Vin Diesel and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s feud during the making of several “Fast and Furious” films has been well documented (and immortalized by The Rock calling out a “chicken shit” and “candy ass” co-star on social media), and now Diesel is owning up to the part he played in stirring up the set tension.
via: AceShowbiz
In the July/August 2021 issue of Men’s Health magazine, the 53-year-old producer of the franchise opened up about Dwayne’s involvement in the franchise, “It was a tough character to embody, the Hobbs character. My approach at the time was a lot of tough love to assist in getting that performance where it needed to be.” He added that it took “a lot of work” to bring out the unexpected character of Hobbs as audiences came in with expectations and assumptions about the former WWE star.
“As a producer to say, ‘OK, we’re going to take Dwayne Johnson, who’s associated with wrestling, and we’re going to force this cinematic world, audience members, to regard his character as someone that they don’t know’ — Hobbs hits you like a ton of bricks,” Vin elaborated further. “That took a lot of work. We had to get there and sometimes, at that time, I could give a lot of tough love.”
Of his conversations with Dwayne, Vin shared, “Not Felliniesque, but I would do anything I’d have to do in order to get performances in anything I’m producing.” The “Guardians of the Galaxy” actor went on to claim that he’s “proud” of the aesthetic they created for Hobbs, saying, “That’s something that I’m proud of, that aesthetic.”
Reports of the pair’s feud first emerged in 2016 when they filmed the eighth movie of the franchise, “The Fate of the Furious”. During the last week of filming, Dwayne wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post that some people on set “conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals, while others don’t.”
“The ones that don’t are too chicken s**t to do anything about it anyway. Candy a**es,” he continued. “When you watch this movie next April and it seems like I’m not acting in some of these scenes and my blood is legit boiling — you’re right.”
In 2018, the “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” star discussed the conversations he had with Vin during an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. “Vin and I had a few discussions, including an important face-to-face in my trailer,” he admitted. He continued, “And what I came to realize is that we have a fundamental difference in philosophies on how we approach moviemaking and collaborating.”
“It took me some time, but I’m grateful for that clarify. Whether we work together again or not,” he stated at the time. “I wish him all the best and I harbor no ill will there, just because of the clarity we have. Actually, you can erase that last part about ‘no ill will.’ We’ll just keep it with the clarity.”
Sounds like they let egos get in the way, but glad they worked through it.
