31 Unknown Facts About Vin Diesel We Bet You Never Knew Before

Vin Diesel, who rose to stardom from humble beginnings, has been in the Hollywood industry for more than half of his life. He has made a mark for himself, with movies grossing billions at box office. His “Fast & Furious” franchise is till date one of the most successful franchises in the history. Here are few interesting facts about the most famous actor, who worked as a club bouncer in his teens:

1. Diesel got the rights to produce the “Riddick” franchise from Universal Pictures, in exchange for making a cameo appearance in “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift” movie.
2. In the movie “Guardians of the Galaxy” he voiced the character of Groot in several languages including Russian, Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and French, so his real voice can be used in the different language versions of the movie.
3. In fact, he claims that he recorded the character of Groot’s iconic line, “I am Groot”, at least over one thousand times, while voicing the entire movie.
4. During the recording of Groot’s lines in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” he reportedly wore stilts, in an effort to get a sense of how large Groot actually is.
5. He had been wanting to work with Jason Statham for a while and also offered the role of Owen Shaw, the lead antagonist in “Fast & Furious 6.” However, Statham could not take the part due to his other commitments.
6. Diesel made sure that Statham has a cameo at the end of “Fast & Furious 6,” and later had him penciled as Deckard Shaw, the brother of Owen Shaw in the “Furious 7.”
7. He had been a Dungeons and Dragons player for years and his movie “The Last Witch Hunter” is said to partly based on his old Dungeons and Dragons character – Melkor, a Witch Hunter.
8. He reportedly created the character class by using third party Dungeons and Dragons books, as he loves being a Ranger type, but loves using spells too.
9. His movie “xXx: Return of Xander Cage” is the second time he opted out of reprising the role in the second entry of the franchise, in which he plays the lead, before accepting the role again.
10. The first was the 2003 movie “2 Fast 2 Furious,” the second entry in his most popular “The Fast & Furious” franchise.
11. As his character Groot in the “Guardians of Galaxy Vol. 2” communicated with just the phrase “I am Groot” in different inflections, he and James Gunn had a “Groot Version” of the script created, containing all of Groot’s lines in English.
12. Production of the “Riddick” movie was in the state of shutting down, due to a delay in financing, following which he funded the movie, until bank loan came through.
13. He loved the role of Groot from the “Guardians of the Galaxy” so much that he would go to promotions and movie premieres wearing a shirt proclaiming “I Am Groot” and the stilts he wore for the movie.
14. In the movie “Pacifier,” the scene in which Shane gets embarrassed when Lulu tells him that he is cute, was based on real life incident of Diesel on set.
15. When Morgan York met Diesel in the set, she really said that he was cute, for which he responded awkwardly with a “thank you.” The director thought it to be funny and added it to the film.
16. He started the video game company Tigon Studios in the year 2002, which is working on more next-gen games. The studio worked on the movie-based game “The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.”
17. In preparation for his titular role in “Riddick,” Vin Diesel reportedly spent four months in the woods.
18. Diesel claims that his character Groot from the “Guardians of the Galaxy” has helped him through a dark period of his life, when he lost his best friend – Paul Walker. He claimed that playing a character like Groot, who celebrates life in a special way was very nice.
19. For his role as Jackie DiNorscio in the “Find Me Guilty,” he gained over thirty pounds and reportedly spent more than two hours a day in make-up to resemble the real life DiNorscio.
20. He was cast as Toorop in the movie “Babylon A.D.” movie by 20th Century Fox, against the director Mathieu Kassovitz’s wishes. He dropped out of the lead role of “Hitman” and starred in this movie.
21. Diesel was the first choice of Revolution Studios for the titular role in the 2004 movie “Hellboy,” but director Guillermo del Toro wanted Ron Perlman to be cast and refused to direct the movie if Perlman was not cast.
22. In the movie “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” he performed the Baby Groot’s high-pitched voice on his own, and there was no digital alterations required of any kind.
23. He was cast in the role of Jackie DiNorscio in the 2006 movie “Find Me Guilty,” by the real life DiNorscia himself, after watching his performance in the 2001 movie “The Fast and the Furious,” much to his surprise.
24. He was a part of the 2000 movie “Reindeer Games” opposite Ben Affleck. However, he left shortly after the filming started, due to creative differences with director John Frankenheimer, along with concerns over the quality of Ehren Kruger’s screenplay.
25. Diesel was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Blvd. on August 26, 2013.
26. He, along with his producing partner George Zakk, owns the company One Race Productions. They also own a record label named Racetrack Records.
27. He wrote an original screenplay titled “Doormen,” as a follow-up to his directorial debut “Strays.” However, after his success in acting career, his plans to direct movies fell by.
28. He was listed as a potential nominee on the Razzie Award nominating ballots, in the year 2003 as well as 2004, for his performances in the movies “xXx,” and “A Man Apart .”
29. In the “xXx” movie, he trained for three months to ride a bike, with the world’s top motocross bikers. Before that, he had never ridden a motocross bike.
30. For the movie “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” Diesel reportedly recorded Groot’s voice for 16 foreign-language releases of the film. This was 10 more than the first movie in the franchise, for which he recorded in 6 languages.
31. Vin Diesel Net Worth: $200 Million