HOLLYWOOD’S MOST FAST & FURIOUS FRIENDSHIP!
Dame Helen Mirren and Vin Diesel are worlds apart, but have carved out a magical bond
She’s an acclaimed theatre star-turnedacademy Awardwinning dame, while he’s an action movie hero known for his petrol-soaked films, but when it comes to Helen Mirren and Vin Diesel, they’re nothing short of adoring friends.
While she’s used to playing royalty, Helen has previously confessed to “begging” Vin, a stalwart of the Fast & Furious franchise, to join in on the fun.
Never one to be shy, Helen revealed she simply went straight up to Vin at a party and asked for a role – and from there an unlikely but strong friendship blossomed!
“[I] introduced myself and shamelessly begged him to put me in one of his movies,” she quipped.
It was definitely a change of tactics for Helen, 77 – who has certainly never had to ask to be cast in a film before!
“I always [believed] they have to come to you, because if they don’t, they don’t really want you,” she confessed, insisting, “I’ve never asked for a role, even if it was a role I really wanted to play.”
SPECIAL BOND
Helen made her Fast debut in the 2017 film The Fate Of The Furious, and while the actress once managed to nab a slew of awards for playing Her Majesty in 2006’s The Queen, her role as Magdalene “Queenie” Ellmanson-shaw introduced her to a whole new generation of fans – including a very fond Vin.
Insiders reveal that Helen and Vin have struck up a “very special” friendship due to the close working relationship. “On the surface, they’re very different, but he gets her, and she really loves his company,” says the source.
“Chemistry is inexplicable
– it just is. You put two people together you think – and movies constantly make this mistake – oh, the chemistry’s going to be fantastic! And then it’s disastrous,” muses Helen, adding “even very interesting people, people who have great chemistry off screen to the extent of maybe, cough, excuse me, even having an affair or marrying each other, on screen have no chemistry whatsoever. Whereas the most random people just have chemistry. And I adored Vin from the moment I met him.”
DINNER FOR TWO
Last week, Vin, who is currently filming the Fast franchise’s 10th instalment, Fast X, in Rome, put his electric chemistry with Helen on public display while celebrating his 55th birthday in Italy’s capital.
The two actors were spotted at celebrity haunt Antica Pesa with an onlooker telling New York’s Page Six that Vin looked very sharp in a blazer – before he took it off to reveal a tank top.
“Fitting for the scorching temps,” joked the spy. “[They] sat in the restaurant’s garden and sipped on red wine with Helen switching over to prosecco for the birthday moment,” the insider adds, revealing Vin was surprised with his favourite cake – Victoria sponge – to celebrate his big day.
“They were having an amazing time – it seems they’ve become good friends throughout filming. As they sang him Happy Birthday, he changed the lyrics to ‘Happy birthday, dear Helen,’ because her birthday is July 26.”
While the details of Fast X’s plot are still under wraps as the pair continue to film, new images reveal Queenie and Vin’s Domenic are very close.
As for the actor’s feelings, Vin says his co-star has a “charisma that is timeless”.
“She has looks to kill and always has,” he confessed about Helen, who this year celebrated 25 years of marriage to director husband Taylor Hackford, 77.
“I think the thing that’s most attractive about Dame Helen Mirren is the way she makes you feel. She always makes you feel appreciated and loved. And for that I love her forever.”