News that we should recognize filmmaking for what it is: “Glamour is how you sell a film, but the reality is it’s a job.
“You’re making something that doesn’t exist, so it’s always challenging, you know? It’s always a corruption… There’s a lot of people who go into making a movie — there’s the catch, the camera department.” Yes, there is a voice, there is a lot of corruption.
“So, it’s cool that this movie shows the reality of one of the crew members on the shoot, and it’s not all glamour.”
Kalua co-star Keke Palmer agreed: “There are a lot of people who are forgotten, and they are forgotten only because everything they do doesn’t happen on film.
“How we believe that something isn’t happening or that something isn’t valid because you don’t see it being filmed – I think that’s a lot about it too, sometimes the best moments are the ones you don’t catch.” Going the camera, you know, and it happens a lot in film.
“You don’t see the best moments – you only see the part that we captured.”
Its themes of introspection, as well as really scary moments and some unanswered questions, won’t last long after audiences leave the cinema.
Kaluya says he’s only interested in making films that have that kind of impact: “I’m not afraid of being bad, I think [I’m in] a fear of being forgotten.
“You know, it’s like when you put so many hours and time into something and people go ‘huh’ and move on with their lives.
“So, the fact that we make movies that it stays in your mind or stays in your heart or whatever it is, it stays with you.”
He says he was keen to work with Peele again, and that not much has changed between the two, despite their careers since the success of Get Out.
“There was a change in the sense that we were a little more confident about what we were doing,” he explained.
“But we did what we used to do on set, when it comes to the character, when it comes to the visuals, we just shut down and [focus] on how we make this work and how we do the character. How do you bring in the audience?”
Palmer, who plays Kalua’s character’s sister, says she too focused on the acting job.
She says that it was only after making the film that she allowed herself to be absorbed in its wider context.
“I was so focused on my character, I was aware of the bigger themes of it, but I don’t think I really started to open up to it until I saw it put together.
“Because if you think about the whole thing when you make a movie, it can be distracting in terms of the part you’re playing in it, so I really wanted to be the tool for Emerald, you know, help with the story.
“So, after I’m actually able to get through it all perfectly.”
Kaluya says playing horse handler OJ — a man of few words — gave her the opportunity to learn something new.
“As Keke was saying, it was like I was just focusing on OJ — we’re the acting department, so we just put on that and focus on that.
“We understand the themes, we understand what’s going on and then you have to zero in and talk about the truth, what’s the truth to this scene?
“So [with] OJ I learned a lot about peace and quiet and how you can connect with beings without communication, without vocabulary — that was a big thing that I took away from the film.