Vin Diesel ‘Furious 7’ Oscar Chances: Actor Says Film Should Win

Vin Diesel is out promoting Furious 7, and he thinks the film should win an Oscar for Best Picture. The actor revealed his belief about the film during an interview in China on Friday, according to The Wrap.

Furious 7 will arrive in theaters on April 3, and it is the last film that will feature the acting talents of Paul Walker. The actor died on November 30, 2013, during a break from production for the film. The cast was scheduled to return to the set the day after Walker’s sudden and tragic car wreck death.

However, Universal did not shelve the project. The writers reworked the script, and Paul Walker’s brothers were brought in to help finish off the film. Diesel thinks the final product is good enough to take home the Oscar for Best Picture, but he realizes that action movies are not seen in that category.

“Do I shy away from aiming high? No, I don’t. And yet we all know that there’s a little stigma towards action films, we know it, we’ve heard people complain about it. We’ve heard Marvel complain about it, we’ve heard DC complain about it, and now Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Batman has never gotten a shot at that.”

Vin’s comments did receive some attention on one late night talk show. According to Us Magazine, Conan O’Brien made a joke about Vin Diesel’s Oscar talk during his monologue.

“Vin Diesel said something interesting. In an interview, [he] said that Fast and Furious 7 will win the Oscar for Best Picture. He’s being kept in a hospital overnight for observation.”

Vin Diesel and the rest of the cast has been out talking about the film in recent weeks. Michelle Rodriguez talked about the period following Walker’s death, and she did not have an easy time handling it. In a new interview shared by the Daily Beast, the actress spoke about Paul Walker.

“We were just blindsided. To love somebody like that, and to be introduced to this game with somebody so genuine, who really lives it… if anyone was a voice of integrity, it was him. [Paul Walker] was always complaining about blue screen or any time he smelled something that wasn’t real, because he loved that world. If he was going to shoot a gun in a movie, he learned how to be a sniper. If he was going to fight in a movie, he freaking trained for six months. He was real.”

As for Vin Diesel, he shared his last conversation with Paul Walker during a recent interview. According to a recent Inquistr report, Vin revealed that his last conversation dealt with his own mortality, and he asked his friend to let others know “the type of brother he was” to Paul Walker. That was the last time Vin and Paul spoke. Earlier this month, Vin honored Walker by naming his newborn daughter Paulina.

Furious 7 will hit theaters on Friday. What do you think? Should action films finally get a chance in the Best Picture category of the Oscars?

[Photo by Andrew Toth/Getty Images]