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Vin Diesel recalls Fast & Furious memories, opens up on how his character Dominic Toretto came about
Before Vin Diesel was officially cast as Dom, producer Neal H. Mortiz revealed that the studio had initially decided to cast someone else.
After more than 20 years and 8 movies later, the ninth instalment in the Fast & Furious franchise is all set to release this year. Vin Diesel recently appeared on the debut episode of Entertainment Weekly's BINGE: The Fast Saga and opened up about being a part of the historic franchise which first began in 2001. Playing Dominic Toretto, Vin has carried the F&F family on its shoulders through the years and on the podcast he looked back upon some fond memories.
Before Vin was officially cast as Dom, producer Neal H. Mortiz revealed that the studio had initially decided to cast Timothy Olyphant as Dom. Speaking about his casting, Vin said that he was not entirely convinced with the script.
He said, "No one would ever think that. Universal ended up being involved in the release of Pitch Black, the only other movie I had done of that size, and so they said, 'We got this movie that's about illegal street car racing, and we want you to play this character, who's a tough guy, outlaw, with a heart and a code.' Then they describe that scene you see in the first movie, where the camera goes through my eye and down my arm and into the engine, and that's the only thing they described. And I said, 'Yes, I'm in!' The next day I'm supposed to go the premiere in Australia for Pitch Black, and I read the script and I go.."I'm conflicted here, because this script is not what I thought it would be."
However, Vin then met screenwriter David Ayer, who had also written the 2001 street drama, Training Day, and the two further developed Vin's character Dom.
"The irony is, I felt like I had gotten what the character wanted to be in the first script, but I felt there were things conflicting with this truth — and that's where David came in. I remember him saying, 'The Dom character is so complex, I've never seen anything like it since Alonzo (Training Day).' I appreciated that he was able to see the complexities of the character... And some other characters needed some fine-tuning as well, like the Letty character. I'm just so lucky they were open to it all and that they really wanted me to feel great and confident about it. That's not the normal Hollywood story — but my Hollywood story has never been the normal Hollywood story."
Fast & Furious 9 is now slated to release in the US on June 25, 2021.
