Nine movies in (and counting), it’s hard to imagine the world ofFast & FuriouswithoutVin Diesel.
the film that started it all.
“No one would ever think that,” he tells hosts Derek Lawrence and Chanelle Berlin johnson.
Everett Collection
And I said, ‘Yes, I’m in!’
“I’m conflicted here, because this script is not what I thought it would be.”
That’s not the normal Hollywood story but my Hollywood story has never been the normal Hollywood story."
Bob Marshak/Universal Pictures
Take in the fact that all these people are just walking by us.'
It was so telling, and it was so surreal, how he knew."
They’re going crazy!
What do you mean the best one’s still in the can?!'"
FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
VIN DIESEL:We’re sitting on the floor of this airport.
Bags inside, legs stretched out.
Thousands of people walking by, walking over us, walking over our legs.
Now, he’d already had some films out.
He was a little more familiar with what was to come.
And he said, “You know Vin, take all this in.
Take in the fact that all these people are just walking by us.”
And I said, “Why?”
And he said, “Because when this movie comes out, our anonymity will be gone.”
DEREK LAWRENCE:Ask any podcaster, any real podcaster.
It doesn’t matter if you record in person, or over video chat, podcasting is podcasting.
Welcome to EW’s BINGE: The Fast Saga.
Full transcripts of which are available on ew.com.
I’m Derek Lawrence AKA the guy who went as Dominic Toretto for two straight Halloweens.
Chanel, are you ready to relive Fast and Furious, one film at a time?
CHANELLE BERLIN JOHNSON:Oh, I’m so ready.
LAWRENCE:This is like a dream come true.
I feel like people can tell we’re just beaming with excitement to finally start this.
Now, people might be asking, “Why are we doing this?
What’s the occasion?”
LAWRENCE:Yes, absolutely.
If we were still in the office, we’d be having these conversations every day.
We’re having them over Slack.
So this is just two friends getting to talk Fast, with the Fast Family.
And we were finally ready to roll last March.
We were literally one day away from recording our first interview, in the office.
These were going to be in person, I was so hyped.
And then well, I think you could figure out why that didn’t happen.
It’s happening, that means a lot of things are happening.
And I still remember my reaction to it.
I had my headphones in.
I’m seeing there, first John Cena.
They reveal John Cena as playing Jakob Toretto, Dom’s brother.
I think I laughed.
I literally laughed so hard.
I was just like, “Oh my god, did they really do that?
It’s awesome.”
And I think I jumped out of my seat a little bit.
And I was like, “Oh man, that was a roller coaster.
They could just give us four minutes.
And then-
JOHNSON:You realized, “Oh my god.”
LAWRENCE:Han’s alive.
And I literally, I think I screamed out loud.
And I said, “I don’t really know I’m just locked in on this.”
So that finally ends, I put down my headphones.
I look around, the whole office is staring at me.
They don’t know what was just going on.
And I see Ella justice for Han around the office.
Look, I mean, unfortunately, in the office we didn’t sit next to each other.
So you were probably doing the same thing way on the other side, right?
JOHNSON:Yes, absolutely.
It’s just surprise after surprise.
And that first trailer, which is amazing that they can still do that for us.
Even this deep into it, who could have anticipated Han coming back the way he did?
I’m so excited.
We have the actualFast & Furiousfamily.
Starting with this debut episode we’ll be going through each Fast film with one of its stars.
Or a behind the scenes star, in the case of director Justin Lin.
And when I say stars, I mean these stars.
The competition is going to be so furious with how stacked this lineup is.
But today to talk about the one that started it all, it’s Toretto, Chanelle.
It’s always been Toretto.
Yes, Vin Diesel is here to go deep on 2001’s the Fast and the Furious.
But before we dive into our chat with Vin, who was great.
He gave us a lot of time, a lot of incredible information that I had never heard before.
But what should people know about that first movie?
Well, we have Brian, of course, new to town undercover cop.
Well, not new to town.
It’s truly a love story.
Just like us, that’s how we all feel at the end of the movie.
As he was entering this world, we were entering this world that we didn’t know anything about.
I mean, he also felt like my personal Avatar.
I remember, this go on to speaks to how obsessed I am with his movies.
When EW bunch of our coworkers moved out from New York to LA a couple of years ago.
And as a bonding thing.
And his fake ID says he’s from Tucson, Arizona.
And I was like, “Wait, I’m from Tucson, Arizona.
I used to live in Tucson, Arizona.”
And then I was like, “I have blue eyes.
Brian has blue eyes.”
I was like, “Am I Brian?”
That’s how deep I got sucked into it.But enough about me and my comparison of myself to Brian.
I mean, we all know Fast deserves some award’s love.
We’re here to do that.
Let’s get into it.
Here’s Fast’s patriarch, Vin Diesel.
CLIP
PIZZA GUY: “What the hell’s going on around here?”
LEON: “Street’s closed pizza boy, find another way home.”
PIZZA GUY: “Goddamn street racers.”
Vin, welcome to binge of fast and Furious.
DIESEL:Pleasure to be here.
Pleasure to be here.
LAWRENCE:We had to start with you for the first film.
DIESEL:I got 20 years ago from the very weekend that the first Fast and Furious opened.
So many wonderful, wonderful, wonderful memories surrounding that time.
That time in my life when this movie was finally coming out.
And I was like, “I’ve been waiting for this movie to come out in March.”
Of course, that was it.
LAWRENCE:I love the symmetry now.
DIESEL:It does feel meant to be.
But who would have thought.
Last year it would have been a blockbuster release because it’s F9.
This year, it’s a call back to that theatrical experience.
The theatrical experience we have all missed, and we don’t realize how much we’ve missed.
We’ve been entertained and watching movies on our couch.
You never know how much you miss something until it’s gone.
LAWRENCE:We need it.
DIESEL:We need it, we really do.
For those 10 seconds or less, I’m free.
This is a challenge, but how would you sum up this first Fast film in 10 seconds.
DIESEL:I live my life a quarter mile at a time.
LAWRENCE:That is truly perfect.
I can’t think of a better way to do it.
And he said some actors might not have been able to pull that off.
And if it didn’t work, the whole franchise never would have worked.
And it’s perfect.
DIESEL:It’s so true.
And what’s so exciting about F9, is we revisit that moment from a different perspective.
JOHNSON:Oh, that’s exciting.
LAWRENCE:That’s a tease, that’s A-plus tease right there.
Because I’ll admit it, so I had a fast watch party a couple years ago.
A few people that I knew hadn’t seen them.
And then you walk around the car.
DIESEL:I was.
I was so excited by that scene.
And the people that were in the scene were real, illegal, streetcar racers.
We had started before production, prepping for that scene.
Now I grew up in New York City.
And in New York City in Manhattan, you won’t see a lot of helicopters.
And you definitely won’t see helicopters disperse anything, like any kind of illegal street car racing.
That’s not going to happen.
But Paul grew up in LA and was accustomed to helicopter breaking up illegal street car races.
And I wasn’t.
And I had to start a joke of Paul and I running over this bridge.
Now we haven’t even filmed the movie yet, so we’re really putting ourselves out there.
Yeah, all those memories.
The memories of going into Cuba to better prepare for the character because he owned a Cuban bodega.
DOM:“What are you smiling about?”
BRIAN: “Dude, I almost had you.”
DOM: “You almost had me?
You never had me.
You never had your car.
Granny shiftin' not double clutchin' like you should.
You’re lucky that hundred shot of NOS didn’t blow the welds on the intake!
Now me and the mad scientist got to rip apart the block and replace the piston rings you fried.
Winning’s winning.”
LAWRENCE:Take us back to Fast coming into your life and your initial reaction.
I know it took a little bit of convincing.
You were like, all in.
And then you were like, “uh-uh, I don’t know about this.”
Take me back through that process.
DIESEL:Yeah, no one would ever think that.
I’m very precious about trying to do the best work possible at all costs.
And that’s the only thing they described.
And I said, “Yes, I’m in.”
And I read the script, and I go, “Hmm, Shhh.”
JOHNSON:Maybe not.
We were like, “We’re real artists.”
And so I’m conflicted here, because this is not what I thought it would be.
They hired David Ayer.
That day, they asked him to come in, and we do a page-by-page critique/rewrite.
And David Ayer goes off and writes this great script, and the rest is history.
JOHNSON:When do you feel like you really got Dom?
Was it during that process of going through the rewrites with David Ayer, or was it later?
When do you feel like you really were like, “Okay, this is it.”
DIESEL:Great question.
Great, great question.
I felt like I had gotten what the character wanted to be in the first script.
But I felt that there were things conflicting with his truth.
And that’s where David Ayer came in.
When Denzel played Alfonzo before that.
I appreciated that he was able to see the complexities of the character and to start…
I’m sure he didn’t.
And some other characters needed some fine tuning as well like the lady character, across the board.
I’m just so lucky that they were open to it all.
And that they really wanted me to feel great about it and confident about it.
And that’s not the normal Hollywood story.
But my Hollywood story has never been the normal Hollywood Story.
We’re going to write a role for you in Saving Private Ryan.”
Nothing about my journey was typical, I guess.
And any concerns, you’re hearing it out, and shows that can lead to success.
DIESEL:That’s my mantra.
I take notes from my five-year-old kid.
I’ll take notes from anybody.
I’m not precious.
LAWRENCE:I’ll sync up later with you for my ideas for wrapping up the series.
We’ll talk later.
That mean, this movie doesn’t work if that dynamic isn’t right, it just doesn’t.
DIESEL:So true.
LAWRENCE:So what was it like?
Was that chemistry just instant there with Paul?
Obviously, you guys are off going to street races.
So clearly, you got along pretty good from the beginning.
DIESEL:We got along clearly, from the beginning.
I first met him at Dodger Stadium, we were testing out our cars.
Part of the process of Fast is we’ve always auditioned our cars.
No one would ever associate that.
But it was still popular that there was a divide.
We were still getting over the deaths of Tupac and Biggie.
And it was still very much present in our lives.
When I came on it was me and my New York crew and him in his West Coast crew.
And to see that brotherhood form added something special to the movie.
JOHNSON:Had you been familiar with Paul’s work before this movie at all?
Had you seen him in other stuff?
Or the first time you met him was the first time you saw him?
DIESEL:No, I saw him inSkullsand I thought it was incredible.
I had seen his work.
He through the years has always been the one that’s helped.
LAWRENCE:Yeah, no, absolutely.
They would say nothing but beautiful things.
So we miss him.
But talking to her, she said, it was funny early on because you talked about it.
You come from this professional actor realm.
DIESEL:One of the things I was working with David Ayer was her character as well.
Because she was from East Coast as well, and she represented where we were from.
And as a minority, that wasn’t common in cinema.
No one has that.
That’s an iconic.
Non-typical Hollywood types would be the ones.
And it was a contrast, deliberate contrast, between the Brian and Mia relationship.
The Brian and Mia relationship was more conventional.
And the relationship between Dom and Letty was not conventional.
JOHNSON:That is definitely something that stuck out to me.
I remember I was 14, I think, when the first movie came out.
But what are those conversations like, as you’re figuring out those beats for Dom and Letty?
DIESEL:I didn’t read a lot of reviews, but I heard all the reviews were good.
From the first one.
And then someone said I forgot, where was it?
New York Times or something.
And maybe I’ve kept that in the back of my head.
You will need this archetype.
This archetype will be needed for this mythology to progress."
And if you really think about it, you go through four, avenging Letty.
That brings Dom back, right?
And then when you go to five, Elsa Pataky’s character is trying to fill in for Letty.
And then you realize how much he misses his true soulmate.
JOHNSON:Best moment.
LAWRENCE:Which I mean, if we’re taking notes, I’ll take Eva Mendes back.
If we’re just like throwing in little notes in.
DIESEL:We’ll just wait for 10. you’re free to only imagine what is to come.
LAWRENCE:Oh, man.
You get me excited just talking to you about it.
Obviously, filming on a Fast One is so different from filming on an F9.
So what was it like thinking back on that, we’re talking summer 2000.
You guys are just running around LA, going to street races, having a good time.
What was that like?
We went to Mexico for MTV spring break.
Paul and I, I’ll never forget this.
We’re sitting on the floor of this airport.
Bags inside, legs stretched out.
Thousands of people walking by, walking over us, walking over our legs.
Now he’d already had some films out.
He was a little more familiar with what was to come.
And he said, “You know Vin, take all this in.
Take in the fact that all these people are just walking by us.”
And I said, “Why?”
And he said, “Because when this movie comes out, our anonymity will be gone.”
And it was so telling.
And it was surreal.
JOHNSON:He knew.
I’d just come from directing movies and writing movies.
But he had this ability to see.
Studio would be away from us.
The cast and the crew and everybody would always give us our moment.
And he’d always say, “Vin, the best one’s still in the can.”
Oh, man, you didn’t hear them, Paul?
They’re going crazy.
What do you mean the best one’s still in the can?!"
LAWRENCE:Man, the confidence that that takes, I love it.
DIESEL:Oh my God.
It was just so funny.
I’d clockwork every time.
What’s like such a 2001 thing.
That’s quite the origin story of DVD players.
DIESEL:It totally started in a different place and it started very humble.
I guess that’s something that I’m grateful for.
The spectacle came as the movies needed to start one-upping themselves.
And as the audience started to expect the unexpected.
Because you know, you’re going to go “Ooh.”
Something they don’t teach in film school.
But nobody teaches you how to create the “Ooh” feeling.
And that feeling is what Fast is.
JOHNSON:Did that first script have that moment for you?
Where you were like, “Oh, my God, this is insane”?
DIESEL:That first script did have that moment.
That first script when the car goes flips over, that was done practical.
There was no digital option.
There was no CGI option.
LAWRENCE:We’re obviously, now nine films in, two more to go.
Which is like all that I mean, that’s wild to think just regardless of anything.
But the fact is like who would have guessed that when you obviously, opted not to return originally.
And this is something we talked about.
When bloodshot was coming out, we talked about your mindset of world-building.
You’ve done it with so many different franchises, Riddick, Fast, XXX.
But what was the thought process there going back?
Which I’m thankful that it was not the case.
We could report that it’s still a classic nine movies later.
So what was that thought process just for you originally back then after the success of the first one?
And I had seen more movies get sequalized.
You just simply call it whatever the brand thing is and not evolve the story in an episodic fashion.
And of course, script is always something very important to me.
If I didn’t feel comfortable with the script, I was crazy enough to turn down offers that…
I remember turning down the offer Too Fast Too Furious.
And my father who I just said, this incredible, altruistic pure artists.
“You sure you want to do that, son?”
I thought he was going to say, “Oh, you might’t give up, I love that.
It’s amazing” He flipped obviously and said, “You surely want to…?”
But by doing that, you send a message with your actions that you have to continue with integrity.
I remember when I did the fourth woman, the roles now had reversed.
I was saying, “You know what?
And they almost kicked me off the Universal lot.
LAWRENCE:Like, “Calm down, man.
DIESEL:“Get out of here.
You are not getting us to get rid of Fast 4.”
LAWRENCE:Very important question.
How many films do you think we would have gotten if the original title of Redline had stuck?
Like 2 Red 2 Line doesn’t really have the same ring to it.
I don’t know.
What do you think?
We’d be sitting here with Redline?
DIESEL:Yeah, that’s another thing that’s around that.
It was called Redline.
And I wanted to keep Redline because I’d been thinking Redline.
And this was right before we were about to kick off the movie.
And I didn’t understand what that meant.
And I thought, “Will this movie ever come out?”
I was like, I didn’t know anything about dating movies.
And then it just grew on me.
What is going on here?”
DIESEL:Yeah, I had the big dreams when I went to Sundance.
And getting picked up and getting distributed, and mine didn’t get distributed.
Is anyone ever going to see it?”
This idea came from me because of you being in Tokyo Drift.
We’re not replacing anybody, but we’re adding.
Who are we going in the Time Machine and putting in Fast One?
DIESEL:That has never been in the franchise?
LAWRENCE:Either one.
I might have found a way.
I could have introduced something in the future.
JOHNSON:That would have been amazing.
LAWRENCE:Well, we’re not giving up on that.
We still got a few films to make that happen.
Then each episode we have what we’re calling Derek’s Embarrassing Story of the Week.
Where maybe they’re not embarrassing, but it really shows my fandom.
And usually, we just have one, but I have a few for this one.
I’m going to let you pick which is the most embarrassing Derek story of the week here.
So we’ll start.
DIESEL:That’s amazing.
That’s the best.
LAWRENCE:I don’t know, I don’t know.
Hold on, hold on.
DIESEL:All right.
I decided to take a drive over to the Toretto house.
I had always wanted to go.
DIESEL:That’s so awesome.
LAWRENCE:We got two more covered so we might still top these.
DIESEL:Okay, that was awesome.
LAWRENCE:Number three, my parents came to visit a few years ago.
And then I immediately was like Fast One, Dom, Brian, meal there.
Let’s go eat.
DIESEL:So many memories.
And that is one of my most prized possessions.
LAWRENCE:And then lastly, I’m wearing a Toretto shirt.
So that’s number four.
What’s the story there?
Whether it’s most embarrassing, whatever is your favorite of those four.
DIESEL:The most embarrassing is two Halloweens.
LAWRENCE:Who repeats a costume?
That’s fair, that’s fair.
At least space it out, I know, I deserve that.
DIESEL:That’s awesome.
By the way, Derek, they’re all wonderful stories.
And that’s why I always enjoy talking to you about this franchise because you appreciate it.
It makes it all count.
And I appreciate that.
DIESEL:Why didn’t I think of that?!
You know how many I’ve gone not knowing what to wear, not knowing what to be?
What was I thinking?
It’s right there.
It’s staring at me right in the mirror!
LAWRENCE:Wrapping up, we’ve talked around F9 a little bit.
But what would be your maybe tease when we’re finally back in theaters?
Might be the most anticipated movie of all time, at least for me.
I’m biased, but yes.
What would be your F9 tease for all the fans out there that have been patiently waiting?
DIESEL:Ah, I’ve so much good stuff.
I would say that the whole world has this excitement about this movie coming out.
But for those that have been with a franchise, it’s even more special.
I’m saying that’s cool stuff.
I’m a D&D heads-up.
That’s like origin stuff.
To see family members you never thought you would have seen is going to blow your mind.
Do you see the point?
We’ve been wanting to know, where was Dom before he became Dom.
Who was his influences?
That’s going to be really rich with story and a lot of fun to see.
No, I’d love to hear that.
Maybe we’ll get a little peek going back.
JOHNSON:Yeah, I was also thinking too, that there’s so many callbacks and other movies.
But it sounds like the best is yet to come though.
DIESEL:The best is yet to come.
You’ll be like but Paul said, “The best one is still in the can.”
DIESEL:I will always think that.
There will always be.
LAWRENCE:Yeah, no, absolutely.
So I think we’re all excited to see that bit of it too.
We always love to talk to you.
Thank you, guys, so much for having me.
I really appreciate it.
Love guys, love.
DOM: “I live my life a quarter-mile at a time.
Not the mortgage, not the store, not my team and all their bullshit.
For those 10 seconds or less, I’m free.”
But we love these movies so much that we couldn’t go without talking more about them.
To some people, that’s more important.
Well, he eventually won Dom’s respect, we have to decide now, who won our respect?
What do you say for this one, Derek?
you might pick a character, could it be Brian?
He earned Dom’s respect, did he earn our respect?
Could it be an actor in it?
I think that’s the direction I wanted to go in, which was Paul Walker.
And we’ll talk a lot about Paul Walker throughout this whole binge series.
And Paul Walker we should say, Paul Walker was definitely someone that was known.
But I don’t know that we knew he had this in him.
But I think this really changed the direction of his career.
Talking to everyone and spoiler alert for our interviews to come.
Everyone has such incredible things to say about him, but mostly just as a person.
And he wasn’t really locked in on the industry.
He had so many more interests outside of it.
We have an award coming up later that won’t go to him, but easily could have.
I felt like he earned that respect here.
And rest in peace, obviously, we can’t wait to keep talking about him throughout this series.
JOHNSON:I totally agree with that.
Two things about it.
And he pulls off both.
I want him to go on the run with Vin Diesel by the end of this movie.
He’s like, “Women wanted to be with him, guys wanted to be him.”
And obviously, that’s the thing that’s he didn’t make up that phrase.
That’s definitely been out there, you might say that about a lot of people.
But I think when I heard him say that about Paul, that spot on like, he really…
So, all the respect to Paul, winner of this category.
Next up, we’ve got, hey, this guy is in the movie.
For this one, it was Ted Levine.
It was always Ted Levine, Buffalo Bill himself.
And I just can’t, I can’t believe that he’s in this movie.
And it’s always fun to go back and realize that he was.
JOHNSON:Yeah, absolutely.
It’s like subsequent viewings of the movie later.
It’s like, “Oh, right, that is Buffalo Bill.
I don’t know that that would have fit in this one.
JOHNSON:It’s also kind of funny.
You sound like a serial killer.”
I’m going to give this young undercover cop a serial killer name.
This is how I’m going to still have that ability in the world"?
I like that theory.
DOM:“Brian Earl Spilner.
It sounds like a serial killer name.
Is that what you are?”
BRIAN:“No, man.”
LAWRENCE:Next up, Quote of the Movie.
And there’s so many options on this one.
Here’s a few nominees and then Chanelle, I’ll let you pick a winner.
We have Ja Rule.
Shout out to Ja Rule.
There’s going to be some maybe non shout-outs to Ja Rule coming up.
But in his brief appearance in this movie, he is fun.
He’s got a great quote, “It’s not how you stand by your car.
It’s how you race your car.”
You better learn that.
JOHNSON:And it’s early in the movie, too.
LAWRENCE:Yeah, it’s at that first race.
And it’s a good scene.
It’s a Paul Walker, Ja Rule, it’s a fun one.
So there you go Ja, there’s your shout-out.
EDWN:“It’s yours?”
BRIAN: “Yeah, I’m standing next to it.”
EDWIN:“That’s funny.
You’ve got to learn that.”
LAWRENCE:We have a classic.
“I live my life a quarter-mile at a time.”
Dom, what else has to be said about that one?
And then our final nominee would be both Dom and Vince.
“Vince, there was a time when I didn’t know you.”
“That was in the third grade!”
It gets me every time.
It gets me every time.
And Vince gets a bad rap, deservedly so, I’ll say it.
It’s iconic immediately you think of the franchise and everything they’ve gone through.
And I feel like he’s actually evolved from that line.
But still, it’s so important to who he is.
LAWRENCE:You couldn’t go any other way than that one.
All right, but where are they now?
But a few years ago, I tracked down Johnny Strong, who plays Leon in Fast One.
And you may be asking, “Who is Leon?
I don’t remember a Leon.”
Sadly, Jesse dies in this movie.
Thankfully, we thought Letty died, but she’s back.
JOHNSON:Yeah, same with Han.
So Jesse and Gisele, the only people who are still definitely dead that we know of.
So I said, I talked to Johnny Strong a few years ago.
you might go find that article in the archives on ew.com.
And he was a trip to talk to, he has a lot of theories.
He says they have that big final scene right before the truck jacking that goes bad.
There’s a little moment where Leon’s like, there’s a lot of hesitation.
He’s like, “Are you sure we should be doing this?”
Like it doesn’t feel right to do it without Jesse.
So once the heat became too risky, he didn’t want anything more to do with the gang.
LAWRENCE:Val Kilmer is iconic in Heat.
Everything is iconic in Heat.
But yeah, what do you think?
He had his own thoughts maybe on what Leon would be up to?
Well, I don’t know what do we think?
Did he pass away at some point?
Is he still kicking around out there?
JOHNSON:I like to think he’s still out there.
I just think he’s out there doing his thing probably living a legit life.
Maybe if he was like, all right, actually stealing things.
It’s too hot for me.
LAWRENCE:Have you been speaking to Johnny Strong because I feel like that’s what he wants.
He basically was planting the seeds.
again, and I’m like, I don’t know.
man, they’ve been bringing in Jason Statham, The Rock, Charlize Theron, and John Cena.
I don’t know if you quite got the wattage for that.
LAWRENCE:Maybe Jakob went down and tried to Leon.
I don’t know.
All right, well, stay tuned for F9.
I can’t wait to get that answer.
All right, so I said at the top, no award love has ever been given to Fast.
They have not even been nominated for an Oscar.
These films deserve some love.
I mean, I won’t say that they should be winning Oscars.
I mean, I will say that.
But each episode, we’re going to decide what Oscar nomination that specific film should have had.
And I feel like we’re on the same page here.
What do we think here for Fast One?
JOHNSON: You have to give the Best Actor nomination to Vin Diesel.
You have to do it.
And it’s the car that eventually becomes for everybody, the iconic car.
And he’s scared of this car and what happened to his dad.
And that scene is so emotional and sets up so much of who Dom really is.
And he does such a good job.
But he sells it and it’s perfect.
And it’s still golden 20 years later.
So got to be Vin Diesel.
LAWRENCE:Vin just so good in this first movie.
Obviously, his portrayal is just iconic throughout.
I would say obviously, it’s not usually even this kind of movie.
If it’s lower stakes than what’s to come.
It’s not traditionally an Oscar-throw in movie, I understand that.
But 2002 Oscars, Denzel Washington wins Best Actor for Training Day.
Written by David Ayer, both of these.
JOHNSON:Good point.
LAWRENCE:So the DNA is there, the shared DNA.
I mean, he was incredible on Training Day.
That performance still holds up.
It’s insane that it even took that long for him to get recognized as Best Actor.
But the precedent was set that that kind of movie could get you in.
Will Smith nominated for Olly.
We have Tom Wilkinson, In The Bedroom I’ll just admit never seen it.
This is the one that I take out: Sean Penn, I Am Sam.
That aged terribly from the minute it happened.
So I think we just retroactively slot Vim in that Sean Penn slot, and justice is served.
JOHNSON:I think so too.
And you make a good point about them being similar types of movies.
You could sneak one in there and give him his due.
Because he does a great job.
And I feel like in general, Vin Diesel doesn’t get enough credit for his acting.
Which plot line went by too fast?
Chanelle, what do you think?
JOHNSON:For me, it’s got to be the Johnny Tran stuff, especially in retrospect.
Because it’s not really about the rivalry with Johnny Tran.
It’s not really about anything going on with that character.
So that means we don’t get to know a lot about him.
I would love to dig into that a little more.
But that is a person I would be curious to learn more about.
LAWRENCE:Do we ever get definitive on that?
I feel like again, it was a situation where Brian’s like, “Call an ambulance.”
And then runs off.
JOHNSON:Exactly it’s a little ambiguous.
Fortunately, that’s slides Johnny Tran, over a bit.
But yeah, I feel like that there was a lot of potential.
Rick Yune, a really good actor whose done some good things.
I feel like he could have further developed that character if given the opportunity here in the film.
It’s so good.
It’s just the look, Vince and Brian just looking at each other.
I mean, the tuna sandwich, right?
I mean, we’ve got to give a shout-out to the tuna sandwich.
I mean, we know it wasn’t actually that good.
Apparently, we’ve been told that.
I don’t know, but I wouldn’t mind.
I drove over during quarantine to the Toretto shop.
And I was definitely bummed that there was no tuna sandwiches or anything like that.
JOHNSON:They have to.
LAWRENCE:Yeah, I bought a Corona, but there was no tuna.
I would have loved to have that Corona with a tuna sandwich.
JOHNSON:But it doesn’t even have to be good.
According to the movie.
We gave a shout-out to Ja Rule earlier.
Ja Rule if you’re listening.
I mean, come on if you are, c’mon.
I mean, we’ll do a special episode with you.
But, the Ja Rule mistake of the week.
Ja Rule, I said he was popping really at this time.
But I think we both landed on Vince basically sending Mia into Brian’s arms right?
JOHNSON:Yeah, absolutely.
And that was the thing that he was so pressed about.
And he ends up being the reason it happens, in a way.
Mia’s resistant even though it’s possible for you to tell she’s definitely into Brian.
JOHNSON:There’s some attraction there.
And Vince comes in, to microwave some popcorn.
And he busts Brian’s chops about helping with the dishes.
I would say bust chops is more of a friendly thing.
It’s not even that he’s just outwardly trying to make fun of him.
But then that completely backfires.
And then he gets all excited.
And says, “I think it’s cha cha cha,” or something like that.
And she’s like, “All right, Brian, so you’ll take me there?”
And then Vince charges out.
I mean, I’m sorry, Vince.
I don’t think you’re ever getting Mia, but maybe Brian wouldn’t have gotten Mia either.
So just bad move.
Even though we should point out, Vince was right in the end.
He was right about Brian, he was right to be suspicious.
So lose a point gain a point for Vince.
But he at least also gets to say that later on, when he comes back.
He’s like, “I was right, and you didn’t trust me then.”
A little bit of justice for him as well.
LAWRENCE:Yeah, we’re all about justice in this franchise, thankfully.
Wrapping up lastly, as we know, Winning’s winning.
So Chanelle, who was the ultimate winner of Fast One?
JOHNSON:I mean, we just said that Vin Diesel had to be nominated for an Oscar.
But also, just because in the movie, he’s so cool and so interesting.
So how could it be anybody else but Vin Diesel?
LAWRENCE:I mean, it’s ironic, right?
He doesn’t return obviously, for 2 Fast, which we’ll get more into next week.
But, I mean nobody has been a bigger winner out of the whole franchise, then Vin Diesel.
But no, you’re totally right here.
And I mean, he won our interview too.
I thought he was so great to talk to.
He had some incredible stories.
Such a fun interview.
Thank you to Vin.
Thank you, listeners.
That’s it for this episode.
And like Brian O’Connor, we hope you’re we earned your respect.
JOHNSON:Rate us, share the show with your friends.
Tell us what you think.
it’s possible for you to find us on Twitter @DerekJLawrence or me @ChanelleBerlin.
LAWRENCE:Also head to EW.com for complete coverage of The Fast Saga and full episode transcripts.
LAWRENCE:Thanks for listening.
And until next time, salud mi podcast familia.
