‘REBEL’ WITH A CAUSE
She’s fighting for justice in new BET drama series
NOTED director John Singleton (“Boyz n the Hood,” “2 Fast 2 Furious”) is moving to the small screen for his first TV series — the scripted drama “Rebel,” premiering March 28 on BET.
“I developed ‘Rebel’ as a [big-screen] movie with a friend, Armani Jackson, and over time it became a TV show,” says Singleton. “The first episode is like a movie.”
The series follows Rebecca “Rebel” Knight (Danielle Moné Truitt), a police officer in Oakland, Calif. who leaves the force after being under criminal investigation for shooting her partner to stop him from gunning down her little brother. She continues fighting crime as a private investigator while struggling with her brother’s murder — and defending herself from the dirty cops who are out for revenge. “This is the first female character that I’ve done since ‘Poetic Justice’ with Janet Jackson,” Singleton says. “I’m usually doing a mixture of male and female characters.”
Singleton says that, when he first met Truitt, he knew he had the right woman for the role.
“You know how I am. I always find new talent,” he says. “When Danielle started talking I said, ‘You see you are a real black girl.’ It was like when I found Taraji [P. Henson]. I want people to say, ‘Yeah, I like her, she is just like me.’ She doesn’t have to be totally refined but not totally busted or ghetto, either. But [Truitt] just has that spice, that flavor. There is just something about her.”
And with the current political climate, and ongoing nationwide protests against law enforcement Singleton feels the timing for “Rebel” is right. “The time is now. It’s that ‘Black Girl Magic,’ ” he says. “People will watch [the series] and say, ‘She is like my sister or my cousin.’ She has very vulnerable qualities but is just as complex. You don’t see a lot of complex black people on TV.”
These complexities include Rebel’s husband (rapper/actor Cliff “Method Man” Smith), from whom she’s separated. “Method Man is from the same generation that I am,” Singleton says. “He’s a man’s man and you don’t see men like that on TV. It was important to see Rebel deal with the differentt facets of her life. Sheh isi a complexl person that you’ll want to follow week to week.”
Singleton, whose summer FX series “Snowflake” (about the ‘80s-era LA coke scene) premieres this summer on FX — says he’s not nervous or worried about what critics will think of his new show.
“I never think about what the critics will say. I’m always about the people,” he says. “I remember with ‘Boyz n The Hood’ a lot of people had never seen anything like that before. So they didn’t know how to react to it.
“Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate and respect it.”