Cheer for the petitions. Inform the lobbyists. When the 10th “Fast and Furious” movie is made, I’ll have a suggestion that really demands more: Vin Diesel and Helen Mirren have to kiss.
This was my main takeaway from watching the latest installment, “F9,” in which 75 year old Mirren and 53 year old Diesel share a chase and show more sizzling chemistry than any other duo in the movie. She flirts with him, he beams at her, and Diesel’s obvious delight in having Oscar-winning Mirren as a scene partner is just delicious. At the end of the sequence, as her Queenie Diesels Dom Toretto was driving through the streets of London, I couldn’t help but hope that she would lean over and knock our hero.
And why not? In the previous “Fast” movie, Diesel kissed another Oscar winner, Charlize Theron. Imagine the hickey that could be developed if even more Best Actress winners were persuaded to join the franchise: After Mirren, we might romanticize Diesel with Frances McDormand! (Of course, Diesel’s serial star Michelle Rodriguez would issue a hall pass for this.)
Sometimes you have to be the change you want to see in the world, which is why I video chat with Mirren this month to direct this character linkage to her. Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.
Your scene with Vin is the best in the movie and it’s clear that he loves you. Still, I have a note: There should have been a kiss, don’t you think?
A very chaste kiss would be nice, yes.
Listen, I’ll be content with that. Perhaps part of the thrill of this pairing is that it’s so rare to see Vin Diesel in someone else’s passenger seat.
This is true. What an honor to drive and very intimidating too. Vin doesn’t make it intimidating – he was so simple and lovable – but the technology of this type of filming is very complex, and I don’t know this world at all. It was certainly a great help to have a good friend sitting next to me. And just to hear that voice!
Tell me about it.
I mean, Vin has the most incredible voice. I get a little sticky when I hear it. That velvety brown rumble in your ear is so fabulous to experience for a full day or two. It’s like hearing the incredibly well-oiled engine.
You’ve always had good screen chemistry with bald action stars – Vin, Jason Statham (especially in “Hobbs & Shaw”), Bruce Willis (“Red” and other films). Is there something about you that just goes well with this stoic action hero guy?
There could be! First of all, I approach these things with great respect for these guys because what they do is very different from anything I’ve done in my career. Her dedication and deep knowledge of how these films work is very impressive. I always feel that I can learn from them. Maybe it’s the fact that I really have a lot of respect that makes it work, but I think it’s great.
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Even so, the mood you have with Vin is a bit higher.
I think it is that we are so opposite on almost every level. But at the same time there is a great mutual respect that goes both ways. I also met Vin’s mother, who is very nice, and I think there’s something there too: he’s very, very close to his mother and obviously loves her. She is lovely, very sweet and gentle. Not like Vin, but he loves her very much!
And your character seems to love Vins, or at least have some affection for him. I think of your last line to him when he got out of your car: “Don’t get killed, OK? You are my favorite American. “
He’s not my favorite American, Vin. My favorite American is my husband Taylor Hackford. My next favorite Americans are my stepsons. But after that comes Vin.
This is your third film in the franchise after “The Fate of the Furious” and “Hobbs and Shaw,” but it is the first to put you in a real chase. What was the stop?
Oh my god, that’s why I really wanted to go to the cinema! In reality, they wrote beautiful scenes for me, and I was primarily part of the making of the character – I wanted her to be called Queenie and come from that kind of East End family I know a little about – but I wanted her to mostly sitting behind the wheel of a car, and of course that wasn’t the case in two of the films. Somehow they did it for this movie, which was fantastic.
Did you stand up for this scene every time they brought you back?
I take it as it comes. And I moan a little and moan and sniff, and it works.
And you actually had to shoot the sequence in London, didn’t you?
To be out and about on the real streets of London, my hometown, was extraordinary for me. Seeing Vin in this context was surreal: the elegance and familiarity of London and Vin there were very contradicting! But I was thrilled that the sequence was taking place in the heart of London and I couldn’t believe the mall to the Palace was closing. I’m sure the queen must have been outside with the binoculars, don’t you think how she observed everything from the top bedroom window: “Oh my god, what are they doing there?”
Or say: “Mirren again?”
“Mirren again, really? Will this woman ever leave me alone? “
How long did filming take?
Three or four days that I was involved, and then of course all the brilliant stunt driving that is obviously done by experienced drivers. By the way, I’m a big proponent of stunt people getting an Oscar. I think there should be a category for that because stunt people’s contribution to so many films these days is so huge and extraordinary.
Your film family has gotten pretty sprawling on this series, with Jason Statham, Luke Evans, and Vanessa Kirby all playing your children. Have you ever thought about who your ex-husband might be?
I don’t know if I can say that, but apparently Vin got the idea with Michael Caine. I mean, wouldn’t that be awesome? That would be just so cool and absolutely perfect. So we’ll see.
Let’s then swap that out into the ether. And while we do that, let me get back to my first request: if a chaste kiss can be arranged in the next film, would you be open to it?
With Vin? Oh my god, of course I would! But only if he talks to me before and after, because it’s the voice I’m honest with.
