Just taking a look at Vin Diesel he’s not exactly the kind of guy you might expect to see behind a camera, but according to Jon Fuge of MovieWeb it sounds as though Steven Spielberg, one of the greatest in the business, had him pegged for such a position quite some time ago. Again it’s a little tough to see Vin in the director’s seat since despite the fact that he’s been there a couple of times his movies not only failed to impress a lot of critics, but he’s been the type that has dominated the action scene for a while now and as such it’s difficult to imagine that he’d want to step away from that kind of fame for even a moment. But upon sitting back and thinking about it one can at least admit that since Vin has been rocking it for so long it might eventually be time for a change of pace. Think back to movies like Pitch Black, Riddick, and the Fast and Furious franchise, and you’ll note that the guy has a legacy already built that won’t be going away anytime soon. Movies such as The Last Witch Hunter didn’t exactly win him that much acclaim even if there are rumors of a sequel, but with Bloodshot having come out recently and Fast and Furious 9’s release being postponed until next year, it might be time for him to start eyeing that director’s chair for the coming future, if only to prove Spielberg right, and possibly to give himself another option within the business as he’s not getting any younger.
It might not be fair but it is realistic to say that figures such as Vin Diesel do get stereotyped in a big way since they appear as big, hulking figures on screen and are believed to be all muscle and no brain, meaning that some folks might think that he’s mentally inept and couldn’t possibly direct a movie. Again, as I mentioned he has done it before, twice in fact, but being the big, brutish individual in a movie does tend to make a lot of people think that any intelligence he displays is an act and not to be taken seriously. Thankfully Vin is a pretty smart guy as he is college-educated and has been in show business, off and on, since he was 7 years old. He’s also been into screenwriting for a while and has shown an aptitude for the business that a lot of people don’t tend to see since they look at his characters and little else. Joey Eschrich of Slate has a few other interesting tidbits about Vin you might want to read.
How a person looks at any given actor depends on and is defined by their attitudes towards them. When it comes to Vin Diesel a lot of people might have started watching him when he started becoming a big name on the big screen. Pitch Black was definitely one of his better movies back in the day, though despite being in the business for a while a lot of people still didn’t know who he was. Once the tale of Riddick started taking off he became a much hotter commodity, and upon the emergence of the Fast and Furious movies his career was in full swing and he was quickly becoming a household name that very few people didn’t know about. Since then his fame has kind of gone up and down, but has remained moderate at its lowest as enough people still have a lot of faith in him that even a bad movie here and there isn’t enough to really send him plummeting into obscurity. As of right now he’s one of those within the Hollywood elite that’s virtually untouchable since he’s helped to create a franchise that makes money hand over fist, and there are plenty of plans to include him in movies in the future that will keep him in the public eye and maintain his popularity with the people in a big way, thereby making it nearly impossible to unseat him unless something completely untoward comes along. In other words, Vin’s not going anywhere at this time, and his time as a director is almost assured at some point. When he’ll take the time to sit down and flex those particular muscles is hard to say since there’s so much yet to be done in his current career.
Quite often actors will progress throughout their career from being in front of the camera to doing something else within the industry that allows them to stick around but might not be quite as demanding. Trey Taylor of Dazed has more on this subject. In this instance though Vin will be going from being an actor to being a director, which is essentially MORE demanding, or at least it sounds that way, since the director is the person catching a lot of the blame if things go badly. Of course they get lauded if things work out perfectly too so it could work out in his favor.
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