Twenty years ago this July, an unknown 23-year-old USC student named John Singleton released his first feature film, Boyz n the Hood. The drama, which stars Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube and Morris Chestnut as a group of childhood friends growing up in South Central Los Angeles, earned Singleton Academy Award nominations for Best Director (making him the youngest person ever nominated) and Best Original Screenplay. Last night, the Los Angeles Film Festival honored Boyz n the Hood during a special anniversary screening and panel in which Singleton, Cuba Gooding Jr., producer Steven Nicolaides and former Columbia executive Stephanie Allain shared their memories from and thoughts on the project two decades later.
Movieline was there to capture the nine most fascinating Boyz n the Hood revelations, ranging from Singleton's first Cannes experience with a topless female rocker to the secret to making Cuba Gooding Jr. cry. Enjoy.
1. Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing inspired Singleton to write Boyz n the Hood.
"I saw Do the Right Thing and I remember I walked out of the theater on Hollywood Boulevard. I knew [Spike Lee] and had seen him around but I couldn't even go say 'Hi' to him because I was so affected by his movie. I went to my dorm and just started writing my screenplay. That movie is what made me write this movie."
2. As a film student, John Singleton scammed his way into meeting with Columbia Pictures.
Allain, on how she first met John and learned about his script: "I heard about this young guy from USC who might want a job [at Columbia] so he came in and -- he didn't want to talk about the job. He just wanted to talk to me about this script that he had written."
3. Singleton turned down $100,000 that was offered to him to not direct his film.
Singleton: "[A Columbia executive] asked me, 'What if I offered you $100,000 just to write the script. What would you say?' I said, 'Then we'd have to end this meeting now, because I'm going to direct this movie.'"
4. Shakespeare taught Cuba Gooding, Jr. how to "act street."
"I got those instincts from Shakespeare," Gooding Jr. explained. "That's where I learned to pay attention to everything around you. That's the funny thing is that I'm playing a street kid, but that came from the theater. That's what you did."
5. If you think Boyz n the Hood looks like a Steven Spielberg movie, there's a reason for that.
Singleton: "I never directed a movie but I was sure to act like I had directed a movie because everybody on set was older than me. I remember the first thing I did, which I said I was always going to do, was say, 'I want 35 feet of track right here. I want the camera to go right here and move from right to left. Come on, let's set it up.' [...] I never saw anybody do that but I thought that's what you were supposed to do. In all of the Spielberg movies, they always had cool tracking shots so you'll notice in this movie, there are a lot of tracking shots."
6. If you treat Cuba Gooding Jr. cruelly enough, he will cry "like a little girl."
"Let me tell you what happened [during the audition process]," Gooding said. "After I met John, he said, 'This is great, we're going to put you on tape.' I went home, about a week or two passed and then I got another call saying, 'We're going to put you on tape. [...] The studio wants you screen tested again. They have other actors in mind.' So I came back in and screen tested again. And again. I think a total of three times. My agent calls and tells me I get the gig. 'Come down, you're going to do two weeks of rehearsal.' On the first day of rehearsal we're all sitting around a big table running a scene and John says, 'Hey, Cuba, come here. They want you to screen test again.' I was so upset that I went in that room, did my scene and I remember the tears just falling down my face out of frustration. After, they were like, 'That was great. Don't worry.' I went back to rehearse, rehearsed for eight hours. Then someone came up to me and said, 'Congratulations, you have the job.' And I said, 'Until tomorrow!' I was so upset, I cried like a little girl."
7. South Central test audiences don't care about post-production technicalities.
Nicolaides: "The first time we screen tested the movie was at a theater at Sony Studios. They brought in an invited audience from South Central. They brought them in three hours early for the screening and had them stand outside on a freezing day. Everybody gets into the theater. A sweet guy who runs the test screenings greets everyone and explains that the film isn't quite finished -- they'll see squiggly lines where the dissolves will be. And some big black guy in the balcony stands up and shouts, 'Just start the fucking movie.'"
8. John Singleton got a million-dollar bonus from Columbia Pictures after the movie's success. Cuba Gooding, Jr. did not.
Allain: "After the film did so well, they called me in and said, 'We want to give John a check for a million dollars.' So we called him in and all of the suits lined up. They gave him the check, he looked at it and the first thing he said was, 'Damn, I want a car.'
Singleton: "No, I said, 'When do I get my next check?'"
Gooding: "I didn't get no car or no check, I got Gladiator."
9. The best part of John Singleton's first Cannes Film Festival experience wasn't the 20-minute standing ovation. It was the "titties."
"I remember going to Cannes with the movie. It was the first time I'd ever been out of the country. I didn't drink wine at the time. I had no culinary skills. I just ordered steak frites and scrambled eggs everywhere. I remember we went to this fancy hotel and I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger and Malcolm MacDowell from A Clockwork Orange. And then I see Belinda Carlisle from the Go-Gos running up and everything and she's topless. And I'm like, "Look at the Go-Gos chick's titties!" Someone had to drag me away to go to the lunch."
[Photo: Getty Images]