Diesel
Power
Thanks to his
physique and formidable screen presence, Vin Diesel has quickly become a major
star. James Mottram talks to the driving force behind 'The Fast and the
Furious'.
"The
first action hero for the 21st Century", is how director Rob Cohen
describes Vin Diesel, his male lead in runaway smash The Fast and the Furious.
Following his appearance in Saving Private Ryan as Private Caparzo ( a role
created for him after Steven Spielberg saw the 1995 short film Multifacial that
Diesel wrote, directed and starred in) and a charismatic performance as
psychotic anti-hero Riddick in superior sci-fi frightener Pitch Black, the 34
year-old actor has been revving up to inherit the mantle from long-in-the-tooth
action heroes like Schwarzenegger and
Stallone.
It's not for nothing
that Stallone's latest, the racing drama Driven, has stalled at the US
box-office, while The Fast and the Furious has taken close to $140 million.
Unsurprisingly, though, Diesel believes there's more to him than being seen as
the successor to Arnie and Sly.
"It depends what that means," he says, when we meet at the
Deauville Film Festival in France. "I'm flattered by the fact that I
could be compared to two men who have been the most successful in that genre.
But I am an actor first, indisputably. The years before Steven wrote a role for
me, I was an auteur out of necessity. My history absolves me from just being an
action hero. I'm attempting to bring more to the table, more depth to my
characters. I don't approach Saving Private Ryan any differently to The Fast and
the Furious."
The story
of LA street-racers, much of the success of The Fast and the Furious – aside
from its high-octane car stunts – can be attributed to the broad appeal of the
New York-born Diesel, who plays the idolised driver Dominic Toretto. He seems
born to play this muscle-bound
man-of-few-words.
"Part of
the luxury of film is being able to play a character who may appear
glamorous," he says. "I could take one aspect of my personality
and make that the seed of the character. So when I look at a character like
Dominic from The Fast and the Furious, I see a character who is strong, who is a
caretaker. As an actor, you have to find a relationship with the character; I
have to find the parallel with my own
life."
While Diesel might
appear to be the strong, silent type, he is actually an eloquent interviewee,
blessed with a keen intelligence. A tee-totaller who used to be a bouncer, he
also has a physical presence that dominates the room as soon as he strides
in.
But it's an occupation he has
long-since left behind. An English graduate from Hunter College, he began
writing screenplays soon after leaving. Following Multifacial with his first
full-length effort, urban drama Strays, Diesel was set to fashion a career as a
director –
until Spielberg
intervened.
"It was the
highest form of validation. When I was in school, I wasn't the kid who was
getting the awards. To be the subject of a Hollywood fairytale… after that
experience, I started buying into all those old anecdotes of the old-time
actors, like Clark Gable being discovered on a hay-cart. Nothing could be more
outlandish than Steven writing a role for
me."
For the moment, he
has no plans to return to directing, though he has recently shot F. Gary Gray's
Diablo, which he also executive produced with his own company, One Race
Productions. In the bag too, is Knockaround Guys, a gangster comedy "in an
American Guy Ritchie kind of way", which co-stars John Malcovich and Dennis
Hopper. He will also re-unite with Rob Cohen for XXX, a punk-James Bond
adventure that should confirm his star
status.
"Right now, I'm
like a kid in a candy shop," he grins. "I'm being offered all
these amazing roles, and it's just so hard to turn them down. That what I've had
to do. I've had to turn down multiple roles."
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