Universal's Boys of Summer Talk About Being "Fast and Furious"
In Universal Pictures' "The Fast and The Furious," actors Paul Walker and Vin Diesel seem to have the perfect looks for two people cast as men from different sides of the tracks. Walker, born in Glendale and a native of the San Fernando Valley, has the California surfer look down to a tee. His clique of friends are Hollywood heartthrobs like himself, despite the fact this California boy imagined growing up to become a marine biologist. Meanwhile, Diesel has more muscle than a WWF wrestler, and it's this look that is helping him become one of the newest action-heroes to hit the Hollywood scene. A native of New York, Diesel spent his nights working as a bouncer at a nearby bar while he waited for his big break. One would think, judging off their looks alone, that these two were born for the roles they play in "The Fast and the Furious." However, looks can be deceiving.
"I was brought up around cars," Walker states. "My grandfather actually raced factory cars for Ford. He had the first 160 mile an hour plus Ford Falcon and this was like in the late 1960s. He owned a transmission shop in the Valley so I grew up wrenching cars and the whole bit."
"I'm not that car orientated," Diesel says. "I couldn't build an engine. I grew up in New York City, so I guess I am more familiar with subways."
That's right, pretty boy Paul Walker is a car fanatic while action star Vin Diesel is a novice. As if that isn't shocking enough, these two's experiences on the set of "The Fast and the Furious" were completely the opposite of what one would imagine.
The two stars of the film, as well as the rest of the cast, took part in mandatory driving lessons in Las Vegas to learn the specifics of streetcar racing. Under the direction of numerous streetcar racers and two technical advisors-- including Craig Lieberman, the president of NIRA (National Import Racing Association)-- Walker and Diesel learned the basics of racing import cars for the shoot. However, Walker, who has been exposed to imported cars since high school, quickly took a liking to the idea of racing cars outside a location shoot and traded his own Porsche in for a Nissan Skyline.
"I was first exposed to this import car scene I'd say my junior maybe senior year," Walker says. "The car races were big, just like you see them in the movie. We'd run out Wednesday nights and meet in the San Fernando Valley and at that time it was really dominated by the Mustangs, the 5.0s, because they were just easy to tune. The imports were just really beginning to rise up. I never gave them the time of day, but working on this movie I got a chance to drive a couple of them. I actually drove a Nissan Skyline, which you can only get in Japan, and I just had to have one. So I got one."
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