When director Justin Tipping signed on to helm HIM, he knew the project would bring a new level of visibility. What also happened was a collaboration with Jordan Peele, whose Monkeypaw Productions backed the film.
In a recent conversation with Cinema Daily US, Tipping opened up about how the partnership came together and what it was like having Peele as a producer.
Tipping recalls first meeting Peele after his breakout feature Kicks caught the Oscar-winner’s attention.
“At the time, he had just won the Academy Award and was starting Monkeypaw,” Tipping said. “He saw Kicks, and he was meeting young filmmakers. That was surreal because he just was like, “I love the movie,” and wanted to pick my brain. And the seeds were kind of planted then. He said, ‘Let’s find something at some point to do together.’”
That “something” eventually became HIM. Originally developed under the working title GOAT, the project was on the Black List before Peele and Monkeypaw tapped Tipping to come in with a fresh point of view.
“They wanted a writer-director to make it their own,” Tipping explained. “So I came in, pitched my vision, and they let me run with it.”
Asked what it was like to work with Peele behind the scenes, Tipping described him as collaborative but never overbearing.
“Because he is a filmmaker himself, he has this hands-off but ‘I’ll be your sounding board’ approach,” Tipping shared. “Every draft I went through, I would then go to him, and we could sit down and page turn. So it was more of a guiding principle of like, here’s where I see the problems. If I pull at this thread, it undoes this later. And he would be the sounding board then at those times.”
Peele’s input extended into post-production, where Tipping admits he can become obsessive about tone and pacing.
“Another invaluable kind of asset is in post, where I’m a maniac trying to figure out the tonal balance and calibration of like that last scene,” he shared about working with Peele. “I have 30 different versions cut, and I haven’t slept in two days. And he finds me like, surrounded by empty coffee cups and whatever, eating out of the trash. And can watch them and dig into, like, ‘Well, what are you going for? ‘What are you going for? Try this, try that.’”
For Tipping, Peele’s involvement struck the right balance between mentorship and autonomy. “It was a nice process,” he reflected.
Check out the full interview. Make sure to check out HIM in theaters on Friday, September 19.
As HIM moves closer to release, the film marks not just another ambitious addition to Monkeypaw’s slate but also a career-defining step for Justin Tipping. With Peele in his corner, the director is proving that sometimes the best collaborations come from trust, creative freedom, and just enough guidance to push a vision to its fullest potential.
