Film Legend Spike Lee revives the ground-breaking, cult-classic “Tales From the Hood” with its latest installment — “Tales from the Hood 3.” Actor and Comedian London Brown (best known as Reggie in the hit HBO series “Ballers,”) delivers the socially conscious, comedic horror that audiences crave from this anthology.
Credit: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
New Tales From the Hood
In this newest installment, four new “tales” reflect the timely social commentary viewers have come to expect from Lee as executive producer along with Writer / Director Rusty Cundieff and Darin Scott.
Brown plays David, a street-smart realtor who has made a great living and gets his deserved karma for bad behavior.
London Brown on growing up in South Central
Growing up in South Central Los Angeles, Calif., USA, Brown recalls,
I stayed next door to gang members. As long as we have broken homes, gang-life is (going to) exist.
Actor / Comedian, London Brown
Brown’s mother asked God to keep him so busy that he wouldn’t get caught up in the streets.
“In South Central, there are a lot of choices to make. In high school, I was in the theatre program. I was a musician in the high school band (and in church). I was always really occupied with working on some sort of artistic adventure,” Brown says. “Being funny kept me from being jumped — I was always in the hood and functioning around it, but I wasn’t of it.”
Unlike his “Tales From the Hood 3” Character, Brown has won an award for his work with inner-city youth in his community.
“That’s why it’s important for me when I went back, (to my community) and started teaching in the same schools that I went to, I let them know that they didn’t have to be a product of their environment.”
It’s important that I let young people know that I come from the same place they come from. You [have] choices. You [have] to tap into your focus early.
Actor / Comedian, London Brown
Hell in the Hood
Brown pays homage to his childhood community.
Meanwhile, the character — David, living his up-scale urban lifestyle and enjoying his hard-fought success, is put into a difficult situation by a wealthy investor client. That leads David to make a fateful decision that has horrific implications for the Bradfords — a family of modest means, and for David.
Credit: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
But Brown has a different philosophy in his own life.
“If I’m always giving, it helps keep me very grounded, so that when I land things like this film … or whatever it is that people might consider to be ideas of success,” Brown continues, “it’s important that I not get wrapped up in those things. … I shy away from ideas of becoming self-aggrandizing, I’m not into that.”
When speaking of his philosophy on everything he does, Brown offered this:
“Our reputation is based on (our) consistency. Especially if I don’t like doing something … I should attempt to do it well so that I don’t waste my time doing it. That is my outlook on most things.”
Actor / Comedian, London Brown
Brown offered this word of caution.
“People who ‘chase the bag,’ they’re always going to be chasing that. … Money does not fulfill people. It’s about being fulfilled on the inside and about being happy, and the things that cause you to be happy,” Brown adds.
“Through this film, we see my character — David, he’s thinking about himself. … He’ll do anything he (has to) do to get that money for himself, and it comes back at the end with a vengeance. I hope people get that lesson from this project.”
The film includes a surprising new tale-teller in this latest collection of macabre fables.
Up Next for London Brown
London Brown can also be found on the hit HBO series — “Ballers,” opposite Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
As for what’s next for actor / comedian London Brown, he hopes to return to filming “Power Book III — Raising Kanan,” very soon. Brown enthusiastically said this about the next installment in the “Power” television series.
“It takes place in the 90s, it’s funky, … it’s a cross between “New Jack City” and “Menace II Society.” … It’s grimy, but it’s about family too.”
You can catch London Brown and the rest of the “Tales From the Hood” cast on Blu-ray™, DVD, and Digital on Oct. 6, in the U.S. and Canada. And it premieres on Oct. 17, on SYFY.
