Movies - TV
The Director Of XXX Had To Rein In Vin Diesel's Reckless Stunts
By MATTHEW BILODEAU
During promotions for "xXx," Vin Diesel and director Rob Cohen talked about how they got into disagreements over the stunts that Diesel would attempt to do himself. Diesel would try to push himself further, while Cohen tried to stop him out of fear for his safety, and it came to a head in a scene shot in Austria.
In the scene, Diesel’s Xander Cage is snowboarding while being chased by thugs on snowmobiles and a CG avalanche. Even after countless warnings from Cohen about how they had stuntmen who could do the more dangerous stunts, the director said that Diesel kept “want[ing] to do higher and higher jumps.”
In one particular stunt, Cohen thought that Diesel might’ve badly injured himself explaining, “[H]e took one big jump for the rail slide on the halfway house with the avalanche chasing him, and he came off the other side and planted his head, like, vertically into the snow. And he was, like, not moving.” Cohen worried that the actor had broken his neck or scratched his face, but Diesel was fortunately fine.