Hollywood Monday: Vin Diesel – Multi-Facial (1995)

Hollywood Mondays Multi-Facial_DVD_coverMulti-Facial is the movie that launched Vin Diesel’s career. The 1995 short film was directed, written, produced, scored by and starring Vin Diesel.  It had a budget of $3,000, which he paid for himself.

The story depicts the professional and emotional issues faced by Mike (Diesel), a multiracial (Italian and African American) actor. The film was noticed at the Cannes Film Festival by director Steven Spielberg, who remembered Diesel’s performance and cast him in the 1998 Oscar winning film Saving Private Ryan.

 

Vin Diesel (born July 18, 1967) is an American actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. Diesel was born as Mark Sinclair or Mark Vincent in New York City. Diesel has stated that he is “of ambiguous ethnicity”. He never met his biological father and was raised by his Caucasian mother Delora Sherleen (Sinclair), and African-American stepfather, Irving H. Vincent an acting instructor and theater manager.

He changed his name to Vin Diesel while working as a bouncer at the New York nightclub Tunnel, because one’s real name is not usually given out in that business. The name Vin is simply a shortened version of Vincent. He received the nickname Diesel from his friends, who said he ran off diesel fuel, referring to his non-stop energy.

Diesel has identified himself as a multi-faceted actor as a result of early difficulties finding roles due to his mixed heritage. In 1994 he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in the short film Multi-Facial, a short semi-autobiographical film, which follows a struggling actor stuck in the audition process. The film was selected for screening at the 1995 Cannes Festival.

Steven Spielberg’s was impressed by the poignancy of Diesel’s performance in Multi-Facial and created a role for him in his 1998 Oscar-winning film Saving Private Ryan. The role helped him rise to prominence in the film industry. He is best known for his portrayals of Riddick in The Chronicles of Riddick trilogy (2001–2013) and of Dominic Toretto in The Fast and the Furious film series (2001–present), two franchises in which he also acted as producer.

 

 

 

 

 

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