Why Vin's a winner

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">His mother was an astrologer. But she probably could never have predicted that her son, Mark Vincent, would be rechristened Vin Diesel and end up as the hottest action star in Hollywood after Arnold Schwarzenegger. <br />In fact, Vin''s popularity is such that at the recent opening of his new film, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">XXX</span>, in London''s Leicester Square, he was greeted by thousands of screaming fans.The reception was stunning and Diesel was left overwhelmed. <br />Speaking about his role in the film, Vin says, "In the ''80s we had white-washed heroes. They were flawless. But Xander Cage as <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">XXX</span> is imperfect. He''s a rebel and has his flaws. I think to be human, is to be flawed." He adds with a grin, "I identify with Xander." <br />In the movie, just released last week in Mumbai and theatres all over India, Diesel plays an extreme sports athlete who makes his living by selling videos of his outrageous stunts. Certain he can succeed where conventional spies have failed, Xander is recruited by the scar-faced NSA agent, Gibbons, played by Samuel L Jackson. <br />Xander is sent to Prague to combat a cutting-edge gang called Anarchy 99. The success of his mission comes in the wake of a host of radical stunts like sky surfing out of a plane, parachuting from a stolen car as it plunges off a bridge and snowboarding ahead of an avalanche.<br />But filming such stunts came at a price for the <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">XXX</span> team and especially for Vin — one stuntman who was playing his role, died. "When tragedy happens in your dreamcase scenario, it absolutely blows your mind. It gives you the sense of mortality of each individual," he remarks, a trifle disturbed. <br />But he goes on to add, "I''d like to do all the stunts, but Rob (Cohen) would prefer that I do none!" After making the very successful Fast and the Furious, Cohen and Diesel team up again for <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">XXX</span>. <br />Vin''s parents had no idea he would one day be a Hollywood star with a new name. But as he grew up, the signs were there; his first acting break came at age five in a Westbeth production of Cinderella. He was cast as a horse, but brother Paul who was Prince Charming, got stage fright and Vin took on his role. <br />After a stage performance at age seven at the Theatre for the New City in Greenwich Village, he continued to work on the stage through his childhood. <br />But apart from acting, Vin needed to earn some extra moolah. So, in 1986, he started working as a bouncer at the Tunnel, a hip New York discotheque. Working as a bouncer taught him about people and the art of diplomacy. But to learn more about acting he would watch four movies a night on the family VCR. Marlon Brando, Clark Gable, Sidney Poitier and Morgan Freeman were front-runners. <br />After his mother gave him a book on filmmaking by Rick Shmidt called Feature Filmmaking at Used Car Prices, Diesel worked out a budget for a movie and by 1994, he''d written and directed his own short film called Multi Facial. It was screened at Cannes in 1995. Impressed by his performance, Steven Spielberg cast him in Saving Private Ryan. <br />After that there was no looking back for Vin, who''s also starred in Pitch Black and Boiler Room. For his role in Fast and the Furious, Vin was honoured with the 2002 MTV Movie Award. His next release will be New Line Cinema''s Diablo, of which he is the producer and also the star. Not bad for a guy who grew up in an artists'' commune in New York City. <br />But despite his numerous action roles, Diesel refuses to be Generation Y''s answer to Arnold and Sly. Instead he admires the likes of Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise, who can star in both action movies as well as comedies. And yes, like Hanks and Cruise, he commands $20 million per picture. <br />But he avers, "If you have the ability to make a blockbuster work, then studios want you to make that movie over and over again. And it gets hard to sway away from that type of movie. It becomes tricky, juggling the blockbusters with the critically acclaimed smaller movies."<br />So where does he head from here? "I don''t have any master plan when it comes to acting. I''ve been acting since I was seven. But I plan to direct again." </div> </div>