Dwayne Johnson Says He "Laughed Hard" When He Read Vin Diesel's Feud Comments
Johnson responds to Diesel's statement about using "tough love" while making the Fast and the Furious movies.
Dwayne Johnson has responded to recent comments from his Fast & the Furious co-star Vin Diesel about their notorious feud. The two stars publicly fell out during the production of The Fate of the Furious in 2016.
Last month, Diesel suggested that he used "tough love" to help Johnson play the character Hobbs, and that's what's led to the breakdown in their relationship. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter to promote his new movie Jungle Cruise, Johnson was asked what he thought about Diesel's comments.
"I laughed and I laughed hard," he said. "I think everyone had a laugh at that. And I'll leave it at that. And that I've wished them well. I wish them well on Fast 9. And I wish them the best of luck on Fast 10 and Fast 11 and the rest of the Fast & Furious movies they do that will be without me."
Emily Blunt, who was also being interviewed about Jungle Cruise, weighed in on the issue too and delivered an amusingly sarcastic response to Diesel's comments. "Just thank God he was there," she said. "Thank God. He carried you through that."
Diesel had stated that Hobbs was a "tough character to embody," and that it "took a lot of work" to get Johnson to play him as Diesel wanted. "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," he said. "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."
The feud became public when Johnson posted to Instagram about the professionalism of the Fate of the Furious crew and his female co-stars while stating some of the men were "candy asses" who didn't act like "true professionals." It was subsequently reported that his issues were with Diesel, with Johnson later confirming that they shot very few scenes together. Nevertheless, a post that Johnson made in 2019 seemed to suggest that the pair had mended their relationship, after the success of the Fast & the Furious spin-off Hobbs and Shaw.
Jungle Cruise hits theaters and Disney+ Premium Access on July 28. Johnson also recently finished shooting the DC movie Black Adam, which will be released in July 2022.
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