good evening from los angeles, first a conversation with actor wallace sean, you might know him best as the villain in the princess bride or the voice, or rex the dinosaur in toy story. my dinner with andre to his newest text, night dhaugts. then we'll revisit my conversation with writer, producer, jordan peel about the thriller "get out" now on blue-ray and dvd. we're glad you've joined us, all of that coming up in just a moment.

and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. if you don't recognize wallace sean's memorable face, you would definitely know his distinctive voice in a career one might describe as inconceivable, he's been entertaining children for decades in films like the princess bride and toy story, but it's his award winning writing that's caught the attention of grown-ups, his latest text is called night thoughts. wallace sean an honor to have

you on this program, sir. >> so great to be here. >> why would one call your career inconceivable? >> well, i suppose i participate in popular culture or i certainly did in my greater days and i suppose some of my writing is hostile to the way our society is organized and might seem to be at war with the things that i do. i don't know. >> yeah. >> i don't feel it that way, but some people think that. >> that, that counter narrative if i can put it that way comes from where? >> well, it's hard to -- i mean it's hard for me to analyze it,

but to -- i suppose i was brought up in a privileged way, and from a fairly early age, i was a little bit upset by that. and then -- >> why? what's there to be upset about? i don't know. >> i don't know. i did see some poor children when i was a boy and asked my parents why don't they have better clothes and they look ed sort of dirty and even their facial expressions are less tranquil than the expressions of my private school classmates. and i suppose my parents must have been upset by the question. and i must have picked up that

upsetness because either, you know, to answer that question you either have to say well, the world we live in is very unjest and we are thieves or you have to say, well those people are inferior and they deserve to not have, you know, good clothes. so i think they didn't to want say either of those things, they were very nice people, and they must have given off some vibrations of distress that troubled me maybe. >> but that -- those, those feelings obviously stuck with you over the years. as evidence in your writings. >> well, they went -- they came and went until i was in my early 40s, then i had a kind of crisis, and i came to feel that

i'd been too complaisant and so i changed. >> care to share about the crisis? >> well, i -- i can't explain why it happened exactly, but i had always been, let's say in a liberal way, sympathetic to people who were miserable, but it didn't occur to me that it was my fault particularly. and in my early 40s, i sort of came to understand that those people were kept in desperation because a certain status quo was being maintained and it was being maintained in order to benefit certain people and i was one of them. i was one of the beneficiaries of the system of oppression around the world. so, i sort of freaked out and

had a feeling of hatred of myself that -- well, i haven't really recovered from it. because i i haven't caught up in my behavior with the realizations that i had, i suppose. >> it raises this question then, i didn't know you were going to go there, but since you have, let me ask as a follow-up then, when one acknowledges or owns one's complicity, that's one thing, but what do you do -- can you exercise any agency then to do anything about said situation? >> well, i mean -- >> or said reality. >> well, i mean, obviously there is a pretty big spectrum of

things you can do. of course, you can, the simplest way to resolve those emotions, i suppose, would be to give up all privilege. >> don't be stupid now. >> well, well, i mean, nobody wants to do that -- >> yeah, exactly. >> i don't say nobody, there are a handful of people, i've met some of them, who, you know, give up all attachment to comfort and to ease of life and to, you know, go to work in refugee camps and to live very humbly. other people, i mean, for me, it was a big change to march in the

street in a demonstration before i was i was 40 i had never done that, i thought it was a frightening and sort of disturbing thing to do. i will march in the streets and i will sign these things that, i don't 100% agree with, but i 95% agree with. and, of course, when more and more as, you know, searches for things that one can do, but it's -- i can't set myself up as an example. i mean, obviously, you know, it's a beautiful thing to chain

yourself to the nuclear installation or the pipeline, i, you know, or to go to prison for your beliefs or even be killed for your beliefs, i'm not dead yet, so we'll see. but, to, yes, i do have an attachment to comfort -- i mean, i'm only hanging on to it by going into debt. it's not that i actually, i don't actually have have really comfortable income anymore. i did, at least in the '80s make some money as an actor.

>> is there a particular comfort or something else that you get in sharing these night thoughts in this book with the rest of us? >> well, my basic idea in writing this as you could see, rather small book, this contains everything that i think. >> not everything you think -- >> it is, really. it is. i thought, i'm now over 70, i crossed that line and i thought i may soon be senile if i'm not already, it's hard to tell. if i'm not, i better -- i want po put down everything i think. i mean, i was originally invited to give a speech and i gave a speech and it, it was incomplete and someone offered to turn that -- this was anthony arno

who published this, turn that speech into a book, and so i sort of thought, okay, i'm going to put absolutely everything i think into this, and, you know, see if it has any value to anybody else. >> it's not really all that you think, it is put another way, all that you believe? not what you think, but it is what i get a chance to go through this, it is, it's pretty clear what your core believes are. what your mission statement of about life is. what's fascinating -- and it and i say this respectfully and with love, you are like a democratic socialist. you wear that with pride, you're like a bernie sanders in some ways. >> well, is that a compliment to you or did i just diss you? >> no, no, no, i have the greatest respect for bernie sanders.

enormous respect for him. i'm happy to call myself a democratic socialist. i suppose in the book i get slightly ahead of myself and talk about what would happen if people like me by the time you get to i don't know, 55 out of the 65, i'm warning the people who will follow me, you know, about some of the pitfalls of power because i sort of feel

human beings have demonstrated a poor record of having power. even people with the most wonderful beliefs. >> yeah. it's important that each of us, i think -- imagine, or reimagine for that matter the kind of world that we want to live and then engage the kind of work and witness to make that imagination a reality. that is, to my mind at least what wallace sean does in this book, it's called night thoughts, challenging us until we imagine the world that we inhabit, thank you for the book. thank you for your work ongoing and you've entertained us so well and so long. so thank you for your time, sir. >> thank you so much. >> my pleasure. >> more to come in just a moment. stay with us.

jordan peel, most known for his work as one-half of the due comedy made his debut as a writer director with last week's release of get out, the movie, of course, has been called funny, but it's also been called brilliantly submersive and it is, critics have been unanimous in their praise and the public was unanimous in making it number one, you bad boy, number one at the box office this past weekend before we start our conversation with mr. peel, first a look at, get out. >> good to see an old brother around here. yes. of course it is. >> something wrong? >> there you are. >> yes, yes. >> oh, hello. and you are? >> chris, rose's boyfriend.

>> chris was just telling me how he felt much more comfortable with my being here. >> that's nice. i hope you're not trying to tear you away, dear, but the wind cuts were asking about you. >> well, it was nice to meet you, chris. >> i fell out when i saw. that's some funny thing. honored to have you on the program, sir. >> congratulations. >> i'm glad we didn't do that one. >> do it again. >> we didn't do that one. >> number one -- >> well, thank you. >> i brought my thing to get you to sign it. this is my movie ticket, the studios are very nice to me, they usually send me private singer so i can watch it before the guest comes on the show. horror films are things you must see with crowds. >> that's right. >> i went to the city to see this. >> i love it. >> and i loved it.

it's like, it's one of the ways it's related to comedy -- >> yeah. >> as an art form. it's collaborative, you know, as an audience, it's exponentially improved by getting to have a communal experience. >> so one of the things that i love, i keep hearing from people is, after the film, the whole audience felt closer, or like familial, whether it's, you know, mixed or predominantly one group or the other, there is something communal about the experience of this movie which is so -- >> the crowd i saw was mixed and which is always fascinating for me as if you're here to hear this. they break out into applause. okay, i'll tell jordan he said that, what i said. >> it's some grade and, you know, the premise of the movie is -- on paper, it's a divisive idea, right? you know, most of the white people in this movie are the

villains. and so, it's -- i think the greatest feat that we pulled off with this one is creating something that doesn't talk down to the audience, that, you know, honors the audience and says look, i'm giving you credit that you are intelligence, you are an empathic person, you are -- you are human. so at a certain point, that's the power of story is we can show the perspective of a different human beings -- >> it is, jordan, the power of story, but there is a risk, i would think, whenever you do a film, where you make the white people the villains, and yet, white people spend their noun go see the movie, how'd you pull that trick off. >> well, you know, it really was just taking care of the reality of it. the, you know, the scene that this, this follows is this party sequence that seems to resinate with a lot of people and put

everybody on a similar page where, you know, we see these connections that, you know, chris, the only black guy at this party until he runs into logan, but he, he's approached by white people who are trying to make their connection with him. their black connection with him. we, you know, everybody black person knows -- >> i understand that. >> many other, you know, every other minority group or someone, you know, who's been in the other category knows, a lot of white people are woke too, but some people are coming, like oh my god, is this a thing, oh my god, have i done this. so getting everybody on the same page as to a really grounded part of the african american experience does just that. it gets us all on the same page. >> there were so many moments in this film where if you were black you were late to those experiences, you get this, particularly his boy telling him, do not go to your white

girlfriend's house, i will not do that. you would go on to meet her parents, you sit there and you laugh because it's funny, but it's rooted -- my friend mya angelo would say it's as real as rain, and you relate. >> you know, if something rings true, it just does. it's really worked. i think it's part of the reason guess who's coming to dinner. some of the jumping off point to this movie. the premise. even down to the -- sydney, you know, asks his girlfriend, do they know? first scene of the movie. no, why? the fear of meeting your in-laws. there's an added dynamic to that

or an interracial couple or some fate or something, the reason is really worked was we were all on the same page instantly because we all relate to that fear. >> this could have been as i said watching it, jordan, it could have been a comedy, straight out, could have been a horror, straight out, you combine the two, why the an ex us is? >> really -- i felt like tone was the most important thing in getting this right, and i know that if it's too funny, it doesn't really do -- it risks not doing justice to the seriousness of the subject matter, if it's too serious, it risks not being a pleasant viewing experience. >> uh-huh. >> so really, the comedic relief, you know, is not meant to come in and tell a bunch of jokes, it's meant to give these moments where the audience can feel safe, where they can feel taken care of, and they can feel

the release because so much of this movie is just building the tension. building the tension. and, you know, i feel like if you're going to do that to an audience, put an audience through that. you have to reward them with some safe zone. >> i'm glad you said that. the comedy wasn't gratuitous, it's not fair to call it comedy, it's funny, it's only funny because we can see ourselves in those situations. >> right. >> we can see ourselves in the area and that's what we would have said and done. it's only funny in that way. did you hear that one. it's funny in that sense. the other thing to your point about it builds and builds and builds, i'm watching this, i'm with you, but it is building and building up. you have to as a director and writer trust that the audience will stay with you, and have the patience while you build this thing, why did you think that would work because let's face it, most of our attention spans are like that. you like forced us to be patient with you.

these are films that utilized terror which is the moments -- which is before the horror takes place. and it proved to me that you can enrapture an audience with terror. if they know something's coming, if they know -- and they don't know what it is -- >> i love that phrase. you can enrapture them in fear. that sounded like donald trump.

>> i was going to say it if you didn't. >> yeah. yeah. it's true, well, no, you make a good point, and this country -- you know, there's a reason that right now in this country, we are enraptured with terror. we are afraid. many of us are very afraid. and -- but at the same time, it's fascinating to watch this the sensationalism and the fascination with this over the top personality administration and movement is partially what perpetuated the -- his ability to sell his brand. >> i'll close on this. you've done this directing thing, obviously been writing for a while. the directing thing, marketed blue whale, i assume that this

is the first of many -- is that where you're headed now. you want to do more directing and less act kpg. >> i like it. yeah. i'm a bigger fan of my directing than acting. and acting is -- it's just harder, you know, not harder per se because directing was the hardest thing i've ever had to do. it's harder to enjoy my work as an actor, you know, and that's part of why this film was so rewarding is because i got to make one of my favorite movies. >> well, we'll enjoy the aking for you. >> all right. i love it. especially reruns. >> hey. >> thank you for all of those years. that's a lot of good stuff there. congrats again, my friend. good to have you on the program. get out, theater near you right now, the number one movie in america, go check it out. that's our show tonight. good night in l.a., thanks for watching and as always, keep the faith.

for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. hi, join me next time for a conversation with violinist, that's next time. we'll see you then. >> and by contributions from pbs viewers like you. thank you.

be more, pbs . >> be more, pbs. ♪

-today on america's test kitchen bridget and julia make pan-seared flank steak with mustard-chive butter. adam reveals his favorite carbon-steel skillets to julia and becky shows bridget an easy recipe for walkaway ratatouille. it's all coming up right here on "america's test kitchen." -"america's test kitchen" is brought to you by the following -- fisher & paykel. since 1934, fisher & paykel has been designing