HOLLYWOOD -- Vin Diesel turned down more money than any other actor in history -- in excess of $20 million US -- when he refused to do the sequel to The Fast And The Furious.
At least that's what his agents said, Diesel told The Toronto Sun in an interview for his new action picture, XXX. The movie opens across North America today and is expected to become one of the summer's biggest hits.
"I don't like to be bought," Diesel said defiantly. "I have real issues with stuff like that, you know. My father (his stepdad, because his real father is out of his life) raised me as pretty much a stand-up guy."
Diesel likes to talk about his confidence, which steeled him to try to make sense of his growing stardom at age 35 and learn to say no, even with a staggering offer on the table for The Fast And The Furious 2.
"This is the kind of confidence I'm talking about, to walk away from independent wealth to do the right kind of work. Because it was more than $20 million. It was probably more than anyone has ever turned down. I don't know, but that's what the agents were telling me. It was like huge amounts of money and the back end (in which he would also get multi-millions more in a percentage of box office) would have gone through the roof! But what was I going to do?"
He said no. So did the director, Rob Cohen, and the two moved on to XXX together.
The Fast And The Furious 2 is still in the planning stages without them, and without Michelle Rodriguez, too. She told The Sun last month that she felt underused and exploited in the first movie and had no intention of wasting her time on a sequel.
As for XXX, Cohen calls it "the real sequel" to The Fast And The Furious, in terms of star power, action and intensity.
"You know what?" Diesel said, "that makes a lot of sense. It is very much the sequel to The Fast And The Furious. You almost don't need to make another film.
"I kind of wish they wouldn't do one, either. You're not supposed to do sequels to films you weren't planning to do sequels for from the beginning. When I did XXX, I knew I was creating a character that would live on. That's the idea. That is why I put every drop of blood into it."
Diesel says he is already signed for the XXX sequel. He has also committed to making a trilogy of films, The Chronicles Of Richard Riddick, as a spin-off from the sci-fi movie Pitch Black.
So, turning The Fast And The Furious into another continuing franchise would be absurd for him, he says.
"I can't do three of them! You know what I mean? I think that would be too much. I've got to be careful. The money may look good but ...
"Tom Hanks (with whom Diesel worked in Steven Spielberg's triumphant Saving Private Ryan) said the most important thing to learn in this business is how to say no."
Diesel learned and says he feels no guilt, despite the pressures from the studio system. Otherwise, he said, "then I buy into the money aspect of it and then I threaten the power that I have. And the power that I have -- or that I like to believe I have -- comes from the confidence and the dedication to the work.
"The reality is that I have enough money (and he knows more will come, much more). I'm not really worried about the money. But my artistic integrity is important."
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