Steven Spielberg Told Vin Diesel It Would Be a "Crime of Cinema" If He Didn't Direct Again

Before Vin Diesel became the big movie star that he is, he wrote, directed, starred, and self-funded a little indie film in 1997 titled Strays. He made the movie for $50,000 that he saved up by working as a telemarketer. This was the first and only movie that he ever directed. Not long after he made that movie, Steven Spielberg cast in him in the World War II drama Saving Private Ryan. His career as an actor took off after that.

In case you’re not familiar with Strays, Diesel played a character name Rick who is a “drug dealer and hustler who is fed up with the repetitious lifestyle he leads and begins looking for meaning in his life.”

Anyway, during a recent interview with The National, Diesel says he ran into Spielberg recently, and his former director encouraged him to star directing again, saying that him not directing is a “crime of cinema,”

“I saw him recently, and he had said to me, ‘When I wrote the role for you in Saving Private Ryan, I was obviously employing the actor, but I was also secretly championing the director in you, and you have not directed enough. That is a crime of cinema and you must get back in the directing chair.’ I haven’t directed enough.’” 

If Spielberg told me to direct more movies, I’d freakin’ follow his advice! Diesel took his film Strays to Sundance the same year Jon Favreau took Swingers to the festival and when talking about that he said:

“It’s so funny, because we were both alumni at Sundance as filmmakers, and he goes off to do Lion King, Iron Man, and all these great movies. It’s fascinating. I kind of go ‘Steven is right.'”

Strays was actually a decent indie film, and yeah, I wouldn’t mind seeing Diesel get behind the camera to direct a movie again. I bet he would actually pump out some great film projects as a director! Hopefully he will take Spielberg’s advice.