“The Hate U Give,” based on the Angie Thomas young adult novel,” stars Amandla Stenberg.

During the production of George Tillman Jr.’s drama “The Hate U Give,” the cast and crew wondered if the film might lose its relevance by the time it came out. Kian Lawley, cast as the white boyfriend of Starr, played by Amandla Stenberg, was replaced by K.J. Apa when videos surfaced of Lawley using racial slurs, necessitating reshoots and pushing back the release date.

Regina Hall, who plays Starr’s mother, told everyone not to worry: Their film would be relevant for a long time. Events just prior to the film’s Sept. 7 world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival bore out that prediction: On Sept. 4, Colin Kaepernick became the new face of Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign, reigniting controversy over his protest of police violence during the national anthem. Then, on Sept. 6, an off-duty Dallas police officer shot and killed an unarmed black man in the man’s home, mistaking him for an intruder.

“This issue is not going away,” says Stenberg, whose character witnesses a police officer shoot her friend, an unarmed, innocent black youth, during a traffic stop. “We’re living in a really unique time, but these problems aren’t new by any means. They’ve existed for years and years, for centuries.”

“The Hate U Give” (the title is taken from late rapper Tupac Shakur’s “THUG LIFE” tattoo, the letters

The film, an adaptation of Angie Thomas’ young-adult novel, is also an affirmation of Starr’s happy family life with her two brothers, mom and dad.

standing for “The Hate U Give Little Infants F—s Everyone”) confronts this issue head-on.

The film, an adaptation of Angie Thomas’ young-adult novel, is also an affirmation of Starr’s happy family life with her two brothers, mom Lisa and dad Maverick “Mav” Carter (Oakland native Russell Hornsby), an ex-con and former gang member who has turned his life around to become the owner of a market and a pillar of his community.

There is a third aspect to the story: Starr’s “codeswitching,” adopting one set of behaviors in her African American neighborhood and another at the affluent, mostly white private school she attends.

“I’ve had some extraordinary experiences growing up, but when it came to school it was pretty normal, or at least the way it was normal to Starr, which is in and of itself abnormal,” says the Los Angeles native. “My school was mostly white and pretty homogeneous in terms of the culture and mentality of it. I came from a neighborhood that was black and mostly

“The Hate U Give”

opens at Bay Area theaters Friday, Oct. 12.

lower income. I learned early on what it’s like to have to separate those parts of yourself.”

Stenberg, who turns 20 this month, made her acting debut in the feature film “Colombiana” in 2011 and had her breakthrough role as Rue, a contestant in 2012’s “The Hunger Games.”

Thomas says that Stenberg was one of her inspirations in creating Starr. Despite her youth, the actress has long been a political activist. That had come to Thomas’ attention, who wove that aspect of Stenberg’s life into Starr’s journey as the

Photos by Erika Doss / 20th Century Fox Amandla Stenberg plays Starr, a teenager who witnesses the police shooting of a friend.

Stenberg’s Starr and her half-brother, Seven (Lamar Johnson), deal with the fallout of the shooting in the film.