I’ve always loved movies about subcultures and I knew Paul really loved car racing.
I wanted to do something either about racing cars or [where] I was an undercover cop.
Three months later, they came with an article.
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WALKER: I’m signing on without a screenplay.
My reps are freaking out.
Honestly, that’s all it was to me at that stage of my life.
Bob Marshak/Universal Pictures
I was 25, 26 years old?
F—, let’s go do it!
WALKER: Rob was like, “Did you see this movieStrays?”
Bob Marshak/Universal Pictures
Hadn’t even heard of it.
“Did you seeSaving Private Ryan?
You know the bald guy?
Bob Marshak/Universal Pictures
His name’s Vin Diesel.”
That image made me go, “That’s insane I’m all in.”
And then I read the script and was like, “Eh, I don’t know.”
Bob Marshak/Universal Pictures
And then she changed it completely.
It went from a trophy girlfriend to this really layered character.
You don’t just get with a guy because he’s hot.
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There’s a hierarchy there.
Can that hot guy get beat up by who you’re dating?
And they figured it out.
Bob Marshak/Universal Pictures
If you don’t, then are you just there to model?
That doesn’t work where I come from.
So I fought for that and then I remember hitting the guy in the face by mistake!
Bob Marshak/Universal Pictures
[Laughs] It was so messed up.
I did the same thing inGirlfightandAvatar.
I didn’t mean to, I’m just really bad at it.
David was really able to lend credibility and a voice of these young people in this world.
It was set in New York and basically all white people.
I grew up in."
I was the only white guy in my neighborhood, so that’s what I know.
And California has always been ground zero of car culture.
You go down to the hood and dudes are still dropping $20,000 on quarter-mile races.
I felt validated and heard.
AYER: I sat down with Vin and really created that character with him.
It’s an honor to help an actor create and achieve a vision.
DIESEL: Because he owned a Cuban bodega, I made a trip to Cuba to understand the character.
I had an idea of who he was.
It was just an honor and a code he had.
MORITZ: There’s nobody else that could have been Dominic Toretto.
There would be noFast & Furiouswithout Vin in that role.
I’m like, “Oh my God, you’re an actor now?!”
She was like, “What are you thinking?!”
I’m like, “Okay, of course.”
I’m so glad I listened, because the part finds you a lot of the time.
BREWSTER: I loved Mia.
But he was like, “You’re very patrician sounding, you oughta get grounded.
I was like, “[Exhale] Okay, how am I going to do that?”
My agent was like, “This is you!”
Unfortunately my friends bring that up quite a bit.
Nobody knew what it was going to turn into.
If they say they did, they’re lying.
BREWSTER: I had no clue.
I didn’t understand the subculture, it was about cars, I wasn’t into cars.
It was going to be calledRedline.
MORITZ: We had gone through many titles:Redline,Racer X,Race Wars,Street Wars.
They were all cheesy.
I thought, “That’s the title of this movie!”
And there was just silence on the other end.
I was like, “Oh, I guess that is the worst title he’s ever heard.”
So we made a deal with Roger to give him the use of some stock footage that Universal owned.
And we were all like, “What are you talking about?”
[Laughs] Not everybody was feeling it right away, because we just lovedRedline.
Back then, it was kind of like, this could be really cool but who knows?
So the pressure was off.
I’m from New York City and cops don’t usually come by helicopter.
So Paul and I are running down the highway together.
It was the beginning of a brotherhood.
MORITZ: We caught lightning in a bottle with their chemistry.
That was really the heart of the movie.
We were meant to be brothers.
He was like, “How could she be so green?”
DIESEL: One of the biggest blessings of the franchise is my relationship with Michelle.
After two decades, you understand that point.
RODRIGUEZ:Eventually I learned how to act too!
It was pretty sick.
We rented these people’s cars that they picked and then recreated the cars over again for stunts.
We went and found the same model and then we duplicated their paint jobs.
You could have 10 of the same car.
The Skylines were hard to get because they weren’t legal over here.
BREWSTER: I was so intimidated.
GUGLIEMI: It was one of the coolest sets to ever be on.
It was like getting paid to party.
They were like, “Hell yeah!”
RODRIGUEZ: We had so much fun it was unheard of.
I remember thinking, “Yeah, this is exactly what I want to do for a living.”
LINDBERG: The great thing was nobody was famous yet.
A couple of us had done a few things, but we were all so fresh.
It was just a pure time.
BREWSTER: I do remember being impressed that Ja Rule was in the movie.
1 and would make more than $200 million worldwide, tapping into a previously underserved audience.
I said, “Mom, no one is ever going to see this film.”
I thought, “We’re dead.”
RODRIGUEZ: Back in those days theRambos andDie Hards of the world were starting to be considered cheesy.
Your superhero macho man was going to be replaced by Orlando Bloom.
We’ve gone back for every movie since.
[Laughs] And he was like, “No, no, it’s a great thing.”
WALKER: I’d doneVarsity BluesandShe’s All ThatandThe Skulls.
All the movies had done well, butmodesthits.
Nothing like what we saw with the firstFast.
And this Vin Diesel, he’s big and badass-looking, guys will identify with him for sure.”
BREWSTER: I was out on Long Island for the summer and saw the name on this marquee.
I just was like, “Huh I guess it could be big?”
LI: It was really awkward for me to watch.
I’m an east coast journalist in hard news and this wasn’t that.
It was like an alien world to me.
[Laughs] And I said nothing!
I said no comment and kept walking…
It was really thrilling, exciting, and frightening at the same time.
I started getting mauled wherever I went.
AYER: There were all these articles: “Holy cow, there’s a Latino audience!
Who knew?!”
Like, c’mon, man.
The opportunity for kids to see people on screen that look like them can be life-changing.
MORITZ:Today they would say, “They cast it to get diversity.”
No, we cast it to be like what the world was.
WALKER: Everyone felt like they were being represented.
We had the Asian guys, the Latino club.
We had Vin: What is he?
DIESEL: One of the things that was so attractive to me about it was that multi-cultural component.
It showed no prejudice.
Everybody had the one love of cars.
It can transcend a lot of the division and issues that we have.
WALKER: F—, who doesn’t love cars?!
Diesel, Walker, Rodriguez, and Brewster eventually reunited for a fourthFastfilm in 2009, revitalizing the franchise.
DIESEL: The irony is, I asked Universal to not make a sequel.
I felt they would compromise the ability for it to be a classic.
At that point it wasn’t that it needed to be one or the other.
Taking a pause is necessary when you want to really think about where you want to take something.
BREWSTER:I was so upset.
With [2 Fast], I was like, “Huh?
Why are they switching it up completely?”
But you’re free to’t do much.
You feel likeFast & Furiousis your baby, so it’s hard.
LINDBERG: Of course Jesse died and then they make nine sequels!
LI: I try not to think about how I didn’t get points on the back end.
I’ve spent my entire life explaining how writers don’t always get massive pay days from Hollywood.
STRONG: I’ve only seen the first film.
DIESEL: It totally started in a different place.
The spectacle came as the movies needed to start one-upping themselves.
LINDBERG: Yeah, it gets fantastical, but that’s why we love them.
There’s been lots of lulls in-between.
BREWSTER: We’ve endured a lot together.
This is my home.
To know I would play Mia for 20 years, that would have blown me away.
For whatever reason, we’re still cool a decade later.
I can’t imagine not being a part of that movie and the blessings that came with that.
I’m forever grateful for it.
GUGLIEMI: I’m starting to think Hector’s my real name.
I was about to go to the DMV and change my license.
WALKER: People grew up on our characters, and now they’re taking their kids.
It used to be the demo was 15 to 25, you know?
Now it’s like 12 to 45!
I’m like, what the hell happened?
That is what’s special aboutThe Fast and the Furious.
He was 40 years old, and left behind a daughter, Meadow.
STRONG: I didn’t know who Paul was.
I remember Paul picking up the check at the end and saying, “This is my treat.
I want to take you guys out and I’m really excited to do the movie.”
As a character trait, I thought that was a really cool thing.
GUGLIEMI: Paul Walker, nicest, humblest, most gracious guy ever.
Even though he’s the most gorgeous looking guy you’ll ever imagine, he just had a relatability.
Women wanted to be with him, guys wanted to be him.
He just had that thing.
RODRIGUEZ: I was so surprised that Paul had a beautiful baby girl.
That I remember being really, really shocked by.
I was like, “Wow, he’s a dad and he’s so young!”
I couldn’t get over it.
I also was blown away by how sweet he was with his daughter.
And I watched that little girl grow up so wild.
LINDBERG: What I remember most about filming [on the firstFast] was Race Wars.
He was just the coolest dude and most amazing spirit you’ve ever met in your life.
He would do that to contribute to our legitimacy.
GUGLIEMI: I got the call forFurious 7, and I was truly excited and really surprised.
I was like, “Are you sure you got the right number?”
But to be a part of that last film with him, that was an honor to me.
They needed the closure with Paul, just like we did.
DIESEL: He had this ability to see.
I’d be like, “You didn’t hear them, Paul?!
They’re going crazy!
What do you mean the best one’s still in the can?!”
It can’t be replicated because I loved him so much and he loved me.
I fell harder for Paul as he got older.
I thought he got better- and better-looking.
And I think a lot of people didn’t appreciate how multidimensional he was until he passed.
He was into so many things and just a supersmart dude who wasn’t solely fixated on the business.
When I look back at his work, I don’t get sad.
I thought I would, but it’s actually really nice to see him.
