Words matter. These are the best F. Gary Gray Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
If I were to do a movie about Apollo 13, I’d be at NASA studying what it took to go into space. It’s part of your job to go deep, to interview the right people.
I always direct next to the camera and watch my actors, and so you can see the small things that you can’t see on the small screen but you can definitely see on the big screen.
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.
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.
What do I bring to a film? I think, maybe, I know for a fact that I focus on connection of character; I focus on warmth and a heart, but I don’t know if it’s because I’m African American or because I’m crazy -who knows.
I’m not afraid of a big studio film; I trust my instincts. But for me, it’s not really about box office. It’s about looking back on your work and not having to apologize for it.
I know a lot of people who enjoy rap music who aren’t black. You can’t just say it’s black music. To segregate films the way Hollywood likes to segregate films, ultimately everyone loses.
I’m single-minded. When I’m working on a project, all my attention is there.
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.
I taught a master class in film in France, and that was a great experience because I got a chance to study the French film culture and the French film history, so to add… just to expand myself just personally and professionally was really helpful.
When you start directing movies at the age of 24, you’re just a kid; you don’t necessarily even have the experiences to add to the story. You’re working off of instinct and raw emotions and raw talent, and hopefully it’s the same trajectory as growing as a person.
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.
Success is really about your mindset.
Most of music videos were short films – they had dialogue, action sequences. I shot with cranes and helicopters. I wanted to created cinema-like moments.
Creativity is a mansion. If you’re empty in one room, all you have to do is go out into the hallway and enter another room that’s full.
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.
I don’t have a typical filmmaker background. I didn’t grow up with a super eight camera or a video camera. I didn’t start cutting movies when I was four or five.
