thing where you go running off
with pompoms. Something
had changed. I wasn’t sure what
that thing was. I wasn’t sure
that thing was mine or who
it belonged to because of how
everything happened. And it
made 2017 a very long year.
DANIELS When you come from the
African-American experience,
you don’t really think about doing
anything to get an Oscar. You
don’t even know whether the
movie’s going to be seen, let alone
be appreciated by your peers or
accepted into the Oscar category.
And so, I know exactly what he
thought (looks at Singleton), and
I know exactly what he’s going
through (looks at Peele). You just
don’t feel a part of the party.You four are part of an exclusive
club now. Which directors deserve
to be in it who aren’t?
JENKINS The list is far too long.
You’d have to include both men of
color and women. But the fact
that Spike [Lee] is not sitting in
this room ...
SINGLETON I always feel like I got
nominated because Spike was
passed over for Do the Right Thing
[in 1990].
PEELE Both Do the Right Thing
and Boyz N the Hood are master-
pieces. For me, I always wanted
to be a director. Since [I was]
12 years old, it was my dream.
And I think one of the reasons
I didn’t go into it was because I
had John, I had Spike, we had
the Hughes brothers and Mario
Van Peebles at the time, and it
felt like these geniuses were the
exceptions to the rule. And I
felt like, race aside, it’s the hard-
est thing to do to convince people
to give you money to make your
vision, and I think I was protect-
ing myself and I moved away
from that dream. I followed act-
ing because it was this immediate
response from the audience,
and clearly my soul needed that
kind of fortification. But then
in recent times, seeing what
Lee has done and what Steve
and Barry have done and now
it’s Ava [DuVernay], Dee [Rees],
Ryan [Coogler], F. Gary Gray,
it feels like this renaissance is
happening where my favorite
filmmakers are black, and it’s a
beautiful club to feel a part of.Spike, John, Ava, Dee, Ryan,
F. Gary Gray ... it feels like
this renaissance is happeningwhere my favorite filmmakers
are black, and it’s a beautiful
club to feel a part of.”
PEELE145
You certainly get that collegial
feel from social media, where
you all seem to promote one
another’s work.
PEELE Part of the cultural learn-
ing curve with this, too, is tied up
with this thing that every time
a black achievement happens, it’s
a black achievement. It’s like the
first African-American to do this
or that, and I think we’re all eager
to get to that point where it’s not
a first.
DANIELS To me, that’s the beauty
of what is now. I grew up in a time
when there could only be one.
SINGLETON Yeah, you were a
special case, an anomaly. It was
the Sidney Poitier equation for
everything.
DANIELS I knew there was some
change happening when I wasn’t
nominated for The Butler [in
2014]. Before my agent or my pub-
licist or even my mother called me,
Steve McQueen [who was nomi-
nated that year for 12 Years a Slave]
called me. He was like, “Bro, you
should be here with me.” And I just
said, “You’re there. Take it home.”
It was that kind of camaraderie
that’s really amazing and wasn’t
there before.
PEELE I’ve met all these guys in
the past couple of years, and
the energy I get from all of them
is this phalanx mentality where
we all realize we’re exponen-
tially stronger together than we
are separately.What were your personal inflection
points when you guys realized
that the game was rigged and not
necessarily in your favor?
DANIELS When did I figure out the
game was stacked against me?
When I was born. Next question.
PEELE Yeah, it just is. That’s the
thing, people are talking about
this day and age we live in, and
we hear so much about the racial
climate and this idea of, “Where
did this come from?” Black people
know it’s the same damn world
we’ve been living in all along. It’sPREVIOUS SPREAD: SET DESIGN BY DANNY DIAMOND. ON-SET STYLING BYSIMONA SABO. JENKINS GROOMING BYSIMONE FOR CHANEL PALETTE ESSENTIELLE AND KEVIN MURPHY AT EXCLUSIVE ARTISTS. SINGLETONGROOMING BY HEE SOO AT THE REX AGENCY. DANIELS GROOMING BY JHIZET PANOSIAN AT FORWARD ARTISTS. PEELE GROOMING BY SUZY DIAZ. KEENER: FREDERICK M. BROWN/GETTY IMAGES.