The film-maker, who made his debut with the Oscar-nominated classic, reflected on the making of the drama during a special screening, hosted by the Academy

Watching Boyz N the Hood, 25 years after the devastating film about growing up in South Central Los Angeles shook up cinema, it’s startling to realize that it came from a first-time film-maker.

Honored by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences on Friday at a 25th anniversary screening of the drama, writer/director John Singleton confessed he “didn’t know anything” about how to direct at the time. “I was a smartass film student who thought he knew everything about movies,” Singleton said. “When it got green-lit is when I got scared.”

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To make the process of making his debut feature a smooth one, Singleton said his producer, Steve Nicolaides – who went on collaborate with Singleton on a number of other projects, including Poetic Justice and a remake of Shaft – scheduled the shooting of Boyz N the Hood in total continuity, which is very rarely attempted.

“As the movie was going along, I was learning how to direct,” Singleton said. “As it becomes more intense and comes on to the third act, the camera work is more and more fluid, because I’m getting better and better – and taking more chances.”

Nicolaides meanwhile remembered having to remind Singleton that he was ultimately in control of the project.

“We had the first set-up, we went through it, did the first take and John said: ‘Perfect, let’s move on,’” Nicolaides said. “And then we went to the second and he said the same thing. I had to take him aside and say: ‘You know you can do more than one take.’”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A young Cuba Gooding Jr in Boyz N the Hood. Photograph: Allstar/Columbia

Despite being a novice and recent graduate from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Singleton recalled telling his producers that only he would direct his script. “I wasn’t going to have somebody from Idaho or Encino [Los Angeles] direct this movie,” the South Central-raised film-maker said.

He did, however, have the late John Hughes (The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink) read it.

“I like John Hughes movies,” Singleton said. “Thing is, [Boyz N the Hood] is still a teenage thing. I grew up watching his teenage movies. The folks don’t look like me – but I infused the whole thing with teenage angst. This movie is still a very a teenage movie.”



Singleton, who was 24 years old when he wrote Boyz N the Hood, became both the first African American and the youngest person ever to be nominated for the best director Oscar, plus a second nomination for best original screenplay. In 2002, his film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

He and Nicolaides were joined by much of his film’s cast and crew, including Angela Bassett, Cuba Gooding Jr and Nia Long, who were all relatively unknown before Boyz N the Hood.

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Long, like Singleton, grew up in the area the film depicts. “It was important as a young actor to me that this feel real, because I knew what it was like go home from school and hear gunshots at night,” she said.

Bassett referred to Singleton as her “little brother” on set. “I’d been in LA for about three years and I was trying, trying, trying to do films,” she said. “We talked, I auditioned and he gave me a shot. I’ve been waiting to work with him every since.”