10 BehindTheScenes Facts About The Making Of Boyz N The Hood
10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Making Of Boyz N The Hood
Contents
Boyz n the Hood is one of the most honest depictions of urban gang-violence ever committed to celluloid. Here are some facts about the film.
You Are Reading :[thien_display_title]
John Singleton’s Boyz n the Hood is regarded as one of the most honest depictions of urban gang-violence ever committed to celluloid. The story of Tre Styles (Cuba Gooding Jr.) coming of age in South Central Los Angeles amid dangerous gang culture earned Singleton Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director, becoming the youngest and the first Black filmmaker to earn the latter distinction.
For its overall importance, Boyz n the Hood was selected for the National Film Registry in 2002. As the film approaches 30 years old, here are 10 behind-the-scenes facts about the making of Boyz in the Hood.
10 Inspiration
John Singleton was inspired to write the screenplay for the film in response to the movies Colors and New Jack City, which he felt did not honestly depict the experience of African-Americans in the gang-ridden neighborhoods.
Part of the story came from a film school project Singleton wrote called Summer of 84. He based the character of Tre Styles on his own experiences as a child. Just like Tre in the film, Singleton also moved to South Central at the age of 12 to live with his mortgage broker father.
9 Laurence Fishburne’s Role
According to the Nerdist podcast, actor Paul Reubens admitted that Singleton worked as a security guard on the set of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse in 1986. Laurence Fishburne was also hanging around the set and received the script for Boyz n the Hood from Singleton to give his opinion.
Five years later when the movie was put into production, Fishburne was cast as Jason “Furious” Styles, Tre’s tough-loving father. Despite playing Cuba Gooding Jr.’s father in the film, Fishburne is only seven years older.
8 Singleton’s Conditions
Based on the success of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, Columbia set out to make a similar kind of movie. However, the studio was not comfortable allowing such a young inexperienced filmmaker like Singleton to direct.
However, Singleton stood his ground and demanded that he would not allow the script to be filmed unless he was the one to direct. He felt strongly that someone from South Central who knew the subject matter should helm the movie, claiming “I’m not gonna let somebody from Idaho or Encino direct a movie about living in South-Central Los Angeles.”
7 Casting
Prior to Cuba Gooding Jr. being cast as the adult version of Tre, Will Smith was strongly considered for the role. Smith ultimately turned down the role due to his commitments to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
In addition, Eddie Murphy was considered to play Furious Styles in the film. Singleton himself appears in a cameo role as a mailman as Ricky (Morris Chestnut) and Doughboy (Ice Cube) fight in the front yard. To achieve the utmost authenticity, Singleton never told his actors when gunshots were going to be fired in the film. As a result, the actor’s reactions to gun violence in the film are natural.
6 Ice Cube’s Part
Despite having zero film acting experience, the part of Doughboy was specifically written for Ice Cube. Singleton approached Cube several times at rap concerts, but Cube was hesitant to commit to an official screen test.
Once he accepted the role, Singleton later encouraged Cube to write his own scripts, leading to the Friday franchise a few years later. Doughboy and his crew are patterned after the Rollin 60s Crips street gang in Los Angeles. In real life, the Crips’ gang rival, the Crenshaw Mafia Bloods, took issue with their cowardly depiction in the film.
5 Sequential Shoot
Boyz n The Hood was shot in sequence, a rarity on most film productions. Singleton claimed that this is why the camerawork gets stronger as the movie progresses, as he began to find his footing as a director when the schedule advanced.
To reflect his directorial improvement as filming went on, Singleton added a line of dialogue to the script. When Furious cuts Tre’s hair, he mentions “I’m not getting old, I’m getting better.” This is a direct reference to Singleton’s growing confidence as filming advanced.
4 Ricky’s Near-Accident
During the scene in which Ferris fires a Mac-11 in the air and startles Ricky, actor Morris Chestnut nearly had his legs run over by Doughboy’s Chevy Impala.
As Ricky (Chestnut) runs away from the gunshots towards Tre’s car, he accidentally slips and falls, exposing his lower limbs to the Impala as it drives away. Fortunately, Chestnut scurried out of the way in the nick of time and remained unscathed. Singleton used to the shot in the final cut of the film to ensure the utmost realism.
3 Officer Coffey
In keeping with the autobiographical theme, the abusive and self-loathing black Police Officer Coffey (Jessie Lawrence Ferguson) is based on a real-life cop Singleton encountered as a teenager.
Singleton included the character in the film because he thought it was vital to show how systemic racism and police brutality isn’t always limited to the color of one’s skin, and how black-on-black crime exists within the police community, as well.
2 N.W.A. Involvement
Singleton initially wanted members of Ice Cube’s rap group N.W.A. to play his crew in the film. However, Cube left N.W.A. around that time due to a contract dispute, leading to a feud between him and several band members, including Eazy E. Both sides released a series of diss-tracks chronicling their beef at the time.
As a result, Singleton scrambled to recast the roles of Doughboy’s entourage. In one jab at N.W.A., a chain-snatcher wearing an Eazy-E shirt is caught and brutally beaten on the sidewalk.
1 Life Imitates Art
The scene at the beginning of the film when Tre, Doughboy, and Little Chris go to see a dead body was shot one mile from Florence and Normandie streets in South Central. This is the site where Rodney King was brutally beaten by police officers in 1992, one year after the release of the film. The event sparked riots and widespread civil unrest.
In addition, the actor (Lloyd Avery II) who fatally shoots Ricky at the end of the film joined the Crenshaw Mafia Bloods after the movie was completed. Avery II was arrested and convicted in relation to a double homicide, receiving a life sentence as a result. In 2006, Avery was killed in jail by his cellmate.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/behind-scenes-facts-about-making-boyz-n-the-hood/
Reviews -10 Best Black & White Horror Movies Ranked
90 Day Fiancé Why Aquarius Alina Is Perfect for Sagittarius Steven
Animal Crossing 5 New Special Characters (& 5 That Are Missing)
15 College Comedies To Watch If You Loved American Pie
16 Things You Never Knew About Jackie Chan
90 Day Fiancé Corey Has Confused Reaction To Geoffrey’s Guilty Verdict
American Pie Cast & Characters Guide
