Inside the Sunken Place: A Conversation with Betty Gabriel

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4.6 • 8.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 November 2022

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Jordan Peele’s horror film Get Out hit theaters in 2017, it became an unexpected blockbuster and cultural phenomenon. The movie follows a black man named Chris, played by Daniel Kaluuya, who goes to visit his white girlfriend’s family in the country. Shortly after arriving, Chris starts to notice that something seems off and the other black people he encounters act... strangely. Slowly it’s revealed that Chris’ girlfriend, Rose Armitage, played by Allison Williams, and her family are a part of a cult that hijacks black people’s bodies and transplants the brains of their white members inside them. Their victims are still conscious but trapped in "The Sunken Place,” alive but unable to change their fate.

Betty Gabriel played Georgina the maid, whose body is possessed by the white matriarch of the Armitage family. Gabriel, in a sense, played two characters at once. This Halloween, OTM producer Rebecca Clark-Callender did a deep dive on the history of Black horror movies, and sat down with Gabriel to ask about how she prepared to play a woman possessed. For this midweek podcast we’re bringing you an extended cut of their conversation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is on the Media's Midweek podcast. I'm Brooke Gladstone.
0:04.0	When Jordan Peel's horror film Get Out hit theaters in 2017,
0:10.0	it was a critical success and an unexpected blockbuster.
0:14.0	The movie follows a black man named Chris, played by Daniel Calluga,
0:18.0	who visits his white girlfriend's eager parents in the country.
0:22.0	By the way, I would have voted for Obama for a third term
0:26.0	if I could best president in my lifetime hands down.
0:29.0	But soon, Chris senses that the Armatage family is not what it seems.
0:34.0	Plus, the other black people he encounters act strangely.
0:39.0	Spoilers ahead.
0:40.0	Slowly, we learn that the armatages are part of a cult of aging,
0:45.0	affluent white people who hijack and inject themselves into young black bodies.
0:50.0	Their victims are still conscious, but trapped in the sunken place,
0:54.0	unable to change their fate.
0:56.0	In the year since Get Out's release, Peel's work has been credited for jump-starting
1:01.0	a renaissance of the black horror genre, critics cheered the performance of the entire cast.
1:07.0	But for many, one in particular stood out.
1:11.0	Betty Gabriel played Georgina the Maid, whose body was possessed by the Armatage's matriarch.
1:18.0	In that sense, Gabriel played two characters at once.
1:23.0	I owe you an apology.
1:26.0	How rude of me to have touched your belongings without asking.
1:30.0	I can assure you there was no funny business.
	...

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