When it comes to mastering the art of storytelling — particularly for the Black experience — there’s a few names that come to mind. Among the legendary, however, rests the late John Singleton, who mastered the ability to take what others may have deemed average hood stories and package them in a way that maintained its uniqueness, but also effortlessly emanated from its humble dressings into the territory of universal familiarity.
No one has quite captured Black people in film and television the way Singleton has — that’s neither a good or bad thing, it’s quite nice to have multiple storytellers telling the story of Black experience in their own signature ways. In fact, we could use many more.
Singleton is one of those directors who started off with vision. From his debut feature film Boyz n the Hood in 1991 to one of his last creations FX’s Snowfall, which started its fourth season in mid-February, the two-time Oscar and Emmy nominee is responsible for some of the most celebrated (and watched) Black content of our time.
Clearly a fan of music, Singleton was especially known for casting music artists in his projects. For instance, Tupac Shakur and Janet Jackson famously played opposite each other in the 1993 film Poetic Justice, Ice Cube and Busta Rhymes starred in his Higher Learning, Tyrese was in Baby Boy, and Ludacris and Isaac Hayes were featured in Hustle & Flow.
Singleton’s portfolio speaks for itself and if we didn’t know better, it would be so easy to believe that he started at the top and remained there. Leave it to comedian and actor Arsenio Hall to have a great story to tell about Singleton when he was just an intern who applied to a writing internship program at Paramount Pictures created by Hall. Hall did an exclusive interview with the Breakfast Club’s Charlamagne where he revealed that Singleton would never listen to him.
“My first intern was John Singleton,” Hall said. “He wanted to direct and the coolest thing in the world was this guy on my set who sometimes I would say, ‘Why is John Singleton in the hallway where talent is?’ And he would always wonder away from the interns and go say hello to a guest like Cuba Gooding Jr.”
Singleton would end up meeting several actors that would be in his first film, according to former host of The Arsenio Hall Show. Hall wanted Singleton to conduct himself more like an intern. But, Singleton had bigger plans.
He continued, “At that time it was like, ‘Hey man, you’re supposed to be “Zeroxing” the paper that they gave you — but now I look back and I’m glad he said, ‘f–k off sir, I don’t wanna do that.'”
Hall continued on about how Singleton would separate from the interns to go watch the director. What a true visionary for his time. With the goal in mind, Singleton didn’t let anything get in his way of learning from people actually doing what he dreamed of doing. He also didn’t internalize the words of people who didn’t know his gifts, vision or potential greatness.
“I’m so glad that he didn’t do what I said do,” Hall said.
See the interview below:
