Vin Diesel buries "candy ass" hatchet and praises for Dwayne Johnson's Smashing Machine performance

After years of beef, Vin Diesel ate a little humble pie and celebrated his old pal Dwayne.

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  November 25, 2025 | 11:44pm
(Photo by Paolo Pedicelli ATPImages/Getty Images)
Film News Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel buries

Nearly a decade after an anonymous Fast & Furious star called Dwayne Johnson a “candy ass,” turning the e La Familia into a “two Christmases” household, Vin Diesel, who many believe to be the “candy ass” sayer, has offered some unexpected praise of his former Fast co-star. In an Instagram post about The Smashing Machine, Diesel takes a moment to “celebrate Dwayne.” Despite the two having a complicated working relationship, Diesel had nothing but praise for Johnson in the post, writing, “People don’t understand what it takes to uphold a global perception every single day. I remember asking our global family who they’d love to see me work with, and a woman named Jan left a comment saying her dream was for me to collaborate with Dwayne.”

Jan’s suggestion, according to Diesel, led to “one of the most dynamic pairings in cinema, two strong personalities who pushed each other and created something unforgettable.” Those two strong personalities were so combative, apparently, that they had to be separated, leading to a couple of weird shots in Fast 6 and Johnson’s Fast spin-off, Hobbs & Shaw. But, Dielsel continues, “When he stepped into Hobbs, he did it with full commitment and left an indelible mark on Universal’s character hall of fame.”

Diesel is old friends with Smashing Machine subject, Mark Kerr, “one of the first friends” he made in Los Angeles, and who trained Diesel for the first XXX movie. “This is a man who would often tell me about the kids he was teaching to wrestle, to fight, to take ownership of their lives usually for no money at all,” he writes. “Mark Kerr is so deserving of this moment… and Dwayne really did it… He brought us back in time and shined doing it.”

Is this the first step toward actually getting the final Fast & Furious movie made? Who knows. But for one glorious day in November, no one was a candy ass, and we all smelled what the Rock was cooking.

 
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