As a producer to say, kkay, we’re going to take Dwayne Johnson, who’s associated with wrestling, and we’re going to force this cinematic world, audience members, to regard his character as someone that they don’t know—Hobbs hits you like a ton of bricks.
So in Diesel’s mind, all of the shit-talking and the squabbling – which eventually spilled out into other members of the #family, like when Tyrese Gibson threatened to quit the franchise – was a game, a type of meta performance designed specifically to twist a desired outcome from Johnson’s acting.Whether or not Johnson was capable of or interested in delivering that performance without Diesel’s antics remains a mystery, but if you’re Johnson, I imagine it would be impossible to read Diesel’s words here and not be insulted.
I mean, I realize that part was originally intended for Tommy Lee Jones, but I’m fairly certain that Dwayne Johnson (who’s nickname, if you’ll recall, is “The Rock”) is the one who brought the “aesthetic” of Hobbs to the table without much help from Diesel.