Video:Michelle Rodriguez, Justin Lin - Fast and Furious Interviews
with Rebecca MurrayMichelle Rodriguez, director Justin Lin, and Cesar Garcia hit the red carpet at the world premiere of 'Fast and Furious.' The cast and director Lin chatted up their latest car-centric movie, the the fourth film of the high-octane franchise.
Transcript:Michelle Rodriguez, Justin Lin - Fast and Furious Interviews
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at the World Premiere of Fast and Furious.
Michelle Rodriguez – 'Letty' in Fast and Furious
Michelle Rodriguez: "There's a family reunion aspect to it. There's a little maturity going on, all around the board from all the characters. Also, I think the film is following this whole genre of the rebel that I think that a lot of films lately have been following very successfully. Like I like to keep mentioning, Iron Man's character – Robert Downey Jr's character in Iron Man – or The Joker character in Batman, what these things have in common is that it's this whole genre of rebelliousness that doesn't count necessarily on a system to solve their problems, and they have their own moral code. I think that these types of characters have been very successful in the box office lately so it'll be interesting to see how Vin [Diesel] does with this one."
Fast and Furious Director Justin Lin
The fourth film, the bar's set so high. How do you live up to that?Justin Lin: "Well, that's good. You want to set the bars high. And I think one of the things that was a challenge was what do we do? And it became very simple that let's make it different but we also should bring all the characters back. And that was the big first hurdle. To go in there and to say, 'Look, let's develop a script. Let's go and find out what these characters are doing now with all this time passage. And then go to the actors and say this is why you need to come back and convince them.'"
Was it a tough sell?
Justin Lin: "Yeah."
Was it really?
Justin Lin: "Yes, and it should be because I think these characters are very precious to them, you know? I wouldn't want it any other way."
How did you figure out where to go with these characters? They could have gone a lot of different ways. How did you narrow down where to put them?
Justin Lin: "Well, I think with Dom, thematically this whole franchise has always been kind of about the unconventional family. And for him, it's really about sacrifice. And for Brian, for Paul [Walker's] character, it's always about what that line between good and bad is and where he's going to lie in the end. I think with the female characters, they're vital because in a way they're the soul of the film. You know, like Letty - without Letty there is no film. And Mia is the one character that could go to either of the guy characters and basically speak her mind. And I think that's something that excited me, to know that we had specific journeys for each of these characters."
And the action came second?
Justin Lin: "Yeah. And the action is there to try to help define the characters."
Cesar Garcia – 'Juvenal' in Fast and Furious
Big action scenes in this – how much fun is that?Cesar Garcia: "It's a lot of fun. You get bruised up a little bit, your muscles are sore, but hey, you know?"
Do you really get bruised up?
Cesar Garcia: "You know what? I took a little bit of a beating. I'm not going to lie. We did. I gave Paul Walker a run for his money though."
Are you a car person?
Cesar Garcia: "Old school cars, like muscle cars, low-riders, stuff like that, yeah."
Do you have a favorite?
Cesar Garcia: "I don't have a favorite. I like them all. Anything that's fast is exciting to me."
What do you think we can expect because you were on the set?
Cesar Garcia: "A lot of action. A lot of action. That's the main thing I can say is just a really action-packed movie that keeps you on your toes. You just never know what's going to happen next."