Justin Simien, creator of "Dear White People"

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 August 2019

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Justin Simien is a writer and director to watch out for in the next decade, but maybe you should pay attention to his work this decade, too. His breakthrough film, "Dear White People," came onto the scene and made space for black voices, unapologetically. His Netflix series of the same name is in its third season and is streaming now. Justin Simien joins us to talk about his experience navigating college life as a black queer kid and how that experience helped shape some of the characters on "Dear White People." Plus, we'll talk to Justin about his new horror movie that just wrapped as well as his self-described obsession with the genre of musicals.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:12.8	It's Bullseye.
0:21.0	My guest is Justin Simion. He's the creator of the movie and television series, Dear White
0:26.4	People. The third season of the show is out now on Netflix. The movie was released back
0:32.6	in 2014. Justin used his tax refund to make the trailer. He used the trailer to launch
0:38.9	an Indiegogo campaign and used the success of the Indiegogo campaign to raise the rest
0:44.3	of the money to make the movie. Dear White people went on to win the U.S. Dramatic Special
0:49.1	jury award for Breakthrough Talent at Sundance, not bad for a first film. Dear White people
0:55.5	was about a group of black students heading to Winchester University, a fictional Ivy League
1:00.4	school, mostly white and very rich. It was hilarious and a little bit controversial. It blended
1:06.8	breezy humor with thoughtful takes on racial tension in America. The name alone probably
1:11.1	makes you feel at least a little hot under the collar. But when you're watching Dear
1:15.5	White people, you never feel like you're watching somebody's master's thesis. Justin Simion
1:19.8	brings that entire package to the TV show. Here's the scene that kicks off the Netflix
1:25.3	series. Sam is a biracial woman who attends Winchester after a marathon of side eye looks
1:31.0	and cringe-worthy questions asking what race she actually is. Sam takes to the campus
1:37.1	radio airwaves with a PSA. Dear White people, here's a little tip. When you ask someone
1:43.3	who looks ethnically different, what are you? The answer is usually a person about to slap
1:49.4	that **** out of you. While Sam shows, aptly typed, dear White people,
1:54.6	garnered a diverse set of listeners. Who is this chick? Others was butter.
2:00.5	Give John Carlo to say was butter. Highlight in my career. Highlight. Justin Simion, welcome
2:08.1	to Bullseye. I'm happy to have you here. I love your show, man. I'm happy to be here.
	...

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