Honk if Helen Mirren and Vin Diesel Should Have Kissed in ‘F9’
The New York Times
The Oscar winner’s cameo involves a car chase and some crackling chemistry. But could things turn romantic? We put the question to Mirren herself.
Fire up the petitions. Notify the lobbyists. When the 10th “Fast and Furious” film is made, I have a suggestion that is really more of a demand: Vin Diesel and Helen Mirren must kiss. This was my primary takeaway from watching the latest installment, “F9,” in which the 75-year-old Mirren and 53-year-old Diesel share a car chase and display more crackling chemistry than any other duo in the movie. She flirts with him, he beams at her, and Diesel’s evident delight in having the Oscar-winning Mirren as a scene partner is just delicious. By the end of the sequence, as her Queenie drove Diesel’s Dom Toretto through the streets of London, I couldn’t help but hope that she would lean over and snog our hero. And why not? In the previous “Fast” film, Diesel kissed another Oscar winner, Charlize Theron. Imagine the smooch streak that could be engineered if even more best-actress winners were persuaded to join the franchise: After Mirren, maybe we’d get Diesel in a romantic clinch with Frances McDormand! (Surely Diesel’s series flame, Michelle Rodriguez, would issue a hall pass for that.)
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