It’s hard out there being Vin Diesel. Prestige lead roles and industry respect go to girly men like Leonardo DiCaprio. Meanwhile Vin is relegated to co-starring in a six-going-on-seven-with-no-signs-of-slowing-down franchise that’s grossed billions of dollars and has consumed who knows how much human growth hormone on set. What's a serious actor such as Vin Diesel to do?
Vin vents his frustrations to Men’s Fitness:
"Hollywood is more concerned about its male actors being in shape than its female actors," he continues.
"Being a physical presence will rule you out of a lot of roles," Diesel tells the mag. "I couldn’t have done [a movie like] ’Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ with that physical presence. But I like it as part of me; it’s part of what I represent, and I think if Humphrey Bogart were around today he’d be a lot bigger."
Vin is spot on with his armchair studio head analysis. Director Ben Younger in "Boiler Room" is the only director ambitious enough to put a suit over Vin’s pythons and let his face act, not his deltoids.
Proof of a great scene is its educational value. And as a salesman in a past life, I was forced to study Vin’s charisma and gumption and integrate it into my sales technique.
Look at countless yoked and/or juiced actors who’ve had to relinquish their guns for the sake of a job.
50 Cent in "All Things Falls Apart":
Christian Bale in "The Machinist":
Tom Hanks in "Cast Away":
All these leading men have deprived their bodies of protein and the bench press for the sake of a serious movie role. "Cast Away" would be leagues better if we could have listened to Vin’s buttery voice croon to Wilson for nearly three hours.
Serious thespians like Vin and his Fast Six co-star Dwanye "The Rock" Johnson are paid to log hours upon hours getting ripped. Tell me why Vin couldn’t have been cast as a well-fed Thaddeus Stevens in "Lincoln"?
How more dashing Bogart would have been if he'd used 13-inch forearms to sweep Hepburn off her feet?
