What Really Caused Vin Diesel's Feud With The Rock?
If you thought Vin Diesel's epic feud with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had been put to bed, think again. In June's issue of Men's Health, days ahead of the domestic release of "F9: The Fast Saga," Diesel, who played Dominic Toretto in the iconic series, threw not-so-subtle shade at Johnson's ability to successfully portray government bounty hunter Luke Hobbs. "It was a tough character to embody, the Hobbs character," Diesel quipped. "My approach at the time was a lot of tough love to assist in getting that performance where it needed to be."
*Tire screech* Yeah, you don't have to be a fan of the series to know another actor taking credit for another actor's work is a Hollywood faux pas. And in this case, the insult has more bite because of Diesel and Johnson's highly-publicized on-set battles, which included the latter calling Diesel — and a few select others — "candy a**es" the same week filming of the "Fast and the Furious 8" wrapped in 2016. Although The Rock didn't name anyone directly in his Instagram screed, the writing was on the DT Precision Auto Shop wall.
Somehow, Diesel managed to bury the candy-a**ed hatchet at the "F8" premiere, telling Entertainment Tonight that Johnson is his "boy." But now, it appears Diesel is revving up the feud's engines once again, and let's just say he has a lot of thoughts. Keep on reading for what else he had to say in the new interview, as well as how things got so ugly in the first place.
Vin Diesel says Dwayne Johnson's performance needed 'work'
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson joined the "Fast and Furious" franchise in 2011 for "Fast Five," first playing the foil to Vin Diesel's Dominic Toretto character and his crew. Diesel, who is one of the franchise's producers, opened up to Men's Health about what it was like to prepare Johnson for the role, and well, he didn't hold back. "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," Diesel explained to the outlet. "That's something that I'm proud of, that aesthetic. That took a lot of work."
Based on Diesel's account, Johnson seemingly played no active role in bringing the character of Luke Hobbs to life. Interesting. He continued, "We had to get there and sometimes, at that time, I could give a lot of tough love." In a not-so-surprising twist, Johnson seemingly didn't take this ahem, direction, well. In the infamous "candy a**es" post, The Rock vented (via BuzzFeed News), "When you watch this movie next April and it seems like I'm not acting in some of these scenes and my blood is legit boiling."
So has Johnson responded to Diesel's latest comments? And what has been his perspective on this beef? Fasten your seat belt because things are about to get bumpy.
The Rock has no regrets about what went down
To understand the feud between Vin Diesel and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, it's imperative we take a walk down memory lane. Rumors of discord extended outside of Diesel's involved producing, with a source telling People in 2016 that The Rock supposedly wasn't measuring up. "Vin has been having problems with The Rock because The Rock keep showing up late for production," the insider claimed. Things got even more confusing when another source accused of Diesel being the problematic one, telling Page Six that the star "acted like a diva and has held up production before." Hmm.
Either way, Johnson doesn't regret unleashing his frustration in that since-deleted Instagram post. "I was very clear with what I said. I've been in the game a long time," Johnson told the Los Angeles Times. "Would Universal [Pictures] have preferred that didn't happen? Sure, we talked about it." He added, "The irony is after that and as they do their tracking and all their analysis, the interest [in 'Fast8'] shot through the roof to a whole other level." For reference, in addition to calling out certain "candy a**es on set, he also said (via Complex), "Some conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals, while others don't. The ones that don't are too chicken sh*tt [sic] to do anything about it anyway."
Of course, it's fair to wonder how these past events — and now Diesel's new interview — will affect Johnson's future involvement with the franchise.
Is there hope for Vin Diesel and The Rock in the future?
With Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's unconfirmed appearance in "F9: The Fast Saga," fans can't help but wonder if his longtime feud with Vin Diesel was messy enough to keep the former wrestler out of the cast. Johnson told MTV News he wouldn't return for the ninth installment, citing scheduling conflicts due to his involvement in the spinoff movie, "Hobbs & Shaw."
Whether that's the truth or not is up for debate, but what is clear? There's a definitive chance The Rock might reprise his role for a future installment. "I think that's always been our approach," director Justin Lin told CinemaBlend. "So many of the conversations I have is about characters that are not even in there, but are still, obviously, they are living and breathing in this universe."
It's important to note Lin's interview happened before Diesel's chat with Men's Health, so who knows how things will pan out. But it's not like the two haven't made up before — in October 2019, for instance, The Rock had nothing but praise for Diesel. He said on Instagram, "As you know, and what a wild ride this is and has been, 10 years ago when you [Diesel] and I spoke you invited me to the Fast and Furious family. I am grateful for the invite [as my goal] was to come into the Fast and Furious world and help elevate the franchise in any way I can."