Gesica™

A CONVERSATION WITH

JOHN SINGLETON

A Conversation w/filmmaker John Singleton

Writer, producer, director and filmmaker John Singleton has had his hand in it all when it comes to making films. More importantly, this juggernaut of industry has lots to say about him and the future of filmmaking as well as black cinema.

By Tonisha Johnson

Q: What type of impact did you want Baby Boy to have on the audience? And how important is Social Commentary on Black Cinema?

A: I figured it pretty much had the impact that I wanted it to have. I wanted people to reflect on their own lives. There’s so much in that film that you see upon multiple viewings. And it’s all there deliberately. Social commentary is very important in black film or cinema as a whole. But simply in black cinema because it’s like very rarely we get the chance to make a film that when we do it should rise above the something on a Saturday night, you know what I mean? Most movies you guys go to see you come out of it and don’t remember what you saw. But if you see a really good movie you just want to talk about it, tell your friends about it, you want to see it again. It’s like a good book, its something that your life is nurtured from. So, I try to develop my life between movies that are very topical and movies that are just pure fun. If you’ve seen all of my films, you’ve seen kind of a mixture of that. For me it makes a greater venture for me to do that.

Q. Most of your films depict the culture, lifestyle and struggle of blacks. Was it a “mental” release not to have to do that in this film?

A: A yeah, it was. The reason why I took that was I just wanted to do a real fun movie that wasn’t controversial, yah know what I mean, that I would have fun doing. Shooting some scenes and you know, hanging out in Miami and doing a movie for everyone which is cool. You guys will learn it’s much more difficult to be a person, a strong person, with ideas than a person with no ideas. Me doing Baby Boy, Rosewood, Higher Learning and all these different types of movies is good on one end. I would never say its bad but its very daunting sometimes because it’s scary to some people, you know what I mean? Because the stuff that I’m doing in those pictures no one is doing in Hollywood. I hadn’t wanted to make a film like 2 Fast 2 Furious before I knew in terms of my career, ii would be very necessary for me to do so I could flip the script as we say.

Q: John, you were recently honored in Hollywood, what was that like?

A: It was phenomenal. It was the best day, one of my best days in my whole career. For you to have all that recognition you know? Laurence Fishburne’s there and John Boyd and Tyrese was there. And Morris who produced 2 Fast and 2 Furious and just having all my friends and family there to congratulate me and I’ve only been in the business for 13 years. I’m only 35; I started when I was 22 years old. I shot Boyz n’ the Hood a couple of weeks right out of college. It’s a testament to what can be done when you have a lot of focus.

Q: Regarding your relationship with Tupac, how do you feel about Tupac becoming an actor as well as other rappers attempting to master the craft?

A: I agree with a lot of actors that rappers should stay rappers and not actors but see I’m in a unique situation because I fostered the career of so many MC’s into becoming actors and taking it seriously. So whenever you see an actor in my movies that happens to be a rapper, they come out totally different in my movies then they do in someone else’s movies because I make them take acting seriously or the process of acting seriously. They have a coach, I make them study. I make them do the process of scene study and improvisation. They learn something you know? Which is why you look at Snoop different in Baby Boy totally different then you do in another movie. Or you look at Cube in one of my movies…he is different you know? Or you look at Tyrese or Ludacris or any of these other cats who started in music. If you see them working with me it’s a different thing because we have a shorthand. It’s almost like I put them thru acting boot camp just for that one roll.

Q: Concerning 2 Fast 2 Furious, does it make your job as director easier or harder coming into a series that already has its ideas put together?

A: Naw, it made it easy. Cause all I had to do was come up with new ideas. The whole thing with this movie was make it radically different from the first movie. Cars different, setting different, people different. That was the easiest for me. The hard thing was to find a way to make all these new radical ideas and make them really, really cool.

Q. How did you decide on how to design the cars and what type of cars to you use?

A: When we first decided to do the cars we had a car show. We told a lot of people on the West Coast that we were doing a remake to Fast and Furious. And like 500 cars showed up. And we looked over all the cars and I called Rese (Tyrese) and said if you wanna get a hand on how designing your car you’d better get your ass down here and start talking. And he did. He just gazed around, talked to some girls or whatever. And so, when we designed this car it was like a purple car with yellow interior and all this stuff. And it had like 17 inch rims on it and stuff. And when he saw it he just threw a ballistic fit and it was like “I can’t drive in this car, its wack.” He and I was arguing. I said you should have had your ass down there designing your own car anyway. It’s your fault. So he went with the production designer and he changed the whole car. He changed the interior up, he changed the yellow. Its on video, you’ll see the whole thing. He changed the yellow interior to gray suede. He changed the front and side car, he changed all that stuff. They kept the car purple. They put a whole different design on the front. Which they basically got him to design his car which is what I wanted him to do in the first place not a week before we got to shoot the movie. And we already done tests with it and everything you know? It all turned out good. I like it when actors like take charge of how they gonna be in the characters in the movie and that’s cool because him doing that was great because he was comfortable in the car he drove you know? I like them doing that with the setting, or the clothes or the mannerisms for the character. I’m like surprise me? Tell me something about the character I don’t know. My whole thing is about guiding them through the process. I mean if they’re off base with an idea then I tell them they’re off base. But you know that’s what I expect from people. That’s the self-process.

Q: Will there be a sequel to 2 Fast 2 Furious and will you be directing it?

A: Well let’s see. They are talking about it. I mean the movie has made more than 239 dollars. It’s more successful than the first one. The DVD is already selling off the chart. Preorders are huge.

Q; You once told Tyrese that he had to “leave the nest.” Do you feel if he explored other opportunities with other filmmakers that he has the potential to be a great actor?

A: Rese is like a baby brother to me. You know, I have so much love and appreciation for him as a person. He keeps it real. He does a lot in the community and stuff. Whenever he needs advice about the profession he calls me. I brought him into the whole game, you know, of acting. I tried to get him in Shaft, way like…4 years ago. But he wasn’t ready. So when Baby Boy came round, he was ready. I’m always telling him you have to work with a whole lot of other people so you can learn to appreciate what we do.

Q: John, how do you feel about filmmakers who use the same actors over and over in their movies? Like Spike Lee. Do you feel it’s detrimental to the movie?

A: Naw, that’s good. I mean it’s a matter of having a troop of creative people that you can always count on giving you a good performance. There’s nothing wrong with that. I mean Spike is not the only one that does it. The Korn Brothers do it, Martin Scorcese does it. It’s like hey, you work with the people that you’re comfortable with.

Q: What directors influenced and motivated you coming into the game and who do you like now?

A: Well, directors that motivate me when I was coming in the game and still now are Martin Scorcese, Steven Spielberg and Akira Coreserva. Some now are Orson Wells, John Ford and a lot of different filmmakers from around the world. I watch movies constantly, consistently. I watch them over and over again. I find something new and different. Francis Ford Coppola has a big influence on me.

Q: Do you have any advice for upcoming filmmakers?

A: Learn how to write your own screenplays. Nobody can take that from you. And the cheapest way to make a big movie is to write it.

Q: There are many others who want to make positive black films but feel that the entertainment industry does not offer access for these types of films to be made. Do you feel that the industry does not want black filmmakers to be heard?

A: No, wouldn’t say that at all. There’s no force in the entertainment industry keeping anybody from making any type of movie that can be made. Someone asked earlier, Is it very important, which is a very good question, the first question that was asked. Is it important for African American movies to be topical? And I think that it is important for some movies to be topical because most of them are not. 10 years ago, most of them were aspiring to deal with this topic. Now most of them are romantic comedies or just straight up, you know comedies. There comes a time were you got to stop laughing and look inward and say hey, you know, there’s other stuff that’s going on. Like Baby Boy, there are funny moments in Baby Boy but there are really dramatic moments in Baby Boy. That movie for any one who watches it, it hits an emotional forefront, because they know people or they’ve experienced different things, you know relationship wise like that in that movie. I loved looking at that movie with an audience because you always had couples of people that were dating, whatever, girls coming out, just talking about the movie and that’s what I love about making films that people just come out and just talk about it, you know?

Q. Did you guys have funny moments in making 2 Fast 2 Furious?

A: Yeah. It was a whole gang of them. Most of them involved Tyrese acting a fool.

Q: What made you choose Ludacris and Tyrese for their perspective roles?

A: Rese came about when they called me and asked me who they should hire when Vin Diesel didn’t want to do the movie. I told them Tyrese is the perfect one for the role. And Ludacris came about because I was thinking about him being a racer in the movie. And then I just said no, I think I want him in a bigger role in the movie. And he ended up being “Tej0”, the guy who sets off all the races. Which is perfect cause I knew I wanted to set it in Miami and I wanted to have like a whole…the feeling of 2 Fast 2 Furious is kind of like the first mainstream dirty south movie. It like happens in Miami, you know what I mean. Miami’s like, it’s really really southern. But it’s eclectic. Its all different types of people down there. You know, Blacks, Latin’s, you know, Caribbean. All those different types of folks. And I knew music wise, if you look at the movie, there’s nothing but southern bounce in the movie. Starting off with David Banner, you know what I mean? All those cats, the music, Trick Daddy, and all that stuff, is all through the film. It’s not like the first one where you had a lot of techno music. The fact that you have all that Hip Hop makes it more relevant. More hipper.

Q: How do you feel about the growing popularity of digital filmmakers? Is it good or bad?

A: It’s good for the art in terms of people exploring and telling different stories. I think that ultimately film is film and the flaws of film like when things are in focus and out of focus, you know what I mean?, in the way that films look is different experiences than digital video. The good thing about digital video is it allows a whole generation of people to cheaply make the next great movie.

Q: What is your next project coming up?

A: I’m producing a movie for a filmmaker named Craig Brewer out of Memphis, Tennessee called “The Hustling Flow.”

Q: Hey John, what’s your take on bootleggers?

A: I almost had a fight with a dude over bootlegging. He was mad at me for telling him he shouldn’t be bootlegging my movie. I had all the thugs in the neighborhood come up there. I kept him from selling Baby Boy. Like you done sold enough of these man. You could sell somebody else’s movie.

Q: From a black perspective: How has your experience and accomplishments in film blazed the path for others looking to do what you have done?

A: I just think that success begets other success. I wouldn’t have been able to come into this if Spike Lee hadn’t been successful and Eddie Murphy weren’t successful. My success has bought a whole new generation of opportunity for young black directors. I see more black directors making mainstream flicks. Like Gary Gray with the Italian Job.

Q: Do you feel these films take away the essence of solid Black Cinema?

A: I think it helps it. I just think there are more people interested in doing mainstream stuff that are interested in doing what you described as solid black cinema. But what you do is, you have to appreciate when people do it, you know what I mean? It’s very difficult for me to get a movie like Baby Boy made, even though my movie was successful. I would love to go and do a big movie here and a small serious movie right in between. That’s were I really wanna roll, you know? It’s hard to get a movie that really says something made that’s really serious. I appreciate you guys buying the DVD and going to the movie when it does come out; Go to it again. Not just the first weekend, but go to it again and take your friends.

Q: Do you still try to be subliminal with the messages in your movies to get your point across?

A: It depends on the story. Like I said before, it’s a whole lot of Baby Boy that people don’t get to the third time they see it. “Oh Man!” It’s like what…oh.

Q: A lot of issues have been raised regarding the legitimacy of Black colleges and their importance to our society and whether or not they actually serve a roll. Please share your ideas on this issue.

A: They do serve a roll. A whole lot of cats wouldn’t be able to go to school unless they went to ….what do they call them? A HBC…historically black colleges. My cousin, I’ll tell you a story. My cousin Joseph, he just now started college. Joseph is 22, 23. He didn’t have his mother, a former substance abuser. He never really had his father around. He was selling drugs in the street. A friend of his recently got killed last year. Me and my mother and everybody took him out to LA. We talked to him and put him together. Smart kid. We finally got him to go to college in South Carolina. I forget what the name of this place is. It’s like a huge thing. And one of the things there is, is you have to wear a suit on a certain day. It may seem funny but when you don’t’ have discipline or focus in your life and then your able to go to a place where you can focus, you know that’s a huge thing. Sometimes cats have to go to jail to get that. For them to be able to reflect on their lives. For other people they can go to a university. I think that it’s not done in a very mainstream way. The nurturing was is a fostering of a whole generation of people was its cool to be smart. Were I was from it wasn’t truly cool to be smart but within the circle I had made I wanted to be a good kid. I wanted to be the smartest on. I wasn’t a totally honor student until like late High School. But I think that’s what’s needed. Everybody wants a quick fix but people are not totally thinking about hey if you really work hard towards a goal you’ll be able to accomplish it. I think HBC’s are very very important.