Vin Diesel speaks on former beef with ‘Fast & Furious’ co-star Dwayne Johnson: ‘That took a lot of work’

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Vin Diesel is opening up about his rocky relationship with former Fast & Furious co-star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

The F9 star, 53, spoke about working with Johnson, 49, in the hit film series with Men’s Health for the publication's July/August issue cover interview, People reports.

"It was a tough character to embody, the Hobbs character," Diesel said. "My approach at the time was a lot of tough love to assist in getting that performance where it needed to be."

The actor continued, "As a producer to say, 'Okay, we're going to take Dwayne Johnson, who's associated with wrestling, and we're going to force this cinematic world, audience members, to regard his character as someone that they don't know' - Hobbs hits you like a ton of bricks."

"That's something that I'm proud of, that aesthetic. That took a lot of work. We had to get there and sometimes, at that time, I could give a lot of tough love. Not Felliniesque, but I would do anything I'd have to do in order to get performances in anything I'm producing."

The feud between the two co-stars first surfaced in 2016 while filming “The Fate of the Furious,” the franchises eighth film, the outlet reports.

Johnson sparked the feud rumors as he took to Instagram with an angry rant about some of his male costars. "Some conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals, while others don't," he said. "The ones that don't are too chicken s— to do anything about it anyway. Candy a—es."

Johnson later spoke about their improving relationship in an interview with Rolling Stone.

"Vin and I had a few discussions, including an important face-to-face in my trailer," the former WWE star said. "And what I came to realize is that we have a fundamental difference in philosophies on how we approach moviemaking and collaborating. It took me some time, but I'm grateful for that clarity. Whether we work together again or not."
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"I wish him all the best, and I harbor no ill will there, just because of the clarity we have," Johnson continued, before cheekily adding, "Actually, you can erase that last part about 'no ill will.' We'll just keep it with the clarity."

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