The late actor Paul Walker achieved a stellar career after he starred in the Fast and Furious franchise. His stardom was cut short after a tragic car accident took his life in 2013. His last appearance in Furious 7 was made memorable during the actor’s final scene in the movie.
The fame of the car racing franchise reached a global audience, and while many loved the adrenaline-filled car chases and out-of-this-world stunts, there were others who just could not stand any of the movies. Walker has a message for these people.
Paul Walker Dismissed Fast And Furious Bashers With A Message
During an interview with Access, late actor Paul Walker once shared how he got cast to play Brian O’Conner in the Fast and Furious films. He said:
“I was working on The Skulls with basically the same team, Rob Cohen, Neal Moritz. Same studio, Universal, and Neal Moritz, the producer, approached me, and he asked me, he said, ‘Paul, what would you like to do next?’ And I told him, I said, ‘Well you know I’ve always liked the idea of playing a cop.’”
Brian O’Conner was a former officer in the Los Angeles Police Department and a former agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Walker would soon accomplish his dream of playing a cop when the producer contacted him again:
“Three months after that he came to me with this idea. He’s all, ‘Look, the backdrop is modern-day drag racing, you can play an undercover cop, you get to drive around in fast cars, and you get to make out with a hot chick. And so I was like, ‘Alright, cool. I’ll do it.’”
There began Walker’s legacy in the Fast and Furious saga. The famous car racing movie turned into a global phenomenon, spawning several installments over the years because of the strong demand from fans. Yet, a lot of people still had negative things to say. Walker addressed the issue via PasMag:
“At one point, I think the misconception was that this was just going to be a flash in the pan, that it was just a glorified ‘B’ movie. And were we? Maybe we were. Are we now? I don’t know, maybe we are. For me to be objective, I don’t even know. What I do know is that people love it. And so the naysayers, the people that want to hate — I get it man, we can’t make a movie for everybody. But we have, apparently, made a movie for the masses.”
The Fast and Furious franchise is still alive and kicking, with its recent installment, Fast X, released early this year.
RELATED: “You can’t bullsh*t me”: Paul Walker Was Scared to Do His Final Fast and Furious Movie
Paul Walker Was Hesitant To Do Another Fast And Furious Film
In another conversation with the Los Angeles Times, Paul Walker weighed in on the fame of the Fast and Furious movies. After he had starred in three installments, the producers still wanted to make more films. For Walker, it sounded like a “stale” idea because the audiences might have outgrown the genre. He reflected:
“I thought it was stale. They were talking about my involvement with the fourth one, and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? Really?’ Obviously, we made the first one that catered to pop culture and a youth-driven audience. But trends shift overnight with that audience. Nine years later, I really questioned if there was even an audience anymore.”
Two decades later, there are still fans who stuck by the franchise no matter how outrageous the storylines had been.
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