If Spike Lee is the king of black filmmakers, F. Gary Gray is the prince. The tireless, underrated, pure-entertainer prince. In the career retrospective Shooter Series Volume Two: F. Gary Gray, the now-40-year-old director looks into a camera in 1991 and says he wants to direct epic movies—before he's directed even a noteworthy music video. "I was very clear on what I wanted to do, even if it was going to take me 50 years to get there," Gray tells GQ.
He considers his first seven movies the beginning, the first chapter. "I'm excited about film more now than ever. I get to apply what I've learned to the next seven films, and the next seven films," Gray says, adding, "I have a hard time looking back unless I'm forced to."
Friday (1995)
"We filmed it in 20 days on the block I grew up on in South Central L.A. After watching it the first time, I thought my career was over—I wasn't sure if the movie worked. We had no idea it would be so successful. It took me eight years to watch Friday again."
"I was paid like $50,000 more than I was paid to direct Friday.
Set It Off (1996)
"I was offered a lot of urban comedies after Friday, but I always wanted to surf the genres. Set It Off wasn't a formulaic film or story—you had Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett, and Vivica Fox doing things you would ordinarily see men doing. It was the antithesis of a Hollywood movie. Queen Latifah gave the performance of a lifetime and I got a chance to show what I could do dramatically and in the action realm.
"Outkast wanted me to film 'Bombs Over Baghdad,' but 'Ms. Jackson' really stood out to me. I said, 'If you're going to do a video for "Ms. Jackson," let me do it.' You never know if it's going to work—animals bobbing their heads to the music and the guys fixing an old, broken-down house? But people really got it."
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