Testament to her status as a reigning '90s queen, Nia Long also starred in another classic of the era: "Boyz N the Hood." She played Brandi, the levelheaded and supportive girlfriend of protagonist Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.). While the role remains one of her most famous, it almost didn't materialize.
Initially, she was hesitant to star in the 1991 film because she assumed writer-director John Singleton was a white man co-opting Black culture. "I was like, 'I can't,'" she told Yahoo! Entertainment. "I didn't wanna go because I honestly thought, 'Who is the white guy writing a movie called "Boyz n the Hood"?' That's what I thought. I'm gonna be totally transparent. And my agent was like, 'No, you have to go.'" At her audition, she was pleased to discover that Singleton was in fact Black, so she gleefully took on the role.
Having witnessed poverty and violence firsthand when growing up in South Central, the film resonated with Long on a profound level. As such, she could identify with Tre, whose father (played by Laurence Fishburne) does all he can to steer his son away from a life of crime. "I grew up seven blocks away from where we filmed 'Boyz N the Hood,' so that was my reality," she told the Los Angeles Times in 1993. "I've had friends who were killed in drug-related incidents and drive-bys, and if my mother hadn't been behind me, I'd probably still be living there."
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