V Exclusive: 'Fast Five' Facts Via Tyrese, Paul Walker, Ludacris, Vin Diesel
On Han’s Return and Producing
You’re gonna see the demise of Han in the next one. We’ve seen him die in Tokyo Drift but we don’t get to that place in this story until the next film. So many people thought during Tokyo Drift, that there would be no more Fast and Furious, that it was the end of that series. But [producers] came to me after they had finished filming Tokyo Drift and asked me to do a cameo but I had always turned down the Fast and Furious based on the script--it wasn't right--so the way they enticed me was they said, “Ok, for the last Fast and FuriousFast and Furious was basically my plan. They asked me what I would do if I had control so when I came on board for the last one I had thought about how the story would develop, and so I did the last movie, then you have this movie and you have a movie that follows.
This one will be a lot of fun. The last one was dealing with heavy issues. My character was in mourning and was only brought out, out of revenge because of something tragic that happened⎯a loss of love⎯and that was it. It was a love story with somebody that had already passed on…seemingly had already passed on. . .[Editor’s note: He alluded to the fact that we may see Michelle Rodriguez’s character again at some point in the franchise]. It’s like in Lord of the Rings when you thought that Gandalf was dead.
On Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
We were looking for a very formidable adversary to play the cop role so we felt that Dwayne Johnson would add that element to the film. And the idea of that character facing off against Dom is going to be an attractive and interesting pairing.
The way all the characters come together from every installment of Fast and Furious will all makes sense. It’s gonna be good. I think in 2 Fast 2 Furious, my character was all about the money. In this one, I’m not doing any action shots in this one⎯I can’t give away all the details but in this one you’ll notice that I have some other special things going on in addition to me just hustling.
The thing I notice with rapper actors is confidence. I was working with Luda on the second one and I was blown away, because he had his Afro out with the pick in it and he was all loud and had on his Dickey’s and I was like, “Wow.” He was just commanded his role, calling out to everyone and I was like this is crazy. I knew he hadn’t done a lot at that point as far as the movie game, and I said “How is it you just come out and are able to do that and he said, “I’ve been standing in front of people for years. My audience is a lot bigger than what I’m dealing with here with the crew,” so in terms of just turning it out and doing what you gotta do, I can definitely say it’s a clear cut advantage as opposed to someone that’s green and who hasn’t performed, especially in front of thousands of people. I don’t know what it is about him⎯they say certain people have an aura, the guy exudes radiance, power and confidence and he’s so convincing. He’s a dangerous man. When he says his stuff you believe it. I think he’s gonna do really well.
I think one thing that I established with my character in 2 Fast is that I had a problem with authority. I had a problem with somebody telling me what to do whether it was law enforcement, regular folks, or whoever, and so with Vin being back there’s a shift in leadership. He’s the one who comes in and says, "This is what we should be doing, this is how we should go about it," and I always have a problem with his plan so ya’ll are gonna see that. We make it fun, though. It’s not gonna be anything where it’s like, “Damn are they gonna fight?”…but maybe. I don’t’ want to give away too much but it gets aggressive.
