Dwayne Johnson is sharing how he really feels about his public feud with Vin Diesel.
The Rock looked back at their beef—and that viral Instagram post—in an interview for Vanity Fair's November cover story.
It was five years ago, in August 2016, that Johnson shared a cryptic message on the social network calling out his male castmates in the eighth installment of the Fast & Furious franchise The Fate of the Furious.
"My female co-stars are always amazing and I love ‘em. My male co-workers however are a different story," he wrote in part of the since-deleted post. "Some conduct themselves as stand up men and true professionals, while others don't. The ones that don't are too chicken s--t to do anything about it anyway. Candy asses. When you watch this movie next April and it seems like I'm not acting in some of these scenes and my blood is legit boiling—you're right."
While Johnson didn't name any names, many assumed he was referring to Diesel, especially after fans took a closer look at their scenes and started to wonder if the actors filmed them separately. Johnson confirmed in a 2018 interview with Rolling Stone that they "were not in any scenes together."
As for the Instagram post, Johnson told Vanity Fair there was "nothing specific" that happened that led him to share it. It was "just the same old s--t," he noted, "and that just wasn't my best day."
But does he regret it? "It caused a firestorm," he told the magazine. "Yet interestingly enough…[it was] as if every single crew member found their way to me and either quietly thanked me or sent me a note. But, yeah, it wasn't my best day, sharing that. I shouldn't have shared that. Because at the end of the day, that goes against my DNA. I don't share things like that. And I take care of that kind of bulls--t away from the public. They don't need to know that. That's why I say it wasn't my best day."
To be clear, Johnson meant what he said. "I mean what I say when I say it," he noted. "But to express it publicly was not the right thing to do."
In the 2018 Rolling Stones piece, Johnson said he and Diesel "had a few discussions, including an important face-to-face" in his trailer about the tension.
"Well, there was a meeting," Johnson explained to Vanity Fair. "I wouldn't call it a peaceful meeting. I would call it a meeting of clarity. He and I had a good chat in my trailer, and it was out of that chat that it really became just crystal clear that we are two separate ends of the spectrum. And agreed to leave it there."
As Johnson put it, he and Diesel are "philosophically two different people" who "approach the business of moviemaking in two different ways."
"It's the philosophy of going into work every day," he continued. "Looking at everybody as equal partners. And looking at the studio as equal partners. And looking at the crew, regardless of where you're at, either on the call sheet or otherwise, as equal partners—with respect and with humility, and being respectful of the process and every other human being who is putting in just as much time, just as much hard work and sweat equity, if not more. And I think it's always been important to me to always be straight up and look somebody in the eye. And if you say you're going to do something, do it."
Over the years, Diesel, who also produces the Fast films, has shared his side of the story, including in an interview for the Men's Health July cover story.
"It was a tough character to embody, the Hobbs character," he told the publication. "My approach at the time was a lot of tough love to assist in getting that performance where it needed to be. As a producer to say, Okay, we're going to take Dwayne Johnson, who's associated with wrestling, and we're going to force this cinematic world, audience members, to regard his character as someone that they don't know—Hobbs hits you like a ton of bricks. That's something that I'm proud of, that aesthetic. That took a lot of work. We had to get there and sometimes, at that time, I could give a lot of tough love. Not Felliniesque, but I would do anything I'd have to do in order to get performances in anything I'm producing."
After being reminded of Diesel's response, Johnson let out a laugh.
"You know, I'll tell you this," he told Vanity Fair. "One part of me feels like there's no way I would dignify any of that bulls--t with an answer. But here's the truth. I've been around the block a lot of times. Unlike him, I did not come from the world of theater. And, you know, I came up differently and was raised differently. And I came from a completely different culture and environment. And I go into every project giving it my all. And if I feel that there's some things that need to be squared away and handled and taken care of, then I do it. And it's just that simple. So when I read that, just like everybody else, I laughed. I laughed hard. We all laughed. And somewhere I'm sure Fellini is laughing too."