It’s no secret that after playing Dom Toretto for over 20 years, Vin Diesel is the beating heart of the Fast & Furious franchise and the head of the family that keeps the engine of that franchise running. But it turns out Diesel was also key to convincing Louis Leterrier – director of the latest F&F film, Fast X — to join the project late after Justin Lin’s departure and help lead the franchise to its chaotic, massive, two-part conclusion.
Lin, the writer-director who has overseen the franchise ever since Tokyo Drift and turned it into a bombastic action-blockbuster mainstay originally intended to direct Fast X. But Lin soon quit directing and started filming, reportedly after a disagreement with Diesel. That left the series with a huge hole in the middle. This is where Leterrier, a self-proclaimed huge fan of the franchise, came into the picture. In an interview with Polygon, Leterrier explained that he had to rely on instinct to make Fast X because he was dropped after filming had already started.
“I hardly had time to think about it,” Leterrier said. “I didn’t doubt myself, like, Am I doing this right? and then notes and everything. They were like, “Directors change. To go.’ And then we have a release date. So go, go, go, go, and then I’ll be at the premiere.”
But despite the daunting task of being thrown into one of the world’s greatest franchises, a 45-minute phone call with Diesel was all it took to get Leterrier on board.
“What decides [it] meet Vin, the rapport we had. The relationship Vin and I just had on Zoom was so real,” he explained. “I was like, Oh, yes, that’s the relationship I want to have for the next two years. I thought it was just one movie. Now it’s two movies, so it’s the next five years of my life.
Image: Universal Pictures
The first conversation with Diesel, according to Leterrier, was a simple chat. But what impressed the carrier director was that Diesel spent 40 of those 45 minutes talking at length about every character in the film, without mentioning his own character, Dominic Toretto, even once.
“He’s such an altruist. He really cares about every piece and everyone, and just wants to make sure everyone gets their fully developed character,” he said.
But it wasn’t just Diesel’s dedication to the ensemble that gave Leterrier confidence in the project. It’s also the work Diesel puts into his own character. When Leterrier told Diesel they hadn’t spoken about Dom yet, the director says the actor immediately became laser-focused and came in with an understanding that actors can only have when they’ve been playing a character for over 20 years. For Leterrier, that kind of commitment and connection makes his life easier and makes projects fly by.
“The worst thing for a director is when you block and direct and an actor says, ‘Oh, why? What is my motivation?’ That’s totally fine, of course, but it’s hard because you’re like, ‘Well, we should meet halfway. You have to do the work, I have to do the work, then we have to meet halfway, and hopefully our visions will come true.’”
But that’s not the case with Diesel when he plays Dom.
“It’s not like he was doing the work – he never stopped. The work never stopped.”