Vin Diesel

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One of my husband’s favorite actors is Vin Diesel. You put in a Vin Diesel movie and he’s transfixed until the credits roll. Below are some facts about the actor that I’ve rounded up, as well as a few of his quotes.

Vin Diesel’s mother was an astrologist AND a psychologist. His adoptive dad taught theater. I’m betting they had some pretty cool dinner table conversations.

Vin Diesel was enrolled as an English major at Hunter College, but he left for Hollywood before graduating.

He once worked as a bouncer in New York City.

Vin Diesel’s birth name is Mark Sinclair Vincent.

He’s 6 ft tall.
Has an Italian Mastiff named “Roman”.

Vin has a fraternal twin brother.

On “Late Night with Conan O’Brian” (1993), he admitted that he’s a fan of Dungeons and Dragons and played for 24 years.

He is bi-racial, being half African-American and half Italian American

Vin Diesel was actually cast in Reindeer Games (2000) with Ben Affleck. However, he left shortly after filming began because of concerns with the quality of the screenplay and “creative differences” with director John Frankenheimer.

Revolution Studios wanted him for the title role in Hellboy, but director Guillermo del Toro wanted Ron Perlman, and wouldn’t direct the movie if he wasn’t cast.

Once worked as a telemarketer, selling light bulbs.

He and his girlfriend, Paloma Jimenez, welcomed their first child, a girl, on Apirl 2nd, 2008. Her beautiful name is Hania Riley.

Vin Diesel Quotes:
“Well, I’ve worked out for years. For a long time it was my only sense of gratification.”

“I was being offered three franchises at the same time – Pitch Black, XXX, and The Fast and the Furious – and I had to choose. I couldn’t do all three.” (When asked why he didn’t do the Fast and the Furious sequel.)

“This isn’t a poster. This is a declaration of war!” (about the XXX poster and what it means for his career.)

On the planned Chronicles of Riddick trilogy: “We gave the script to the studio, I bought three leather binders. One said C1, one said C2 and one said C3. They all had locks on them and we only gave the key to C1 to the studio”.

“In the next film, Riddick is going to go to the underverse. Riddick will act with new elementals. Not air elementals [as Judi Dench's character is] but fire and water. It’ll come full circle in C3 when he must return to Furia”.

“The concept behind switching genres was to create a film that you could continue exploring. In the ending of this movie, it’s not just something that says we’re opening it up so we can tell another story, it’s very specific. A very daring ending because it’s left open-ended.” (About The Chronicles of Riddick)

“From the very very beginning, when everyone thought it was crazy, I was thinking of The Chronicles of Riddick as a trilogy. That would start with the movie you saw, and Pitch Black would act as a prequel that introduced you to the character. So in simple terms, in Chronicles 2 we venture to the Underverse. We knew we could get away with a PG-13 on the first one, but once you go to the Underverse it’s rated R, because it’s a place where war is the norm and there is constant, constant battling. Then on Chronicles 3 we will see Riddick return to Furia, to deal with the homeland.”

“If you had asked me back in grade school what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have said my first choice was an actor, but if I couldn’t be that, I’d want to be a superhero.”

“I was a bouncer for nine years – it was all I knew how to do – and my training was not to talk loosely…That’s still my thought process: Shut your mouth, watch your back and keep working till your ass falls off.