The one movie that forced Jordan Peele to quit acting
Director Jordan Peele first came to the public’s attention after working in the field of sketch comedy. He’d been a cast member on Mad TV before forming the comedy duo Key and Peele with his friend and collaborator Keegan-Michael Key, who also worked on the Fox TV show.
It wasn’t long, though, before Peele decided to give directing a try, and he quickly found that he had a real talent for the art form, particularly in the horror genre. His 2017 directorial debut, Get Out, was a widespread commercial and critical success and earned a number of Oscar nominations.
However, it was after the success of Get Out that Peele decided to quit acting for good and rather focus on directing instead. Confirming the news at the time, Peele said, “That’s the idea. Daniel Day-Lewis and I are both out. Acting is just nowhere near as fun for me as directing.”
Interestingly, though, it was not just the fact that he’d drawn acclaim as a director that made Peele realise that acting was no longer the profession he wanted to dedicate himself to. Rather, it was because he was offered a role in a high-profile yet much-maligned animated movie.
When accepted the Director’s Guild of America award for ‘Best First-Time Director’, Peele revealed, “The Emoji Movie actually helped me quit acting. I was offered the role of Poop. This is true. I would not make this up.” Being offered such a role clearly wound Peele up the wrong way.
According to the actor-come-director, when his manager informed him about the offer, his initial reaction was not of intense joy. “That’s fucked up,” he said before adding, “I’m going to sleep on it.” After a rest, Peele decided to chase up the offer to see what the studio was offering in terms of cash.
However, it looked as though he was too late, even for a quick investigation into the film’s budget. The role had amazingly gone to Sir Patrick Stewart. Peele’s reaction was even more priceless than when he’d first been offered the role. He noted, “I said, ‘Fuck this’.”
It’s easy to understand why Peele had become disillusioned with the acting profession when a true thespian like Stewart had somehow decided to agree to play a piece of shit in an animated movie. For Peele, his following endeavours have flexed his creative freedom far more than acting ever could, with films like Nope and Us perhaps giving us reason to thank the Emoji Movie casting directors for offering such a shitty role.
