
First of all, I’d like to apologize that we didn’t have a Hot Guy Friday this week. Both Kaiser and I are burnt out doing it every week, and while it is a nice stress reliever on one side, on the other it takes hours to do that post. You’d be surprised how much effort it is, and Kaiser does the bulk of it and doesn’t complain. This was basically my idea after the Royal Wedding last Friday and the insanity that was the Met Gala earlier this week. We’re bringing it back next Friday and HGF will be on an every-other-Friday schedule from then on, just to give ourselves a break. Plus we were running out of guys to do every week. Anyway check out the archives for HGF, they go back a few months and they should help you get this image of Vin Diesel’s robot arms out of your head. In no way am I suggesting this guy as a substitute for HGF, unless you’re into that, and in that case bless you.
So here’s Vin Diesel in all his bald-headed roided glory on the cover of Men’s Fitness. I’ll admit this made me bust out laughing. It’s the look on his face, which is supposed to be serious and kick-ass but just falls flat. Unlike Vin’s costar The Rock, he doesn’t make a bald head sexy and his muscles make him look more like some kind of centaur. Like don’t you expect to scroll down and see that no-neck torso attached to a non-human body?
Inside, Diesel talk about how he used to work as a bouncer in New York and how he first got super fit because “you have to decide at a young age whether you’re going to be predator or prey.” Unlike past Men’s Fitness cover boys, he doesn’t have a specific program he touts but just says he loves to mountain bike and that he switches up his routine to fit whatever character he’s playing. Here are some quotes from his interview:
On being predator or prey
“When you grow up in New York City, you have to decide at a young age whether you’re going to be predator or prey,” he says. “Especially growing up at that time in the city, especially being a little homeboy, especially when you were trying to f*#@ every girl int he city.”
On being a bouncer in his late teens and twenties
“I learned so much in bouncing that I bring to these characters. You have to be able to read people. Speak with a New York City cop, and they talk about having to read people. Bouncing is like that but without the badge and the law. You’re a gunslinger for hire, basically. And you learn a lot in that field of work.”
On being in fights as a bouncer
“I must have been in more than 500 fights. I fought every night, and I bounced for nine or 10 years. And these weren’t pretty fights.”
How he trains for each character
These days, when it comes to staying in fighting shape, Diesel’s workout schedule is strictly dictated by his next role. Practicing a physical type of method acting, Diesel always commits to realistically re-creating the body and attributes his character would possess. If that means staying away form the iron and packing on a few pounds for a project, such as the 2006 movie Find Me Guilty (in which Vin plays an out-of-shape gangster who defends himself at trial), so be it. “I don’t do a service to myself if I succumb to serious powerlifting,” he says. “I have to be somewhat mindful of being typecast. I want to be the character and not just look built.” [For that movie] “It was ‘eat lots of ic cream and get as fat as you can.’ After being so fir from a young age, it was bizarre – and liberating.”
“When I do a role like Riddick, I don’t want to look boxy. I want to be pantherlike, I want to be agile. I have to do yoga or Pilates because I’m trying to get a completely different movement with my body.”
On his future as an actor
“I don’t really give a sh*t about my everyday stock. It’s not going to improve my self esteem. I just want to knock each role out of the park.”
[From Men's Fitness, print edition, June/July 2011]
Well I find him surprisingly likable in that interview. He seems like a smart, together guy and I like his “whatever” attitude toward his career. The dude stays off the gossip radar too, you can say that for him. We’ve heard that he didn’t want to do press for his films and that he made out with Paris Hilton at some point eons ago, but that’s it. I think I remember reading that he had a baby too at some point in 2008, but that was all so vague and we didn’t hear much about it. He keeps his stuff under wraps, but not his big old arms. Those things are like two big slabs of meat hanging out. But I have to admit he’s growing on me a little.

photos courtesy of Men’s Fitness, where there are more. Photos below from PRPhotos

