Hollywood's action heroes are aging fast. Clint Eastwood, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford ... even Mel Gibson is edging
inexorably towards the exit.
Not to worry, though, because Vin Diesel is
more than happy to step into their shoes.
The actor with a name like a
fuel pump has been dancing on the brink of fame since Steven Spielberg hired him
to play Private Adrian Carparzo, the first of Tom Hanks' team to take a bullet
in "Saving Private Ryan" (1998). In l999 Diesel played a stockbroker with a
decent streak in "The Boiler Room," and last year he caught audience's eyes as a
serial killer with a difference in the stylish "Pitch Black" (2000), a surprise
hit which has become something of a cult classic.
He's made a specialty
of hypermasculine roles, and the testosterone flows again in "The Fast and The
Furious," a noisy but fascinating look into the subculture of macho men who race
souped-up cars through the streets of Los Angeles, collecting Spandex-clad babes
while staying one step ahead of the local cops.
Opening nationwide on
June 22, the movie is aimed squarely at teen-agers — who else's ear drums could
take the assault? And while it's unlikely to get much attention at next year's
Academy Awards, it definitely establishes Diesel as a man to watch.
Speaking by telephone from his Hollywood Hills home, Diesel says in a
rich molasses tone that he sees "The Fast and Furious" as "`Donny Brasco' Meets
`The Wild One."'
And indeed, somewhere in the midst of all the
high-energy accelerations, burning rubber and exploding metal, attentive viewers
will find a story: Undercover cop (Paul Walker) infiltrates the cocky Diesel's
gang to try to crack a chain of wild, high-speed truck hijackings.
"What we're doing with `The Fast and the
Furious,"' director Rob Cohen says in a separate interview,
"is in a sense taking the Western and recreating it in a
contemporary urban milieu. Our film deals with some of the most important themes
of the classic Westerns — loyalty,xbetrayal, freedom — but instead of horses
we've got horsepower."
Cohen adds that he sees Diesel as a
legitimate heir apparent to Hollywood's aging action icons. It's a heady thought
for the 34-year-old actor, who has been performing since he made his
Off-Broadway stage debut at age 7 in "Dinosaur's Door," staged by the
prestigious Theatre for the New City.
Art ran in his family: His
stepfather headed a local repertory-theater company — Diesel never knew his
birth father — and his mother was a psychologist and also an astrologer. His
twin brother, Paul Vincent, is a film editor. Beyond that, the actor is
reluctant to discuss his family. "I'm probably fighting a losing battle
and am foolish to think I can keep my personal family life private," he
concedes. "But right now I steer away from personal questions."
He did grow up poor, he allows.
"But I had a
rich childhood in other ways," he adds. "My parents always
found a way to make things work, and education was always important. We never
owned a car and we weren't taking trips, but I did go to $14 camp — 14 bucks and
a towel was all you needed.
"I always resented that
line, `We don't have enough money."
After attending New York's
Hunter College for three years as an English major, Diesel dropped out and in
1995 wrote "Multi-Facial," a short film based on his own experience as a
struggling actor of a racially mixed background. It was accepted for the Cannes
Film Festival, where it earned rave reviews.
He moved to Los Angeles,
raised $50,000 and in 1997 made his first feature, "Strays," in which he played
an amorous drug pusher. Even though it was selected for the 1997 Sundance Film
Festival, he had hard time selling it. But not long afterward Spielberg,
impressed by "Multi-Facial," hired him for "Saving Private Ryan."
Perhaps his best-known role, however, did nothing to enhance his
Hollywood visibility: His strong, resonant voice made him perfect for the voice
of "The Iron Giant" (1999), a cult favorite which is already considered an
animation classic.
Like most of his films to date, "The Fast and the
Furious" takes full advantage of Diesel's powerful physique and dominating
screen presence, both of which he attributes to eight years spent as
a bouncer for some of New York's hippest clubs, beginning when he was 17.
"As a bouncer I began working out and bulking up," he
recalls. "I had to build up a kind of formidable presence that I never
had as a kid. And, somewhere along the line, that presence emerged."
Actually, he says, being a nightclub bouncer is much like being an
action-film character.
"You do the job without
weaponry," he explains. "You have to be resourceful and
commanding, and be in control without action. You set a tone in a job that can
be dangerous, because you're sometimes dealing with people who are fueled by
booze or drugs and you have to defuse a situation like a hostage negotiator.
You're trying to provide a safe environment for people to have fun in, so in a
way that's kind of heroic — that's being a real bodyguard, and in a way you're a
superhero."
Diesel has written a screenplay about his bouncer
days, entitled "The Doorman." Originally he had another, bigger-name actor in
mind for the title role, but now he himself has a bigger name, so he's rewriting
with a view to playing the lead himself.
Playing an autobiographical
role would be a welcome change for Diesel, who admits that his New York youth
left him ill-equipped to play a car racer.
"Growing up I knew
nothing about cars," he says. "First, you need a fortune to
garage a car in Manhattan. I rode a motorcycle to school every day and sometimes
took cabs. And I certainly didn't know much about the kind of cars in our
picture."
To learn what he was missing, he ventured out to Los
Angeles street races and got to know some of the people who take part in these
highly illegal competitions.
"It was a pretty bizarre
scene," he recalls. "Some nights the races were broken up, as
local cops swooped in on us with helicopters and everyone took off running. But
they weren't criminals, and you didn'thave to be nefarious to race those cars."
Hard on the heels of "The Fast and the Furious," Diesel filmed
"Knockaround Guys." Co-starring with John Malkovich and Dennis Hopper, he plays
a Mafia boss's son who is sent to a small town in Montana to retrieve a fortune
in cash. The film will open this fall.
Also recently completed is
"Diablo," in which he plays a Drug Enforcement Administration agent who begins
to fall apart after his wife dies.
Diesel, who co-produced "Diablo,"
says that he's satisfied with the direction his acting career is taking, and in
particular that he's generally cast without regard to race or ethnic origin.
"I'm being termed a `multicultural actor,"' he says.
"When I was growing up, actors were either this or that — they had very
clear orders, and there was little room for multicultural parts. It's
fascinating to be an actor who isn't any specific thing or type, but a human
being."