Vin Diesel Explains The Rock Beef: I Gave Him ‘Tough Love’ And Told Him To Improve His Acting

For those wondering why and how The Rock’s and his Fast & Furious co-star Vin Diesel’s beef started, the former has admitted his role building the tension.

Diesel confirmed he dished out some “tough love” to The Rock hoping to provoke a higher level of performance out of him.

“It was a tough character to embody, the Hobbs character,” Diesel said. “My approach at the time was a lot of tough love to assist in getting that performance where it needed to be. As a producer to say, ‘Okay, we’re going to take Dwayne Johnson, who’s associated with wrestling, and we’re going to force this cinematic world, audience members, to regard his character as someone that they don’t know.’”

“Hobbs hits you like a ton of bricks. That’s something that I’m proud of, that aesthetic. That took a lot of work. We had to get there and sometimes, at that time, I could give a lot of tough love. Not Felliniesque, but I would do anything I’d have to do in order to get performances in anything I’m producing.”

The implication that the The Rock needed some guidance comes off a bit rich considering before going the Fast franchise Johnson had played roles in a number of action films like “The Scorpion King” and “Walking Tall,” family movies “The Tooth Fairy”, “The Game Plan,” and dramas like “Gridiron Gang”.

Following the 2019 release of Hobbs & Shaw, Johnson thanked “Brother Vin” for his support of the film for inviting him to join the Fast and Furious family in the first place. 

“My goal was always, all these years, to come into the Fast & Furious world and help elevate the franchise in any way that I possibly could,” Johnson said.