Rodriguez revealed that the
original script for The Fast and the Furious contained a storyline
that involved Letty cheating on Dom with Brian O’Conner, played by the late
Paul Walker, leading to a love triangle. Rodriguez was incensed at the mere
thought of it.
“I basically cried and said,
I’m going to quit and, ‘Don’t sue me, please — I’m sorry, but I can’t do this
in front of millions of people,’” she told the Daily Beast in 2017.
“My whole point in being an actress is that I thought I got to live a dream.
And I don’t dream about being a slut! Do you?!”
She wasn’t alone in her
thinking of the character arc. Rodriguez said, “Vin was the first one
to pull me to the side while I was crying, and he just looked at me and said,
‘I got your back. Chill out and let me handle this, and you’re right — it makes
me look bad anyway.’ And there you go. That was the beginning of the Letty fairytale.”
After Paul Walker’s
untimely death in 2013, Universal shut down Furious 7 production and
took four months to reset. Producers consulted with the cast and crew and moved
forward only after all agreed it was time to do so in Walker’s memory. With a
rewritten ending that pays tribute to the actor, the seventh installment of the
franchise was completed under the direction of James Wan with the help of
Walker’s brothers, Caleb and Cody.
Other script changes involve
the original film, where the opening scene shows a crew of thieves targeting a
truck full of electronics. One of the robbers shoots the truck driver with a
tranquilizer gun to subdue him long enough to swipe the goods. However,
the original script called for a shotgun. The cast and crew were concerned that
the scene would portray the racing community as violent criminals, so producers
changed the prop to the tamer tranquilizer gun.
The Fast & Furious franchise
has enjoyed immense popularity, spawning nearly a dozen action flicks, a TV
series, video games, live shows, and even theme park attractions. That success
is mainly due to outspoken actors and crew who raised red flags when needed and
attentive writers and directors who listened. If not for the castmates’ love
for their characters, the first film might not have sparked an entire
franchise.
