From the start I was a kid who read 'Goosebumps', and that led me to Stephen King, and then I saw 'Aliens,' and 'Night of the Living Dead,' the original. And with 'Night of the Living Dead' I was like, 'Oh my god, there's a black person who's the main character. Does anybody see that?'
When you have people from different parts of the world coming together, it just makes it so much richer.
As an artist, you hope you're speaking to the times, and the times are definitely speaking to you. There's no way to avoid that.
When I read Matt Ruff's book, that was my first encounter with learning about sundown towns, and I was like 'What?' Like, you can't make this up. If I wrote this horror movie talking about sundown towns where you can't be black after dark in America, people be like, 'OK, we get the metaphor,' and it's like, no, that's real. It's not a metaphor.
If your art is speaking to the moment, that's all you can hope for.
Oppression is not limited to people of color, but if you feel guilty that's something you should confront.
I think, because you look around in Hollywood, and there are no 'me's. There's nobody that's as young as me, as black as me or as feminine as me. I think that's the problem. Representation matters.
For a white writer not to be able to step into the shoes of people of color confuses me. That should be the default - many people of color have to step into the shoes of white people. Women have to step into the shoes of men.
You can't keep letting people live their happy little lives in oblivion. To move forward they have to be uncomfortable.
Unlike a lot of people, I'm not afraid of the unknown. It intrigues me.
I generally don't think of prospective actors when I write.
In horror, there's a level of anxiety that your life can be taken at any moment. That's the Black experience.
You know, being an 'other' in this world, you're walking around in a horror movie at all times, you're always on edge and wondering when the monster is going to jump out and get you. I feel like that's the experience of African-Americans and queer people in America.
The Underground Railroad was the first integrated civil rights movement. And it's a great example of when we work together, what we can go against. Which is 600 miles of crazy terrain being chased by slave catchers to get people to be what they should be in the first case - which is free.
I'm not a very religious person.
If the actors aren't reacting the way people would react, that's where you step into disbelief.
On 'Underground,' we had used contemporary music to pull you into the present and not just look at it as a portrait on the wall and in the past.
Stephen King's 'It' is my favorite book of all time. I was that kid that would come to the library and be like: 'There's more Stephen King? Great.'
I have read H.P. Lovecraft, and I understand why he has influenced so much of horror writing. But because of his history, I wasn't a huge fan.
For me, a theme that's always circling around in my head - which is why I love the horror genre - is what we're ready to do for metaphorical and physical survival.
