As F9 prepares to rev into theaters (and outer space), the cast and crew of the original The Fast and the Furious sat down for an oral history celebrating the film’s 20th anniversary and, naturally, as these kinds of things usually do, the experience came with the kind of boast that only Vin Diesel can make. While discussing the casting of Michelle Rodriguez and the relationship between his street-racer-turned-secret-agent character Dominic Toretto and Rodriguez’s street-racer-turned-brief-villain-with-amnesia-turned-secret-agent Letty Ortiz, Diesel attempted to put the whole thing in a historical context.
“One of the biggest blessings of the franchise is my relationship with Michelle,” Diesel explained to Entertainment Weekly. “I’ve been told that the Dom-Letty love story is potentially the biggest love story that we’ve seen in cinema. After two decades, you understand that point.”
The biggest love story in cinema history? That’s one hell of a flex, and yet, par for the course for the Fast & Furious films, which has yet to meet a challenge that it can’t plow a muscle car through. As for Rodriguez becoming an integral part of the franchise, the actress admits she almost walked from the first movie when she realized the filmmakers had no idea how actual relationships on the street work. Via EW:
You don’t just get with a guy because he’s hot. There’s a hierarchy there. Can that hot guy get beat up by who you’re dating? If he can, then you don’t date him, because why would you want to lose the hierarchy? In order to keep it real, I had to school them: “I know you guys like Hollywood and all that, but if you want it to be realistic, this is how it really works, and I’m not going to be a slut in front of millions of people, so you’re going to lose me if you don’t change this.” And they figured it out.
Clearly, the filmmakers figured it out, and co-star Jordana Brewster credits Rodriguez for challenging them to get it right. “She was like, “No, I’m not playing that.’ And then she changed it completely,” Brewster said. “It went from a trophy girlfriend to this really layered character.”
(Via Entertainment Weekly)