 | Thursday, June 28, 2002, 3:56 PM EST.
'Baby Boy' Singleton
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Director John Singleton broke new ground with his Boyz ‘N’ the Hood, which launched the career of Cuba Gooding Jr. Now, 10 years later, Singleton returns to the Hood with his Baby Boy, which ironically co-stars Cuba’s younger brother. Paul Fischer sat down one-on-one with Singleton, to ponder on change, Black cinema and what is that is wrong with mainstream Hollywood.
10 years ago, in the not-so-brave-world of Hollywood, a new and audacious young Black filmmaker took Hollywood by storm. At 23, recent USC graduate John Singleton re-defined the direction of Black cinema, and catapulted movie audiences into his world of gang violence and faint optimism. The movie was Boyz ‘n’ the Hood, shot in his own real-life neighborhood. Now, at age 33, Singleton has returned, bringing to the screen the story of a young Black man afraid of responsibility and the need to leave behind the safety net of his mother, in Baby Boy. A decade on, Singleton ponders the extent to which he has changed. "I think I’m more focused and mature as a filmmaker and definitely more mature as a person", Singleton explains while nervously fidgeting with his new two-way pager. "I think my approach to creating what I do, as a director, has matured as well."
Singleton’s decision to cast another acting novice as the lead in Baby Boy, may have caused some industry insiders to scratch their heads in bewilderment, but the 33-year-old filmmaker defends the choice of casting popular singer Tyrese Gibson in the complex role of Jody. "The freshest moments in my films have always been with unknown actors," Singleton explains. "Tyrese has so much charm and charisma; he was basically a movie star who hadn’t done a movie yet." Interestingly, he adds, the role of Jody was originally written for the late Tupac Shakur. "I didn’t think that I was going to find someone with as much heart and soul as Tupac had," he says, "until Tyrese came along."
Singleton has often cast musicians in pivotal roles in his films, from rapper Ice Cube as Dough boy in Boyz ‘n’ the Hood, to pop sensation Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice. And in Baby Boy, there’s also Snoop Dogg as Jody’s laconic nemesis. Defining his back-to-roots film, the laid back director sees Baby Boy "as probably the purest John Singleton movie you’ve ever seen, because there’s nothing filtered here," including its often racy sex scenes. "I think that the movie is going to probably be more controversial in the black community than it is anywhere else."
Controversy or not, it continues to define Singleton as a major voice in contemporary American cinema.
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