Vin Diesel claimed his feud with Dwayne Johnson during filming on 2017's The Fate of the Furious was about him trying to improve The Rock's acting.
Diesel touched upon his much-publicized beef with Johnson during an interview with Men's Health. Their feud came to light in Aug. 2016, after Johnson took to Instagram to criticize his unnamed male costars on The Fate of the Furious for being "candy asses" during production. It then came out he was referring to Diesel, leading to rumors it was a publicity stunt meant to set the stage for Diesel and Johnson to face off at WrestleMania 33. However, both actors later confirmed it was a legitimate conflict.
“My approach at the time was a lot of tough love to assist in getting [Johnson's] performance [in 'The Fate of the Furious'] where it needed to be," said Diesel. "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.'”
"[Johnson's character Agent Luke] Hobbs hits you like a ton of bricks," he added. "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.”
Johnson publicly ended with feud with Diesel in Sept. 2019, thanking him for supporting The Rock's 2019 spinoff film, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and sending well wishes to him and his wife for their wedding. Diesel has since hinted at Johnson's return for one or both of the final two main Fast & Furious movies following his absence in F9. Hiram Garcia, the president of Johnson's Seven Bucks Productions company, further confirmed a Hobbs & Shaw sequel is being written earlier this year.
Directed by Justin Lin, F9 stars Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, John Cena, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jordana Brewster, Sung Kang, Helen Mirren, Kurt Russell and Charlize Theron. The film arrives in theaters June 25.
Source: Men's Health