Actor Daniel Kaluuya is a bit confused and upset after Samuel L. Jackson’s criticism about his latest role in Jordan Peele’s comedy-horror film, Get Out.
Jackson and The National Review’s Armond White made their comments shortly after the film received a coveted 100% on Rotten Tomatoes with over 100 reviews. The film, which delved deep into liberal racism, is now at 99%.
In an interview with New York’s Hot 97 radio station, the Kong: Skull Island star said he had an issue with Get Out casting Kaluuya, a British actor, as an American man.
Kaluuya responded to the comments in an interview with GQ Magazine on Monday, with eloquent and open comments on race and his own personal struggles to fit in.
Though Jackson hadn’t yet seen Get Out, he explained that he couldn’t help but wonder “what would that movie have been with an American brother [in the lead],” who could relate more to the specific type of American-centered racism tackled by the film.
‘Because Daniel grew up in a country where, you know, they’ve been interracially dating for a hundred years … So what would a brother from America have made of that role?” he questioned on air…
To these comments, Kaluuya simply explained that racism is similar everywhere.
“I’m dark-skinned, bro. When I’m around black people I’m made to feel ‘other’ because I’m dark-skinned. I’ve had to wrestle with that, with people going ‘You’re too black,'” Kaluuya explained. “Then I come to America and they say, ‘You’re not black enough.’ I go to Uganda, I can’t speak the language. In India, I’m black. In the black community, I’m dark-skinned. In America, I’m British. Bro!”
Kaluuya went on to detail the history of racism in London, much of which, he explained, isn’t always seen in the mainstream media. “The Brixton riots, the Tottenham riots, the 2011 riots, because black people were being killed by police,” he listed, “Let me say, I’m not trying to culture-vulture the thing. I empathize. That script spoke to me. I’ve been to Ugandan weddings, and funerals, and seen that cousin bring a white girl. That’s a thing in all communities. I really respect African American people. I just want to tell black stories.”
What truly frustrated Kaluuya about this role is that in order to prove he could play the part he had to open up about the trauma he’s experienced as a black person. “I have to show off my struggle so that people accept that I’m black … I’m just an individual. Just because you’re black, you get taken and used to represent something. It mirrors what happens in the film,” he shared.
“I resent that I have to prove that I’m black. I don’t know what that is. I’m still processing it.”
Kaluuya isn’t the only British actor to weigh in on Jackson’s comments. Earlier this month Star Wars actor John Boyega addressed the “stupid-ass conflict” on Twitter.
Jordan Peele recently told The Guardian that while he “didn’t want to go with a British actor because this movie was so much about representation of the African American experience,” talking with Kaluuya made him understand how universal the struggles of racism are.