by Anderson Jones | June 19, 2001

It's every actor's dream: Steven Spielberg plucks you from obscurity and writes a role just for you in his next blockbuster.

For Vin Diesel, that's how it really went down. After screening Multi-Facial, a short Diesel wrote, produced, directed and starred in, Spielberg created a part for him in his WWII epic Saving Private Ryan. That character, Private Adrian Caparzo, introduced Diesel to audiences as a versatile, convincing actor.

Not that he wasn't prepared for it. Diesel started early, appearing onstage at age seven in a Greenwich Village theater company. He went on to do Multi-Facial and the full-length feature Strays before landing Ryan. Then came a breakout role in Pitch Black, as a convict-turned-hero in a skintight black tank top. This August, he plays a wannabe mobster in Knockaround Guys (alongside Dennis Hopper); next March, he appears in F. Gary Gray's Diablo.

But first, he's putting his career on the fast track as Dominic, a street-racing baddie with a need for speed, in The Fast and the Furious.

Your costar Paul Walker really took this street-racing thing to heart, importing a $65,000 car from Japan. Did it get under your skin in the same way?

You've always been mysterious about your ethnic background. Is that intentional?

Yeah. Because I want to you come see my movies. In this movie, I'm of Cuban descent.

In Knockaround Guys, I play a Jewish gangster with a Star of David tattooed on my arm. I'm an urban hero for Pitch Black. My point is, I've been lucky to play all these characters. And I don't hit people over the head with tons of stereotypes to play them.

You've moved effortlessly from something heavy and prestigious to popcorn action flicks. Did you ever think, I'm only doing movies like Saving Private Ryan?

I also approach all the films I do with equal conviction. That's what people respond to. I don't do Saving Private Ryan and say, "This is a prestigious film; I'm going to act differently." If you see my work, I hope you get that, regardless of the dressing...I'm bringing real shit to the role. That's important to me. That's all I can do. And I think there's a place for films like The Fast and the Furious.


Do you think that realness is what audiences are responding to?

It's because I came into Pitch Black and didn't do the bubblegum sci-fi it could have been. I came into Pitch Black and I did real shit. I came into Pitch Black and treated it like a real film, with a real character who really had a place in our culture and represented something. You know, the Pitch Black character [Richard Riddick] represented anybody who's been ruled out or given up on.

In The Fast and the Furious, just as in Pitch Black, you play a bad guy--yet people are still rooting for you.

I've kind of been exploring this antihero thing and expanding on it. I do different variations, but I stay within that realm. I'm not really attracted to whitewashed heroes. I'm not really attracted to the picture-perfect, one-dimensional hero. I don't think we get anything from those guys, because they're so unrealistic that you alienate your audience, [so] they never hear what you're trying to say. I think that the flawed heroes are more attractive to me because they're easier to identify with. They're more modern-day mythology, hands down.

It's not a one-liner world anymore. The fact that Gladiator gets the critical acclaim it does and the Oscar tells you something. It's not Saving Private Ryan, but that says something about where we're at. Gladiator could have been a cheesy little film, but they approached it with more substance. Gladiator could have been Xena: Warrior Princess.

You have a huge Internet following; Yahoo! alone has 25 clubs devoted to you. Are you aware of that?

I am aware of it. The fan base I've been lucky enough to accumulate is made up of enlightened people. Just smart individuals. Every now and then, I read some fan mail, and these people can write better than me. They could be journalists. I read a piece of fan mail, and it sounds like an essay in Vanity Fair.

So, it's flattering that I'm connecting to people who are really conscious and know what they're talking about and aren't just saying, "You've got a hot body." To hear these people talk about my roles as though they're in a film class is incredibly flattering. It's good to know that people understand what you're doing.

There are also some rumors flying around. I think the press has you dating five different women right now.

And none of them is accurate. Because I'll tell you something: If I'm not playing Sony PlayStation or rereading a classic or watching a goddamned foreign film or watching porn (I'm joking about the porn), my friends and I get on the Internet and find out who I'm dating, and it's always hysterical. It's really very funny. It's too preposterous to fight. They've linked me up with people I've never met. I assume there's nothing I can do about that...But at this level, I guess it's almost flattering that people care enough to create shit like that.

Classics, eh? What's the last one you read?

I don't know if it's considered a classic. It's not Steinbeck or Miller or Faulkner or anything like that. It's J.R.R. Tolkein. Lord of the Rings.

So, you have a Lord of the Rings thing?

It's so bad. I used to play Dungeons & Dragons, and this is the closest I can get to it now.

Were you a D&D nerd?

I wasn't a nerd. I played with creative people. I played with potheads. There was always a bottle of whiskey at the table. One guy was a cop, and it was on my night off from bouncing at the Tunnel.

As you become more famous and life becomes less ordinary, is it harder to keep it real?

I admire the actors who have not fallen victim to celebrityhood too much. I admire those actors who have kept it about the work. I think I read somewhere that Harrison Ford said, If I talk too much about my private world, when you go to see my movies, you'll be thinking about my private world. You'll be thinking about my breakup. That's why Bill Clinton couldn't be an actor. The more I can keep it about my work and less about my private life--on any level--the easier it is for you to be entertained.