Vin Diesel Says He Used "Tough Love" To Get A Good Performance Out Of Dwayne Johnson In The 'Fast' Franchise

Vin Diesel takes the ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise seriously. Very seriously. Diesel’s love for the franchise goes so far as to put him in a position where he often talks about the ‘Fast’ franchise as if it’s “Citizen Kane.” And because of that passion and seriousness towards his car-racing, action spectacle film series (that’s really about family), he’s willing to be the leader that helps shape the rest of the cast and crew, even if that includes Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who apparently owes a lot of his acting ability to Diesel’s encouragement and guidance. (At least, that’s what Diesel says.)

READ MORE: Justin Lin Says Dwayne Johnson & Jason Statham Could Return To ‘Fast’ Films: “They’re Part Of This Family”

Speaking to Men’s Health, Vin Diesel talked about the importance of the ‘Fast & Furious’ franchise. You see, he’s not creating a silly action movie franchise with magnetic planes and cars being shot into space. No, no, no. Vin Diesel is creating an iconic film series that will resonate with generations of people not even born yet.

“So it’s not uncommon that I’ll give a speech on set where I’ll say, ‘We’re making this franchise for people that are no longer with us,’ which is very real, and the implications of that are very heavy. ‘But at the same time, we’re making the franchise for the people that aren’t born yet,’” he said. “When you have a unique perspective of creating a franchise that spans generations, you realize, okay, we all have to be as brilliant as possible. We have to reach as high as we can. Because it may be more important than just a movie. More important than two hours of escapism. There may be something more at play.”

READ MORE: Vin Diesel Says ‘Fast & Furious’ Love Story Might Be The “Biggest” In Cinema History

And because Diesel is the arbiter for all things ‘Fast & Furious,’ that means he has to put on the producer’s hat occasionally to help guide the actors and crew to help create the vision he has in his mind. So, even if you’re Dwayne Johnson, a man who has led his own fair share of successful franchise films, when you step into the world of ‘Fast & Furious,’ Diesel is there to help you become something better. (Or so he says.)

“It was a tough character to embody, the Hobbs character,” Diesel explained about the guidance he gave Johnson. “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.”

He continued, “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.”

READ MORE: ‘Fast & Furious: F9’ Is A Silly, Self-Aware & Hugely Satisfying Theme Park-Esque Ride [Review]

Of course, judging by reports about on-set friction between the two men, the “work” that Diesel put into making sure Johnson was actually a good actor in the ‘Fast’ films led to a number of disagreements. Ultimately, we saw Johnson step away from the main franchise and spinoff into his own “Hobbs & Shaw” subset of the ‘Fast’ universe.

If you want to see the brilliance of Vin Diesel, you can do so when “F9” hits theaters on June 26.