Remembering John Singleton 1968-2019

THE INFLUENTIAL FILMMAKER LEAVES A LEGACY OF GROUNDBREAKING WORK AND MAINTAINS AN ABIDING RESPECT FROM THOSE IN THE INDUSTRY WHO KNEW HIM

- Keith L. Underwood

I SPENT MY EARLY TEENS LIVING IN THE CRENSHAW district of South Los Angeles, California. Back then, I would describe myself as “awkward in the ’hood.” Many of my friends and family members were in gangs. Most of the neighborhood bangers left me alone.

A few years later, after training to be an actor, I was cast in a small but successful theater production. The creator of the show was also an acting coach at Marla Gibbs’ Crossroads Arts Academy in South Los Angeles. She told me about auditions at Crossroads for a new independent film being directed by a University of Southern California film grad named John Singleton. He was a guy born and raised in LA who grew up in a neighborhood not far from my own. His parents, Sheila Ward and Danny Singleton, were working-class professionals.

Singleton’s film, appropriately called Boyz n the Hood, was loosely based on his experiences growing up in gang-ridden Crenshaw. I was like, ‘Man, this should be a no-brainer—this was my life, too.’ I wasn’t about that life, but I did grow up around it. I went to the audition and thought I nailed it.

The young director, who was wearing a baseball cap and small eyeglasses, said to me, laughing, “Man, that was great. You did a good job, but you way too pretty for this movie.”

At the time, a man being called “pretty” was not a compliment. I left the audition a little salty, and I remember thinking to myself, ‘It was a ghetto-ass audition and the film is probably going to be some bull anyway.’

I was invited to an early screening of the movie, and no matter how hard I tried to hate it, it was clearly great. I thought, ‘This John Singleton is a genius.’ Boyz n the Hood had an authenticity that could only be captured by someone who actually lived it. I could have been a hater, but instead, in that moment, I think I connected with Singleton.