Out in Los Angels last week during the Guardians of the Galaxy press junket, we bloggers got a chance to have a sit down with actor Vin Diesel who stars as Groot in the upcoming film. He was such a delight and full of energy as he made his way into our interview. He was dancing and singing the whole time and gave off so much positivity! His voice is so fun to listen to as he shared stories with us about his children, being involved with the project and breathing life into the fictional character. Check out what he had to say inside and don’t forget Guardians of the Galaxy hits theaters August 1st!
A few snaps of Vin Diesel…
What do you love about Groot, and what attracted you to the role of Groot?
VIN : I come home. So. Um. So, Kevin Feige called. First of all, the people that get the most credit for me playing Groot are those people on my Facebook page. Because they manifested this union between myself and Marvel when nobody had an idea of what we could do.
As you know, I had to shoot “Fast and the Furious 7” a little bit longer than anticipated. And there was really no schedule to be able to do a six-month role. And the persistence of the social media somewhat forced us all to be really creative. So, Kevin Feige sent over — he had gone to Comic Con and they were asking him about — and I was at Comic Con too for “Riddick” — and they were asking me, “What is the involvement between Vin and Marvel?”
And then they asked him. And we felt like, oh my God, we’d better come up with something fast. And he called me and said, “I — I’m gonna tell you about this character. Don’t think I’m crazy. I hope you will like it. And I’m going to send you over some conceptual art.” So, I get — someone delivers this huge book of conceptual art.
For “The Guardians of the Galaxy.” And it’s the first time that I had ever seen what they were doing with Groot, which is not like anything you have ever seen in any of the comic books. It’s an original Groot. And I went into the living room, and the kids were there, and I opened up the book, and it was a double-truck picture with all of the characters. And I said to the kids, “What character do you think they want Daddy to play?”
And I was asking them, and they answered in seconds. I was praying that they would lead me in feeling good about this role. And they all pointed to Groot, and they thought Groot was cool. Jump cut to: they’ve seen the movie.
They’re singing all of the songs in the house. If I wanted to share the music with them, like we all — we all want to share — we all want to share Jackson 5 with our kids, right? But what better way to do it than Baby Groot? So, it became one of those things where it was — it was one of those movies that was just remarkable to share with your kids.
But the best thing about having played this role is something I never would have anticipated as an actor. I never would’ve seen this coming. I knew when I did the voice of Iron Giant that it would be cool for my kids to say “my dad is the Iron Giant.” But I didn’t anticipate what the effect would be from playing Groot, and this is what it’s been.
When my kids are in the back seat, I — we’re driving, whenever they see trees they say, “Look, Dad. It’s your brothers and sisters.” You can’t beat that. I mean, nothing I would try to teach them about life and respect for nature could have been as effective as them seeing Daddy as Groot, and them thinking — and how appropriate.
What a beautiful thing. And something you would never even think is possible. I mean, we’ve never seen trees in that light. I mean, we, I guess, in 1939, when “The Wizard of Oz” came out, there was a little something us people that kind of saw that saw, you know, okay, the tree can have some kind of feelings, if they’re pulling apples from the tree.
This, I feel, has gone to the next level. And I never thought I’d — I never thought I’d be so proud of it. But you know, in some ways, Groot is nature’s ambassador, and there’s something beautiful about that. And just the idea of talking about, for me, you know, movies should promote or provoke conversation, right?
I mean, in the best sense, when we take our kids to the movies, if we can walk out of there and have — I mean, Bambi was that, right? Or, you know, when people came out of “Iron Giant,” there was the whole discussion of the deer, and, you know, death, and what that was like, and it was an opportunity for kids to talk. But the idea of sacrifice at the end, which Groot is demonstrating is — that’s a wonderful conversation to have with our kids.
So, it’s been really special, and it’s, you know, I do movies that are not necessarily for kids. So, to do this and to be able to share this with the little ones, and for them to be so excited about it and so proud of it, and to think of trees differently. They will never look at a tree the same way. No one will, after this.
Just wanted to know if you had any influence working with the FX guys in the way that Groot moves.
VIN : What they did, and what they do a lot now, is that they film you while you’re recording, and they’ll try to pull — they’ll save some for references, and they’ll try to pull some mannerisms, and try to incorporate that. What I did is, I went into the recording booth as a seven-and-a-half foot tree, in essence. I was wearing jumping stilts while I was recording.
Kinda crazy. They had to adjust the mic, and they had never had to do that before. And it was pretty intense. And it was one of those things that I started doing last year, because I just wanted — sometimes, you don’t need a whole lot. You just need one thing, or a few things, that get you into character, that get you into the spirit of the character. And what I wanted to do is be seven-and-a-half feet tall, and I was seven-and-a-half feet tall, and it felt like I was adding something.
(My Question) I wanted to know on set, who do you feel as though you had the most chemistry with, and who was the biggest prankster? I bet it was you.
VIN : Well, I’m always a prankster. The irony is, I wasn’t on set. I was in the recording booth. I was — which is another fun thing about this character, how much work they were putting into creating this character in the CGI space. I was always a fan of what Andy Serkis was doing for Tolkien, for “Planet of the Apes.”
And I always loved the idea of doing some kind of performance art like that. I started doing a version of performance art. When breakdancing started in the Eighties, it was only performance art. And New York City, when somebody would walk by and see me dancing on the corner, with the crowd around, and handing my hat out, yeah, I was that dude. Can you believe that? Literally, like, if it was the Eighties, I’d be dancing for you right now, and I would take my hat off and say something cute like, “I take credit cards too.”
But the performance art part of it is so fun and so challenging, and I imagine as this series grows and continues, there’s going to be a lot of opportunity to do the performance art for this character. But I know a lot of people from — I know Zoe Saldana. She — I did a show called “The Ropes,” which was a webisode series, and she directed one of the episodes for me.
We wanted this kind of multicultural, feminine voice on it, and she did such a great job with it. So, she’s a friend of the family. And of course Dave Bautista was in “Riddick,” so I’d already worked with him. But I think when I watched the movie, the fun, the chemistry that’s really fun for me, is seeing Rocket and Groot go back and forth. And that just feels delicious, it feels fun, and it feels like…we know we’re going to see more of them.
Besides “Fast and the Furious 7,” do you have any projects coming up that we can see you in?
VIN : I am about to do a movie called “The Last Witch Hunter” about a 700-year old New Yorker. And I feel sometimes like I’m close to 700 years old. It is going to be very cool, and we just cast Michael Caine. Which is for me, you know, whenever — when Dame Judi Dench did “Chronicles of Riddick” or when I had the opportunity to work with the late Sidney Lumet for “Find Me Guilty”…
…it’s always a big deal when I get to work with people that I’ve been such fans of for so long. So I’m just so excited to see what happens when the camera starts rolling, and it’s me and Michael Caine. You just know it’s gonna be good.
“HOOKED ON A FEELING” group sing-a-long and photo
images via Disney
