I frequently criticize the screenplays because of it, but at the back of my head, always wondered if stars like Vin Diesel were messing around with the scripts and pushing directors around. That has always been the rumour. But is there truth to it? According to a new report by The Wall Street Journal, the answer is a resounding yes. WSJ went behind the scenes of the Fast & Furious franchise and examined the demands of their popular male leads, specifically focussing on Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham. Just how far these stars go to, to prevent looking weak on-screen may come as a shock to many. For starters, Vin Diesel was so particular about who would land more punches in a fight, that he worked out a system that — get ready to be mindblown — attached a numerical value to each move in a fight so that he could make sure that Dominic Toretto never lost. Think about it, Vin Diesel sat in his room with a pen and paper and wrote nonsense like ‘punch to the gut: 2 points’, ‘kick in the face: 5 points’ just so that he can watch his scene, tabulate the points and made sure he didn’t lose. This was so silly that the plan was “eventually abandoned once everyone decided it was too complicated,” says WSJ. But it isn’t just Vin Diesel who’s egoistic. WSJ said:
I love how the report mentions each of their ages. This way we know, without a shadow of a doubt that these are in fact old men acting like high schoolers in a playground. According to a postproduction crew member, one of the scenes in The Fate of the Furious required Luke Hobbs to lie on the ground at Dominic Toretto’s feet, but Dwayne Johnson wasn’t up for it. Instead, he insisted that his character should at least be sitting up. I wonder if this was the case with The Rock’s first appearance in the franchise (Fast Five) as well? There, Luke Hobbs doesn’t just get his ass beaten by Dominic Toretto, he also gets outplayed by Toretto’s crew during the climactic chase sequence. Scenes like this are some of the reasons why Fast Five is so beloved. WSJ also mentioned:
On top of that, Jason Statham would repeatedly make trips to the editing room to weigh in on fight scenes. If you’re wondering about the women, WSJ reports that the women frankly didn’t care about scorekeeping even when it came to brawls between Michelle Rodriguez and Ronda Rousey. (Ronda Rousey, mind you, is an actual UFC superstar that could likely beat up The Rock, Vin Diesel and Jason Statham in real life.) This whole ego flex nonsense is rather silly and is frankly causing the franchise to be less and less engaging with each passing movie. Even in the John Wick franchise, where Keanu Reeves plays a highly-skilled assassin often gets beaten up and bloodied. Remember when Batman’s back got broken in half by Bane in The Dark Knight Rises? Or when a tiny red ball took out Thor in Ragnarok?
