Vin Diesel, who plays Dominic Toretto in the 7th chapter of the Fast and Furious franchise, says this version is unlike the earlier ones because there is an emotional connect. The dashing actor-cum-producer says shooting in Abu Dhabi was an experience in itself. Excerpts:
As a producer, presumably you had a hand in picking the director. Why JamesIJ
James Wan is somebody who has conquered a genre; he has proven you can take a horror genre and be extremely successful with it. In my mind, he’s become the new face of horror and what’s exciting about him is that he wants to do more. He was very excited about coming into this and trying to do something that’s memorable in all the right ways. There is a sensibility to his shooting style that I think was imperative for this kind of re-set chapter. I call it re-set chapter. In some ways, this is the new frontier.
How do you wrap your head around this ride that you’ve been on for yearsIJ
The first thing I do is think how blessed I am to be a part of something that has reached the kind of success that none of us ever really anticipated. And so much has happened to me in my personal life; I’ve become a father and I’d like to think that I matured a little bit. I can’t stress enough how much of an impossible task this might have felt like 15 years ago.
Each time out you have upped the ante: more cars, bigger, better action but the heart and the emotion have certainly been pumped in Fast & Furious 7. How important is that balanceIJ
My approach to filmmaking is always one of integrity, regardless of whether it’s a drama piece or whether it lives in the world of action. The idea that we could even attempt to one-up the stunts and the action sequences is fun, and it’s a rich, rich challenge. But, increasing the emotional stakes is what will set this saga apart from any other movie. The emotional heartbeat of the movie is something that everyone we know can relate to.
This one brings in a theme of vengeance in a way that has never been seen before. Dom’s had his missions, and he’s done heists. This time it’s different...
Dom Toretto specifically, is recruited, so to speak by the luke Hobbs character, to essentially fix a problem that the Hobbs world, the guys with badges, can’t fix. And we all know that Dom Toretto would never partake in that, but we also know that Dom has a heart, and the name on that heart is letty. And so this Government is able to get Dom and his team to do things that they wouldn’t normally do.
The fallout of that is the birth of new enemies, and enemies that have their own families at stake, and their own sense of loyalty to draw upon that allows them to exact this revenge on our team. It’s one of the cool things about the way that we’ve been doing this saga for the last ten years.
How dangerous is Deckard ShawIJ
It was imperative to introduce the next villain in a way that automatically affected you emotionally. For you to feel like a villain is being introduced at the same time he is taking away someone that you’ve already grown comfortable with, creates an emotional response to the villain that you can’t anticipate and you can’t make up. And that’s at the forefront of our story here.
Why do you think Jason Statham was right for the role of the villainIJ
Jason is one of those actors who keep it cool and consistent. He’s a wonderful talent to watch, period. We needed a character that represented the location we’d just lived in for two hours, which is london. Jason Statham did that. We wanted to get a formidable character, but we wanted the character’s formidability to be different than Hobbs’ formidability that we employed in 5.
And then last, but not least, I went on Facebook, and I asked the fans, ‘Who would you like to see me work withIJ Who would you like to see me incorporate, if I couldIJ’ And the top name was Jason Statham, more than the next three combined.
Did you enjoy the scenes with Jason and the extreme physicality of themIJ
I very much did. For the more physical face-offs, we had started training a month early, and before we went back down to Atlanta, we were actually training here in California. The scenes where we are intense with one another were not the most enjoyable scenes on the set, because there was a tension that was present. Thank God we’re friends and we are rooting for each other in real life because the intensity that we had to build against one another was deadly.
What’s the story with ShawIJ
There is a device called God’s Eye, which as Dom says in the movie, is a glorified tracking device, but on steroids. Kurt Russell was one of those guys in the ‘70s and ‘80s that we all enjoyed going to see in movies, and we thought was a real badass at that time. The irony is Kurt Russell was chosen not necessarily to service Fast 7, but was chosen to service Fast 8.
How was it working with Kurt RussellIJ
The chemistry with Kurt was so gratifying, and he’s so much fun to work with. Right from the beginning, you could tell that this was something he was excited about, that there was a pride that he had about being a part of the Fast saga, and there was something precious to him about creating a character that would have such a deep relationship with Dom Toretto. We spent many a night and weekend talking about character, talking about the direction, and refining and retuning. I love having somebody that’s willing to look for that little extra nuance, look for that little extra magic.
You have shot in Abu Dhabi predominantly. How was that experienceIJ
Very special! The audience now has grown to somewhat expect these new locations, and they enjoy traveling with the characters that they know so well.
What was it about Ronda Rousey that you wanted to bring to the filmIJ
I felt like we needed some kind of fun, formidable opponent for letty, because her superhero status was rising. And we wanted someone very Americana. I just love Ronda Rousey. I just think she's such an angel.
How excited are they going to be to see letty and Kara fightIJ
The audience is going to get a kick out of that. The fight that they’ve executed was so good. And by the way, Ronda was very helpful choreographing that fight.
What’s going to happen to Don and lettyIJ
I will tell you that it's an intense ride.