Regina Hall, the star of the new comedy Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul., is sharing the doubts she once had for executive producer Jordan Peele’s then-aspirational foray into horror.
During an interview with Good Morning America, Hall expressed much reverence for Peele as a filmmaker, even to the point of enthusiastically answering in the affirmative when asked if she would be interested in starring in the next horror film he directs. But it wasn’t always that way.
With both Peele and Hall arguably having their roots in comedy, it may not be totally surprising to hear that the pair first met when the former was working on his sketch comedy show on Comedy Central, Key and Peele.
Back then, Peele was best known for comedy, especially with longtime collaborator Keegan-Michael Key, a friendship that dates back to their Mad TV days. Somewhat unsurprisingly, Hall was a bit taken aback when Peele first told her about doing “this kind of genre of horror-comedy” that would eventually become the monumentally successful Get Out, which he wrote and directed.
“And I remember looking at him and thinking ‘oh my god, this man’s never going to work. This is it. It’s over for him.’ And then of course, like I think a year or two later, Get Out came out.”
Although the film is deeply satirical and it contains some moments of levity here and there, audiences were totally blown away when Get Out completely delivered on the horror front, as well. The movie became a box office and critical success in 2017 and even generated an Academy Award for Peele for Best Original Screenplay, the first award for a Black man in that category in the Academy’s history.
Peele later cemented his position as one of cinema’s great horror auteurs working today with the well-received follow-up, 2019’s home invasion slasher, Us. And with this summer’s Nope, Peele brought his unique lens to the sci-fi thriller subgenre that only furthered his impressive body of work so far.
With Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul., Peele is somewhat returning to his comedy roots by executive producing the film, which was written and directed by Adamma Ebo and produced by her sister, Adanne Ebo.
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul., which co-stars Sterling K. Brown in the religious satire mockumentary, will premiere in theaters and on Peacock this coming Friday, September 2.