Nicole Richie has a surprising real-life connection to Jordan Peele‘s hit horror movie Us. She participated in the real Hands Across America event that plays a central purpose in the film’s plot.
View this post on Instagram#TBT to my, and my Tethers first television appearance #HandsAcrossAmerica @usmovie 🐇✂️
Back on March 28, Richie shared video showing her 5-year-old self taking part in the original Hands Across America event on May 25, 1986. “[Throw Back Thursday] to my, and my Tethers first television appearance,” Richie wrote in the caption.
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Hands Across America was an attempt to raise awareness of homelessness and hunger, and raised millions for local charities. The aim was to make an unbroken chain of people from coast-to-coast across the contiguous U.S., but there were several breaks.
“I can’t remember if I just had a eureka moment, but when I saw it, it scared me,” Peele told Uproxx when explaining how the publicity stunt became a part of his horror movie, which begins with a commercial about it.
“You sort of pick up on these things and the duality of these things. I was kind of left watching this commercial, ‘Why does that disturb me?’ Oh my God, can you imagine? My favorite horror movie starts with that commercial,” Peele said. “And so, from there, it took me down this path to really think about this movie in terms of this country and the idea of demonstration or protest, or even performance art, and to imagine what the evil doppelganger version of what Hands Across America would be.”
Us is Peele’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning debut feature Get Out. The film, which cost only $20 million to make, has grossed $216.58 million worldwide since its release on March 22.
Richie was last seen on TV in NBC’s two-season sitcom Great News and in guest roles in Netflix’s Grace and Frankie and HBO’s Camping. She also starred on VH1’s Candidly Nicole.
In March, Richie signed on to star in a new FOX sitcom called Richard Lovely, which stars Thomas Lennon as a disgruntled children’s author, reports The Hollywood Reporter. Richie will star as Richard’s publicist, a millennial who is his polar opposite. However, the two connect through their selfish outlook.
In the series, Richard is the creator of Mr. Mouse, a top-selling children’s book series. His career is derailed when he has a publicity disaster involving a 9-year-old who seeks a father-son relationship with Lennon’s character.
Wendie Malick, Mason Shneiderman, Nicole Sun and Asif Ali also star in the series, which was created by Grace and Frankie writer and executive producer Billy Finnegan. The other executive producers on the show are Kat Cioiro and Alex Hardcastle.
Photo credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for HBO/Getty Images
