You have to enjoy yourself when you go to the movies. People don’t want to spend their hard earned money to simply go see a history lesson. F. Gary Gray Read Quote
Straight Outta Compton’ is my first biopic, my first period piece, and I got a chance to kind of get out there like some of my idols, you know, like Scorsese, Spielberg, Spike Lee, the guys who came before me. You know, I’m feeling good about it. F. Gary Gray Read Quote
I take nothing away from my existence in the ‘hood, because it sharpened my instincts. We had a different way of living that developed our survival instincts, and I use those to this day when I make films. You can’t buy that. F. Gary Gray Read Quote
Everybody comes to film differently; everybody has different backgrounds. Just find whatever your lane is naturally. Don’t try to force yourself into someone else’s vision or try to tell a story that you’re not passionate about. F. Gary Gray Read Quote
Hip hop has been an integral part of my life and my whole career. I started off doing videos with Ice Cube and Dre and Mary J. Blige and TLC. F. Gary Gray Read Quote
I love a challenge. So when I did ‘Friday,’ I didn’t want to do another comedy back-to-back. With ‘Set It Off,’ that was a little different from ‘The Negotiator’ and ‘The Italian Job.’ So for me, it’s all about challenge. It’s all about challenge and about just learning. F. Gary Gray Read Quote
I knew that in Hollywood they tend to pigeonhole talent, and when you experience a little success in one genre, their instinct is to keep you in that box. F. Gary Gray Read Quote
I remember where I was when I first heard ‘Boyz N The Hood’ – 126th Street and Normandy, South Central, Los Angeles. I remember that I was on my porch. What they described in that song was so vivid and so clear to me because it was the kind of life I was used to witnessing and partly experiencing in my neighborhood. F. Gary Gray Read Quote
I was doing well in TV as a freelance cameraman, but it wasn’t the direction I wanted to go in. I directed videos and tried to put something cinematic in every one. Dialogue, action sequences, helicopter, Steadicam. F. Gary Gray Read Quote
