Actress Brie Larson is sharing details about how her Fast X character Tess came to fruition following a dinner with Vin Diesel and his family.
The 33-year-old, who revealed this admission during the red carpet premiere of the film in Rome, Italy, expressed that over the years, she had aspirations of joining the Fast & Furious franchise, and after she received a phone call that she had landed a role an excited Larson began questioning whether she was “worthy” of the opportunity because she was unsure if she could uphold its legacy. She said,
“When the got the phone call I was like dancing I was screaming I was running I’ve been begging for years to be in these movies become I love them so much. But then I had this like quiet moment where I was like I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t know if I’m worthy of this. Can I do anything that would honor this heritage and legacy and create something meaningful and also additive this this?”
Further in the conversation, Larson opened up about meeting Vin Diesel and being invited to his house for dinner, where she met his children, Vincent Sinclair and Pauline Sinclair, who was named after Diesel’s late Fast and Furious co-star Paul Walker. During the dinner, the Captain Marvel star disclosed Diesel’s children grilled her about what she planned to bring to the franchise.
Later, Larson explained that aside from the mini-interrogation, Diesel’s son Vincent advised the star on the type of vehicles she could use. At the same time, Larson claimed that the actor’s daughter Pauline had inspired her in many ways, from her sassy attitude to the attire the 8-year-old wore that night, so much so that The Avengers: Endgame decided to base the character Tess off her. She stated,
“And I was lucky that pretty quickly it was like within a day, Vin asked me to come over for dinner and I met his kids and his kids started grilling me about what will you be bringing to the Fast franchise? It was really intense and so for real and so helpful. I mean, they helped me with everything. His son Vincent was like we gotta talk about your car, he pulled up all these tabs and was like ‘this is what you gotta do.’ And then his younger daughter Pauline, she was wearing this jacket that said ‘good vibes only’ and she was in this like, sassy mood stomping around and she’s just smart and blunt and funny and I was like okay, I’m going to base my character off of her. So that’s how Tess became who she is.”
Fast X follows Dominic Toretto and his crew as they go up against Hernan Reyes’ son following the drug’s lords untimely demise.
Fast X is set to make its theatrical debut on May 16.