Nope Actor Brandon Perea Agreed To His Role Without Knowing Anything About The Movie

Jordan Peele's "Nope" was a shocking film from the legendary director. While it of course kept much of its focus on portraying Black Excellence and outing Hollywood (and society) for its culture of exploiting real-life events and people for the sake of entertainment, it stood out from his other films. Famous for his Oscar-winning film "Get Out" and "Us," and for producing Nia DaCosta's 2021 "Candyman" reboot, Jordan Peele has made a name for himself in the world of horror, saying he's passionate about "Black horror and putting Black faces in [his] favorite genres in ways [he hasn't] seen" (via Entertainment Weekly).

"Nope" technically falls in line with the themes of his other films, but no one quite expected Peele to shift to a full-blown science-fiction alien film. Even the trailers for "Nope" were vague and ambiguous, leaving potential audiences and faithful Jordan Peele fans alike scratching their heads. No one could really be sure from the teasers alone what Peele was going for, and while talks of an alien movie circulated due to some UFO-like imagery, fans were certain that it couldn't be so simple.

Apparently, the advertising for this film wasn't the only place Peele decided to apply a certain layer of ambiguity. The brilliant actor behind Angel (the film's tech guy), Brandon Perea, didn't have a single clue what he was actually walking into when he agreed to be a part of the project.

Jordan Peele and the cast of "Nope" appeared on Entertainment Weekly's "Around the Table" to discuss the film in more depth. Brandon Perea discussed his audition process in detail and confessed that he didn't actually know anything about "Nope" before signing on to play Angel.

"So, when I got the script for 'Nope,' it literally got sent to me on Christmas day. It just said 'Merry Christmas and here's a script,' and that's the first time I knew anything about the movie I was doing," Perea recalls. "When I booked the role, there was no synopsis. I had no clue what 'Nope' was about. I was just like, 'It's a Jordan movie, I'ma do a Jordan movie.' How am I gonna say no?"

While the excitement of starring in a Jordan Peele movie and the trust that Perea had in Peele's abilities as a director and a storyteller may have been enough to get him on board, he was kept in the dark for a while. "He [Peele] just sent me a movie list," Perea said of his limited knowledge going into filming, sharing that he was told to watch movies like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Jaws," "No Country for Old Men," "2001: A Space Odyssey," and "Alien."

"I think you're probably the only person here who didn't know anything about it [the movie]," Jordan Peele said to Brandon Perea during the interview. "You came in from a pure audition, and I didn't know anything about you. I remember we put out a one-line about the character — what I thought the character was — and you came in with a very clear view of who Angel was."

Originally written as a happy-to-help tech guy who was chipper and upbeat, Perea tackled the role from a more realistic perspective. "It was not who I was asking for, but [Perea] changed the role, and it changed the way I looked at the role," Peele continued.

"I just found out, like, yesterday that it was a super nerdy, quirky type of dude that was happy-go-lucky," Perea recounted. "Then I came in because you just have films with performances that are so grounded." Perea described Peele's films as realistic to the point of watching real humans in real scenarios that could be happening elsewhere in the world rather than watching a movie.

"I was attacking the audition, like alright, this seems too, like, who is happy to be working at a retail store? I was like, when I go in there, people are kind of depressed," Perea explained his thought process behind how best to approach playing a character like Angel, who works in a tech store. Jordan's original vision for the character didn't even cross his mind, but Perea's way worked exceptionally well for the film. Peele even agreed, claiming that his actors, in a lot of ways, know their characters better than he does.