Articles/Interviews: Joblo

I'm sitting next to Paul Walker worrying that the universe is about to explode. I imagine there must be serious repercussions when two complete opposites, as he and I clearly are, come within this close of a proximity. The universe exploding is only one possibility that runs through my mind. Implosion maybe? Certainly something catastrophic. But all seems to be going well. The ground is not shaking and the sky is not falling. Yet….

First things first. I'm a married heterosexual male. In the words of Jay from CLERKS, "I hate guys! I love women!!" But Paul Walker is looking at me and I'm starting to feel uncomfortable. Maybe it's the piercing blue eyes or the perfectly white smile but something…hey, wait a second! Anyway, I'm beginning to notice that this is one attractive guy. Blonde hair, blue eyes, muscular yet slim build. The anti-me, if you will. I'm getting lost just looking at him but I snap out of it and try to focus back in on the interview.

"After three days into it, it's no big deal anymore. Hey, there's Paul and Steve and they're naked."

Now, I'm beginning to frighten myself. How did we get started talking about his naked ass? I promise this will all make sense. Let's just start at the beginning.

It's October 2nd and the first time I've traveled into New York City since September 11th. Riding in on the train I take a look to my right and for the first time I see in person what's left of the New York City skyline. Almost a month since the terrorist attacks it begins to sink in. I used to work in Manhattan before I left to set up shop across the Hudson in Jersey and to return now and see firsthand the aftermath was truly depressing. I tried to forget and move on to business but there are reminders everywhere. Countless murals with images of victims and those still missing, flowers, candles, police officers, the National Guard. So it's no doubt that when I sat down with Paul, we immediately begin to talk about the attacks.

"Last time I was here [New York City] was a few months ago for THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS. I was kinda sketchy on coming out here." You and the rest of the country. "Came in on the red eye this morning…" In fact, Walker's birthday was September 12th, one day after the attacks. "It wasn't much of a birthday.

It's clear this has gotten us both down. The two of us are looking at our shoes with puzzled looks on our faces. Finally I decide we have to move on to what we're there for. "Let's talk about JOY RIDE," I say.

Paul Walker hit the big time with last summer's FURIOUS. The film, which co-starred Vin Diesel, brought in more than $140 million and cemented his status as a box-office draw and bona fide heartthrob. Things weren't always moving fast and furious for Paul. He began his career on soaps like ALL MY CHILDREN and in the easily forgotten Disney comedy MEET THE DEEDLES. But a number of plum roles in successful teen movies (SHE'S ALL THAT, VARSITY BLUES) served as a stepping stone and would eventually lead to much bigger things.

One of those things is his latest film, the suspense/thriller JOY RIDE. In the film Paul plays a college freshman who along with his brother and potential girlfriend are terrorized by a sadistic truck driver in Nowheresville, Nevada.

Walker says one of the main reasons he took the role was because of his admiration for director John Dahl. "Before I even read it, I knew he was gonna direct it." Dahl most recently directed Ed Norton and Matt Damon in ROUNDERS but is also well-known for his cult hits THE LAST SEDUCTION and RED ROCK WEST. "He's very stoic and he doesn't really give too much away. He's just kind of a mellow, pretty relaxed guy…the guy's unphased. He shows virtually no emotion."

For which the opposite can be said about co-star Steve Zahn. The frenetic sense of humor and goofball sincerity he displays in the film is as far from relaxed and unphased as you can get. "At first, I thought it was an act, to be honest with you. There's no way this guy can keep this up all the time. I thought he was just trying to live up to being Steve Zahn but no, that's really who he is."

Oh, so about that naked ass talk. I promise I can explain. Without spoiling a scene in the movie, Steve and Paul walk into a roadside diner butt-naked. Past families and grizzly extras brought in from local towns. "The worst part about it was…the camera was bad so we had to go back and re-shoot the entire sequence, which was like three or four days. It ended up being close to two weeks of nakedness." Calm down ladies.

It's clear Paul is comfortable with the amount of fame he has achieved. He said he still gets stopped on the street by people who say they've seen THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS six, even seven times already and he just loves it.

"Making movies is fun but after the success of FAST AND THE FURIOUS, probably the coolest thing, the thing I like most about it is not people coming up and recognizing you. It's people coming up and recognizing you for being in a movie that they really dug. That's really cool getting a pat on the back."

Don't think this is the last you're going to see of Paul Walker. Nah, it fact this is only the beginning. When asked about the possibility of a F&F2 he says, "that's pretty much inevitable. I wouldn't mind doing a sequel if it was really good. The interest is there…We'll see."

If not a sequel, then what? "Right now, there's two projects I really want to do bad. I was actually gonna do TIMELINE with Paramount but there might be a conflict with another movie I want to do [most likely the ensemble action pic SWAT for Columbia]. So I don't know what's going to happen there. Keep your fingers crossed. Dick Donner's gonna direct TIMELINE from the Michael Crichton novel. Should be good…"

So we've reached the end. A few days later the world is still spinning and luckily enough Paul Walker and I didn't cause any widespread harm. At the very least I hope I've humbled him just a bit. Look at how you could've wound up Paul. You did good.