Vin Diesel has explained how respected British thespian Helen Mirren ended up appearing in his turbulent, action-packed, nitrous-boosted car action franchise “The Fast and the Furious,” and it’s kind of a funny story.
‘Fast & Furious’ team initially didn’t want Mirren
When Helen Mirren’s casting in the eighth “Fast & Furious” Film (which is called “The Fate of the Furious,” which is, like the premise of the film, stupid) was announced, it sounded like the kind of story where the producers of a brainless big-budget thrill-ride want some genuine cred for their film, so they contact a famous and brilliant and respected actor about taking a role in it and they take the role when they hear how much they’ll be getting paid.
But that was not the case with Mirren. Apparently she approached Diesel at a party last year and actually asked to be written into the script, which had already been finalised. At the time Mirren approached him, Diesel had been refining the story with the film’s writers for months, and the final draft of the script had received the go-ahead from Universal. Diesel explains that if Mirren had asked anyone else, they would’ve had to turn her down because the script was decided on, but despite that, Diesel sat down with the writers and “a week later, she got written in.”
Mirren will play the Shaw brothers’ mother
As an elderly British woman, pretty much the only role Mirren could take in the franchise (and it fits the canon very nicely) was the mother of the Owen (Luke Evans) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) characters from the previous films.
Diesel’s character Dom Toretto is always banging on about family, but the family that’s really at the centre of the “F&F” franchise isn’t his make-believe one consisting of his friends and co-cons. It’s the Shaws.
And the introduction of Mirren as the matriarch continues the current rate of Shaw family member introductions of one per film, with Owen brought in as the villain in “Fast & Furious 6,” and Deckard arriving for revenge in “Furious 7,” and now Mirren appearing as their mother in “The Fate of the Furious.” The film’s director, F.
Gary Gray of “Straight Outta Compton,” has said that Mirren is bringing some “humour and fun” to the role, which is to be expected given how she seems to be treating the whole thing like a big p*ss-take (the only sensible way to treat a “Fast & Furious” film, really).
Mirren has confirmed that she isn’t going to be driving a single car in the latest “Fast & Furious” film, which is being released in cinemas on 14 April this year.
