'Fast and Furious' Vin Diesel Speeds Over Hollywood's Color Line

Esther Iverem
BET.com Arts and Film Critic

He plays Italians, robots and sci-fi criminals. But the real question
is, just how Black is Vin Diesel? Peep how this actor's multi-racial
looks get him some of the roles Denzel, Wesley and others can't get.

Posted June 25, 2001 — It was a big weekend for Vin Diesel. His new
movie, "The Fast and Furious," took in an impressive $41 million.


The first time you saw him in a big movie, he played a young, brave
Italian in "Saving Private Ryan." And then in the next flick, "The
Iron Giant," he performed behind the scenes as the basso, gravelly
voice of the animated star.

"Fast and Furious" Co-star Michelle Rodriguez is a lover and a fighter
in "Girlfight."
What did you think of "The Fast and the Furious?" Tell us in the Movie
Club. 
Did you peep Diesel in "Pitch Black?"
But you're probably not sure what you were looking at. He seemed white
enough to be Italian but Black enough in "Boiler Room" for the White
boys to call him a nigger. And "Pitch Black" offered a long, close
look at the 32-year-old native New Yorker. (And the looking isn't bad,
ladies) That's not just a deep tan. Look at that nose and those lips.
And maybe those Steven Spielberg folks knew how to work wonders with a
razor and a combat helmet but the clincher here is the hair. It's not
that crew-cut White boy fuzz on the sides. It's not that Puerto Rican
curly-type thing. It's that close-cut grain, that
fresh-from-the-corner-barbershop grain, that Vincent Carter grain,
your brother's grain.

Diesel is living La Vida Multicultural, which, it turns out, might be
the same as La Vida Loca.

"I've been presented with some interested offers-like to play a
skinhead [in "American History X"] he says, sitting in a room at
Washington, D.C.'s Four Seasons Hotel. "There's something cool about
this kind of ambiguous, chameleon-like ethnicity. I try to think back
to what actor has played all these different kinds of roles and I
can't think of any, can you?

"It's very fascinating," he adds. "A man of color is being exposed to
so many different opportunities. Hopefully, it says something about my
acting. Hopefully, ideally, that's what I want it to do."

Diesel was raised by artsy parents in New York. He doesn't like to get
too specific about his background. He's Italian and a lot of other
things. He's never met his biological father but was raised since the
age of 1 by a Black stepfather.

"We're going to get to a place in our culture where I think there will
be a lot more ambiguous people," he says, adding a quote here and
there from Sidney Poitier or Martin Luther King, Jr. to reinforce his
point. "I've noticed that people feel comfortable with me or they feel
uncomfortable with me. They either adopt me - whether it's any kind of
nationality--Italian, Latin, Black or you name it. They either feel
comfortable with me or don't feel comfortable with me."

It's not like Diesel is trying to pass. Pass as what? Himself? He
doesn't consider himself Black or White. He's in that multicultural
zone. He rejects that "one-drop" rule of this country. When it comes
to acting, he has had to sort of go White to be able to come back to
being Black. Maybe one unanswered question is this: Once seen in this
country as Black, can he go back?

A few years ago, he wrote, directed and starred in a funny and
poignant film, "Multifacial," about a young actor of mixed-race
heritage who goes about the task of auditioning for parts. At the
first gig, he dons a hat (to hide that grain!?) and plays a Brooklyn
(or New Jersey or Philly) thuggy Italian. At the next audition, he's
rejected by a Black casting agent as "too light." Some other Black
folks are looking for more of a "Wesley type." Then he plays a Latino,
but gets caught ass-out when he can't speak Spanish. It goes on and
on, ending, finally, with the young actor sitting in a diner where the
White woman behind him orders a coffee that's "not too light, not too
dark."

His own personal story picks up from there. Spielberg saw
"Multifacial" and wrote a part for Diesel into his epic, award-winning
film about World War II. Since then, opportunities have continued to
come Diesel's way.

Of course, there is the matter of his name, He wasn't born Vin Diesel.

"Well the name is really simple," he says. "It's not the name on the
birth certificate. Honestly, it's in line with how so many of my idols
changed their name just a little bit, just enough to feel comfortable
with where they are, to feel comfortable with how they're talked
about.

"It's unnatural to have your name be that big, that larger than life,"
he adds. "There's a reason why so many actors, like Tom Cruise, why
their names have been altered a bit. I think it gives you just a
little breathing space. It doesn't put your whole history - like what
hospital you were born at, the whole thing, on record.

It doesn't make your mom a public subject. It gives you a little
space. And being an actor and having your name up on the screen or a
big poster is a little impersonal in a way. Unless you're born Jesus
Christ, you don't need your name that big."

Diesel grew up in Lower Manhattan with his sister, an artsy dad and a
mom who worked as an astrologer. (He's a Cancer with Scorpio rising).
His stepfather taught theater when he was young. He was riding his
banana seat bicycle around one day with his friends when they decided
to stop at old theater, go inside and start tearing up things.

A woman in the building stopped them and wound up giving him a part in
a play about dinosaurs. And though he's plied other trades - like
being a bouncer for 10 years at New York clubs like The Tunnel, 1018
and The Grand --- he's had the acting bug ever since. And, probably
like every little boy back then riding banana seat bikes, he's always
wanted to be an action star.

Well, this weekend Vin, (Or Vincent or Vinny or whatever your name
is), you got it brother. Be an action star - in big, bold, living
color.