Filmmaker John Singleton is the writer and director of movies including Boyz n the Hood and Shaft. Before participating in a panel as part of the Pacific Standard Time initiative on the past and future of L.A.’s global image, he talked in the green room about what keeps him up at night.
Q. What’s your favorite time of day?
A. Sunset, right over the water.
Q. What’s the last movie you saw in a theater?
A. Immortals.
Q. What’s underrated?
A. Quality of life in general.
Q. Where do you go in L.A. when you want to escape L.A.?
A. On the water, out in Marina del Rey.
Q. What holiday do you like best and why?
A. Halloween, because everybody dresses up crazy.
Q. If you could live in any time period, which would you choose and why?
A. I’d live now. It’s just so much fun, there’s so much more to do, and there’s not a lot of restrictions on doing what you want to do because of who you are, or how you look, or what your background is.
Q. What question do you get most often in interviews?
A. What’s your next movie?
Q. What was your first car?
A. A Nissan Pathfinder.
Q. What keeps you up at night?
A. My dreams and my ideas.
Q. What do you recommend to people?
A. To follow their hearts, and don’t let anybody dissuade you.
*Photo by Sarah Rivera