Diesel Owes His Career to Persistence

Wednesday June 20 12:02 PM ET

By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (AP) - Vin Diesel could be poster boy for all out-of-work actors who have thought about packing it in and joining the 9-to-5 set.

A stage actor who had trained in New York City theaters since childhood, Diesel came to Hollywood a decade ago at 23 expecting studios would clamor for his talent.

Instead, the muscular Diesel had to fall back on his skills as a nightclub bouncer to make ends meet.

``I came out here thinking, I'm a New York actor, this town's just going to eat it up, and I'm going to be working like crazy,'' said Diesel, 33, who stars as leader of a street-racing gang in ``The Fast and the Furious''

``A year goes by, and I failed miserably. I can count the auditions on two hands. I went back to New York a complete failure. I had to regroup and strategize.''

From that strategizing came ``Multi-facial,'' a short film Diesel wrote, directed and starred in. It was shot in three days in 1994 for just $3,000.

The film had a prestigious screening at the Cannes Film Festival, but its real payoff came in 1997, when Diesel returned to New York from the Sundance Film Festival, where his low-budget feature film ``Strays'' had played.

``I got a phone call on Saturday morning,'' Diesel said in an interview at the venerable Hollywood hotel Chateau Marmont.

``My agent said that Steven Spielberg just saw `Multi-facial' and loves it. That was enough for me. I don't know how much more she really needed to say to put me on cloud nine. I was ecstatic.''

But there was more. Spielberg wanted Diesel in ``Saving Private Ryan.'' Diesel's response: ``What's `Saving Private Ryan'?''

``She goes, `Only the most anticipated film in the industry,''' Diesel said. ``So I said, `Sure, I'm game.'''

Months later, Diesel was in Europe playing Private Caparzo, the member of Tom Hanks' squad killed by a sniper. It was Diesel's first professional film job. It was his first big acting money. It was the first time he got health benefits.

``And that was after 20 some years of acting,'' Diesel said. ``I was so happy to be going out there, going to Europe for three months to work with Steven Spielberg, who I always admired as a director and was going to be able to learn from. The reality is if he had asked me to come out there and give him coffee, I would have.''

After ``Saving Private Ryan,'' Diesel was hired to lend his resonant voice to the title character of the animated adventure ``The Iron Giant'' Next came a supporting part in the stock-market drama ``Boiler Room.'' Then the lead as an escaped killer in last year's sci-fi horror flick, ``Pitch Black,'' a role tailor-made for Diesel's rock-hard frame, piercing dark eyes and shaved skull.

In ``The Fast and the Furious,'' Diesel plays Dominic Toretto, king of the Los Angeles street-racing scene. The film follows his uneasy friendship with a new kid on the block (Paul Walker), who turns out to be an undercover cop investigating a rash of truck hijackings.

Before filming, Diesel attended some illegal street races and came to understand what draws drivers to the sport.

``It's an opportunity to be competitive without gang warfare. It's a nighttime thing. I guess the fact that it's outside of the law makes it a little alluring, too,'' Diesel said.

While Diesel has mainly filled action roles so far, ``Fast and the Furious'' director Rob Cohen said the actor has the range to play subtle, serious parts.

``You can't typecast him. He's shown too many edges, too many shadings. Too much ability to turn on the heat and heart and muscle to say that he can only be in the Rambo school of films,'' Cohen said. ``I believe we'll watch this guy win an Academy Award, and not for some action film but for something like `Marty' or `On the Waterfront.'''

Later this summer, Diesel co-stars with John Malkovich and Dennis Hopper in the gangster film ``Knockaround Guys,'' and next year he stars in the drug thriller ``Diablo.''

Where would Diesel's career be if he had not made ``Multi-facial''?

``That's a good question. Slightly unfair,'' Diesel said. ``I don't know. But I do know it was the best thing I've ever done, the best move I ever made. That move came out of frustration.''

In ``Multi-facial,'' Diesel plays an aspiring actor trying to maintain a hopeful outlook amid endless rounds of failed auditions. Though it's a fictionalized film, Diesel drew on his own experiences.

``I used to say, `If I'm not star by the time I'm 18, I'm going to quit the business,''' Diesel said. ``Then I said, `If I'm not a star by the time I'm 21, I'm out of this business.' Then it was 23, then I changed it to 25.''

In the end, his big break with Spielberg didn't come till Diesel was nearing 30.

Diesel, whose father taught theater and whose mother was an astrologer, got his start in acting at age 7. He and some friends had wandered into a theater and were messing around with the props when a woman there offered them $20 a week to appear in a play that required children.

Years of stage work followed. Diesel studied English at Hunter College but dropped out after three years to pursue acting full time.

A turning point came after his failed first trip to Hollywood. As he reassessed his career, Diesel received a book - ``Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices'' - as a Christmas present from his mother.

``I had been acting forever and exposed to the arts forever, and nothing was happening. I was just a guy at parties saying, `I'm an actor.' No proof,'' Diesel said.

So he created his own proof with ``Multi-facial'' and later ``Strays,'' which he wrote, directed and starred in. ``Strays'' cost just $47,000, money Diesel raised working long hours as a telemarketer.

``That book was a very profound little gift,'' Diesel said. ``Who knows how practical it was? But what I know is that it empowered me.''