Vin Diesel and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s feud has been one of the tastiest bit of Hollywood drama thanks to their oversized personalities and the unpredictable nature of who’s going to strike out at whom over Instagram, as massive titans do. But after years of petty squabbling and a side tiff over who gets custody of Tyrese, Diesel is making moves to play down the ego clash and chalk the whole thing up to… method acting?
In a new interview, Diesel claims that the tension between him and The Rock was simply the result of Diesel wanting the best possible performance from the wrestler and doing whatever it takes to make that happen, even if that included sparking a years-long feud before The Rock exited the main films and did a spinoff. Via Men’s Health:
“It was a tough character to embody, the Hobbs character. My approach at the time was a lot of tough love to assist in getting that performance where it needed to be. As a producer to say, Okay, we’re going to take Dwayne Johnson, who’s associated with wrestling, and we’re going to force this cinematic world, audience members, to regard his character as someone that they don’t know–Hobbs hits you like a ton of bricks. That’s something that I’m proud of, that aesthetic. That took a lot of work. We had to get there and sometimes, at that time, I could give a lot of tough love. Not Felliniesque, but I would do anything I’d have to do in order to get performances in anything I’m producing.”
Diesel’s attempt to patch over his dispute with The Rock could possibly be a sign that he could be returning for the tenth Fast and Furious film. Last week, director Justin Lin said that he had Johnson’s character on his mind while he was making F9. “On this one, when I came back, I was thinking a lot about Hobbs and Shaw, and all of the other characters,” he told CinemaBlend. “I never think of them as being gone, for sure.”
(Via Men’s Health)