7. Jordana Brewster wasn't exactly an automotive enthusiast when she was cast as Mia Toretto, Dom's sister and the reason Brian shows up at the bodega every day to order a crappy tuna sandwich.
In fact, the 20-year-old didn't even have a license. Her learner's permit had been burning a hole in her wallet for three years "'cause I was just petrified of driving," the actress, who like Diesel grew up in New York, admitted in a 2001 interview.
But she took lessons in NYC and passed her test the day before she was due to leave for L.A. Still, she volunteered to let someone else take the wheel for all of Mia's hard-core driving, but the stunt coordinator took her to a big, empty, hosed-down parking lot so she could practice. "By the end of the day, I was peeling out, doing donuts and 360s," she recalled, "and it was all good."
So she had quite the journey.
"That really does blow me away, actually, now that I think about it," Walker marveled to E! News about his onscreen love barely knowing how to drive in the beginning. "But no, she did a great job...She downplays it to this day, but I like to think she really had a good time."
Perhaps, but Brewster told Entertainment Weekly in 2001, "I don't like risking my life that much. My fastest street speed is 65 miles per hour."
Michelle Rodriguez, however, was bummed that she only got to do so much driving herself before the stunt doubles took over. "I was kind of disappointed," she told EW. "I only had one day of racing school. It was sickening in this beautiful way. It pissed me off I wasn't allowed to go more than 80 miles per hour. I can do that on the freeway, you know?"