HOLLYWOOD -- Vin Diesel has always thought of himself as a man of many faces.
He's ecstatic that Hollywood finally views him the same way.
In Saving Private Ryan, Diesel played an Italian-American soldier.
In the science-fiction thriller Pitch Black, his character is African American and in the commodities drama Boiler Room, the ethnicity of Diesel's character is never discussed.
Both films are now showing in Calgary.
In the contemporary drama Knockaround Guys, scheduled to open in the fall, he plays a Jewish gangster.
"I am truly multi-racial," says Diesel.
"I never knew my biological father. I've always had less information than I would have liked to have had.
"All I know from my mother is that I have connections to many different cultures."
Diesel created the award-winning short film Multi-Racial to explain his dilemma.
"That film is my tribute to my background. The man who raised me is black. Culturally, he made me who I am. He was a theatre director, so he also guided me artistically.
"When people view me, they don't necessarily see a black man. For that reason, a film like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner or Driving Miss Daisy could never work with me in it."
This ambiguity was a source of great frustration for Diesel when he was growing up, but not any longer.
"My drawback is now my biggest selling feature. Since Private Ryan, I've been feeling some heat around me as an actor and acting is the one time I am sure about my identity.
"It's very therapeutic because it's there on paper who I am."
In Boiler Room, Diesel is a hotshot illegal commodities broker in New York who is willing to sell phony stocks, but not his soul.
In Pitch Black, he's Riddick, a condemned murderer who has a chance to redeem himself when a spacecraft crashes on a deserted planet. The survivors discover that the planet was once colonized, but the inhabitants vanished mysteriously during an eclipse.
When the planet is again plunged into total eclipse, Diesel and his motley band discover the horrifying truth about why they vanished.
Pitch Black was filmed last year near a mining town in the Australian Outback.
"During the summer months, it is so hot in that town that people couldn't possibly live in regular houses. All the homes are built into the mountains, as was our hotel."
Diesel says the rooms had literally been scooped out with a steam-shovel.
"It looked like some prehistoric beast had clawed the walls -- and to make it even eerier, they were painted red.
"It certainly helped keep me in character during the night."
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