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However, when Walker and his acting
PAUL WALKER ON SLIPPING INTO THE DRIVER’S SEAT
FOR 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS, AND HOW HIS LIFE HAS
CHANGED IN THE PAST TWO YEARS | BY EARL DITTMAN
Even before The Fast and the
Furious raked in a stunning
$40-million during its opening
weekend in June 2001 (it
would eventually ring up an
impressive $145-million in total boxoffice
receipts), Paul Walker, the film’s
unassuming young co-star, had a feeling
he was at the centre of something big.
“It’s not like I’m psychic or anything,
I witnessed the excitement over it
myself,” the 30-year-old explains, nibbling
on the remnants of a vegetable
plate that serves as his lunch on this
warm Hollywood afternoon. “I’m my
own toughest critic, so when I’m in a
movie I usually take my two best friends,
Scott Caan [Gone in Sixty Seconds] and
Erik MacArthur [Pleasantville], with me
and tell them, ‘Let me know what you
think about the movie and my performance
in it — and be honest!’ I really
value their opinions because they’re
actors too, and they’re almost rude in
their honesty. They don’t hold anything
back, which I think is cool — and scary.”
famous 28 | june 2003
pals strolled into an L.A. multiplex to
catch a nearly sold-out afternoon performance
of The Fast and the Furious on
its opening day, it was clear to Walker
that the super-charged drama about
L.A.’s underground world of illegal
street racing was going to take off.
Genuinely shocked at the cheers from
the audience as the film’s end credits
rolled, Walker slowly turned to his buddies
to ask for their collective critique.
“Both of them were like, ‘Dude, we
thought it was going to be some dumb
car movie, but that was pretty dope,’”
Walker recalls, propping his boots on
an expensive coffee table in his lavish
Four Seasons hotel suite. “Watching
how excited the audience was, they
both looked at me with these strange