A little over 25 years ago, Jordana Brewster was in her sophomore year at Yale when she got an opportunity to audition for a Universal movie called “Redline,” a mid-budget street-racing flick that the studio hoped would turn a small profit. Brewster read for director Rob Cohen, who thought she might be right for the role but had a few reservations. “My agent at the time, Peter Levine, said ‘They want to rough you up a little bit,’” Brewster told IndieWire. “‘Rob’s concerned that you have a patrician air.’”
Ultimately, Cohen took a leap of faith and cast Brewster as Mia Toretto, a nursing student whose brother Dom (Vin Diesel) is deeply embedded in the world of illicit street racing — and possibly more nefarious activities, which undercover FBI agent Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker), Mia’s love interest, is out to expose. Cohen gave Brewster some Anna Magnani movies to watch and, along with the rest of the cast, sent her to a racing boot camp in Las Vegas — an intimidating experience for a young actor who had just gotten her driver’s license.
“I wanted to impress everyone, but I felt so out of my league,” Brewster said. “I remember having a table read and feeling like a fish out of water.” Little did Brewster know that she was beginning work on a classic — under its revised title, “The Fast and the Furious,” the modest action movie would go on to inspire one of the most successful series in film history, changing Brewster and her costars’ lives forever.
One of the things that made “The Fast and the Furious” pop was Cohen’s ability to deliver the goods in terms of kinetic action while juggling multiple storylines and casting each part with flawless instincts; the combination of Walker, Diesel, Brewster, and Michelle Rodriguez as Dom’s partner in life and crime Letty not only launched but sustained the series, anchoring the spectacle in character and providing a potent blend of heart and muscle.
“I think the movie worked because everyone had a backstory,” Brewster said. “You understand where each person’s coming from and what’s motivating them. There’s a 360-degree view.” When Brewster recently rewatched the movie at a 25th-anniversary Cannes Film Festival screening, she was more impressed than ever by how well orchestrated all the different storylines were. “Rob did such a fantastic job of giving everyone their moment in the sun, and he was very collaborative. And annoyingly thorough when it came to things looking and feeling authentic.”
One of the movie’s many strengths is Mia’s romance with Brian, which crackles with onscreen chemistry — chemistry Brewster said came naturally as she got to know her costar. “I was dating someone, and he was dating someone, and I found him physically beautiful but it was almost an unattainable beauty,” Brewster said. “I didn’t feel there was off-screen chemistry, initially. But he was such a warm, wonderful, chill guy that he made me extremely comfortable, and let’s be honest — when you’re 20 years old and it’s 2001 and you get to make out with someone who’s really hot, you don’t have to try to create chemistry. It just happens.”
Brewster’s relationship with Walker deepened both on and offscreen until the actor’s tragic death in a 2013 car crash. “There was such an ease with Paul, there was no fabricating anything,” Brewster said. “And the chemistry grew as the movies progressed and we talked about life and having kids. It’s tragic that he hasn’t been with us for 13 years now.”
When Walker reprised his role in John Singleton’s “2 Fast 2 Furious,” Brewster wasn’t invited back. “I just thought, ‘Oh, that’s a bummer. I guess they’re going in a different direction.” The third “Fast and Furious” movie, “Tokyo Drift,” didn’t have any of the principals from the first movie, except for Vin Diesel in an epilogue that set up the fourth film — simply (and confusingly) titled “Fast and Furious” — which would bring back the four original stars and kick off the franchise’s world dominance. Brewster was excited to come back, especially since with “Tokyo Drift” her “Annapolis” director Justin Lin had become the steward of the series, a role he would remain in off and on until quitting just after production began on “Fast X.”
“I loved the idea of Justin coming from an indie background and restarting the franchise,” Brewster said, noting that with the fifth movie everything really came together. “That was the best script since the first one, and going to Brazil made it the first one where we really tapped into a worldwide audience.” That “The Fast and the Furious” would spawn so many sequels, and be canonized at the Cannes Film Festival as a classic, would have been unthinkable to Brewster and her collaborators back when they were in production.
“None of us knew what we had,” Brewster said. “The budget was relatively small. The action was practical and done in a very old school way, because we didn’t have any other options.” The first time Brewster saw the film was at its premiere, and she quickly realized that it was special. “I loved it and I was really proud of it. And then the weekend it came out and was #1 was such a seminal moment for me and such a good feeling. Because ‘The Faculty’ [Brewster’s feature film debut, directed by Robert Rodriguez] was supposed to be huge and wasn’t, so there was a letdown after that expectation.”
“The Fast and the Furious” was the opposite, a film from which no one expected much that went on to become a phenomenon. “You just never know in this business,” Brewster said as she looks forward to the 11th film. “We haven’t started shooting yet, but there’s been a lot of talking. I hope to be on set early next year, ideally.” In the meantime, Brewster remains both thankful for and slightly unsettled by the way “The Fast and the Furious” endures.
“Recently this 20-year old came up to me and said, ‘You were my crush when I was growing up,’” Brewster said. “And I was like, ‘Oh God, we’re at that level now?’ Because I still see myself as a 25-year old. So that gives you some perspective. But it was also amazing to be at Cannes where it was seen as a classic, and to rewatch it and appreciate it. It’s a wonderful thing to have as my legacy.”
“The Fast and the Furious” returns to theaters for a week-long 25th-anniversary engagement on August 21.