First appearing on US TV soap The Young and the Restless, Paul Walker went on to score minor roles in "Pleasantville" and "She's All That" before being cast as the lead in hot-rod thriller "The Fast and the Furious". Vin Diesel may have stolen his thunder, but the road looks wide open for Walker in the sequel, "2 Fast 2 Furious".
Some critcs and fans have said that "2 Fast 2 Furious" is better than the first film. How do you feel about that?
That's a dream scenario. More than anything I didn't want people walking out of the theatre feeling let down, but for them to go, "It's better than the first one." I wouldn't have thought that was possible. It's like hitting a home run. It's a grand slam!
John Singleton is already talking about another sequel with you and Tyrese. What are your thoughts on that?
I don't want to get ahead of ourselves here, but it's gearing up pretty strong right now. We had a lot of fun. If the fans really want a third one, then... hey. But one day at a time right now.
How much driving did you do in the film?
I got to do quite a bit. Driving around a track - doing stunts in open space - is one thing, and people think all the precautionary measures have been taken to ensure your safety during filming. And, of course, they have. But what they've forgotten, the one variable, is that there's this poor cameraman, too.
The cameraman is always there, risking life and limb. There's always got to be a camera operator pulling focus. When it's my life it's one thing, but when there's someone else's life in my hands, it makes it a bit unnerving at times. I guess you've just got to be confident and go for it.
How do you feel about being upstaged by the cars?
That's all there is! It's like, "Paul, who? Tyrese, who?" It's all about the cars! That's what the kids want to see, and this time around we had to make it bigger and better. So we brought in bigger and better and cooler cars.
Were you intimidated by Tyrese and his biceps? There's a scene where he takes his shirt off and the audience goes crazy!
He needs to do whatever he can to one-up me, so I figured if I had muscles it just wouldn't be fair to him - he wouldn't have a chance! So I let him win the muscle category! But I've told him that if we do a third one, I'm going to come back bigger. I'm going to start lifting weights. So he's going to have to pull something else out of his bag of tricks!
