Episode 165: ‘Us’ with Writer, Producer, & Professor Tananarive Due

Episode notes

Us

This week we are joined by a very special guest; writer, producer, and educator Tananarive Due. For those who don’t know, Tananarive recently produced the groundbreaking documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. She’s also an award-winning author of several books. And she teaches Black Horror and Afrofuturism at UCLA. This week she joins April to discuss Jordan Peele’s Us. Tananarive begins the discussion by revealing her connections to Peele, which includes several interviews with the filmmaker and writing the introduction on the Black Horror aesthetic for the annotated screenplay of Get Out. As the discussion continues, she and April thoughtfully dissect several aspects of the film. Tananarive compares her isolation of being a Black woman in a white environment to Jordan Peele’s isolation that inspired both Get Out and Us. She also examines the personalities of predators, and how they are so similar to us. And she talks about the political statement made when a director casts a dark-skinned Black woman in the leading role of a Hollywood film.

You can watch Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror streaming now.

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If you haven’t seen Us – c’mon, you gotta.

With April Wolfe and Tananarive Due.