Vin Diesel gave Dwayne Johnson tough love to get his performance where it needed to be when he joined the Fast & Furious franchise in the role of Luke Hobbs. The U.S Diplomatic Security Service agent has been an integral part of the action series of films since 2011's Fast Five when he pursued Dominic Toretto (Diesel), Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker), and their team as they planned a heist to steal $100 million from a corrupt businessman. Hobbs has since redeemed himself with the world’s favorite gang of former street racers turned genre-smashing superheroes. He even co-headlined a spinoff, Hobbs and Shaw, alongside Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw.
The series of nine Fast & Furious films have featured a handful of core male characters who were the focus of the action and pushed the storyline forward. Hobbs's introduction added more and challenges for ample screen time for the franchise's stars to the mix. This caused friction on and off-camera as Diesel took it upon himself to draw even more energy from an already high-intensity performance from his co-star.
In an interview for Men's Health, Diesel claimed that he used "tough love" to get the best performance from his new co-star back in 2011. It was a challenge to walk that line professionally to achieve the desired results fans saw in the finished film, something Diesel does not regret doing.
"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 approach to getting the best performance may have been considered out of the box, but it appeared to have worked. His and Johnson's fierce intensity in the way they interacted was visible in their performances. While many could argue that this type of approach might not achieve the desired effect on-screen, looking at Johnson's performances in Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, and Furious 7, it was apparent that this approach helped push the actors toward a healthy resolution in the way they collaborated, whether or not they appeared on-camera together. By the time The Fate of the Furious hit theaters, it seemed their issues came to a head once again as astute fans realized Diesel and Johnson were not in any scenes together.
The conflict between Johnson and Diesel has become part of Fast & Furious lore. Audiences cannot deny how the interplay and tension between the Alpha characters are so thick it can be cut with a knife. While the men have appeared to come to terms with their prior differences longtime viewers wonder if in the battle for screen time, their prior differences will resurface if Hobbs returns to the crew for the final two films as the action series crosses the finish line.
Source: Men's Health
