Vin Diesel isn't afraid of the dark

For actor Vin Diesel, rough landings are nothing new. As Private Carparzo in Saving Private Ryan, he survived the bloody invasion of Normandy, while as the voice of the animated Iron Giant, he withstood a stormy ocean splashdown. His latest film, Pitch Black, finds him once again enduring an unexpected arrival, only this time it's on a desolate planet which hides a dark, deadly secret. Diesel recently shared his thoughts on the picture, explaining not only how the story examines some serious societal issues, but also why moviegoers should be afraid--very afraid--when the lights in the theater go down.

What is it about Pitch Black that elevates it above typical SF movie fare? Diesel: I think Pitch Black celebrates a real hero. I don't think we've had a complex and dynamic protagonist in a long time, and what's interesting about this film is that the character who I play, Riddick, starts out as a criminal. He starts out as a convict, and, within this small core of survivors, is subject to the prejudices and all of the judgmental stuff that goes on in society in general. But the survivors are forced to depend on this convict, and that raises an interesting question: When push comes to shove, do you rely on the killer?

Is it something along the lines of Escape From New York, where there's this convict who becomes a hero? Diesel: That's actually not a bad analogy. But it's also similar to Mad Max, because the convict, if nothing else, is clearly an outsider--that we are sure of. And the convict is indifferent to the well-being of everybody else. He really doesn't care if anyone else survives. So he's totally uninvested in saving anybody but himself. His morality issues aren't the same--in fact, they don't really exist. However, the survivors have no other choice but to rely on this guy, and rely on the possibility that there is some humanism left in him.

So Riddick really starts out purely criminal and completely black-and-white? Diesel: Absolutely. But then he becomes the only possible chance of survival. And there's also an interesting kind of comment on the role of authority. Because the authorities in this picture are all represented by a character named Johns, who's played by Cole Hauser, and there are a lot of parallels between this small, stranded society and our society.

There have been many movies where people are stranded in one way or another, and they build up their own little society--Lord of the Flies being a prime example. How is Pitch Black different? Diesel: Well, in Lord of the Flies, the enemy is themselves. That's what ultimately causes their overall destruction. Here, they play a little bit on that idea, but more importantly there are these creatures that come out only in darkness that are just the most terrifying things we've ever encountered. They're nocturnal predators, and they literally devour everything. Basically, because there are three suns on this planet, every 22 years there's an eclipse. Which means every 22 years, these creatures emerge and destroy everything. In the film, you see these huge dinosaur bones, so you know they literally obliterate everything, even the colonies that have migrated there in the past. So that's the main difference--not only are they stranded, but they're stranded on a planet with creatures. And in a way, that's also somewhat similar to Aliens. Although in Aliens they weren't exactly stranded, these guys are not only stranded, but they don't know how they're going to get off, and now they have the addition of these predators.

From an acting perspective, what was the biggest challenge for you on Pitch Black? Diesel: It's interesting. There's no prototype for Riddick, because he's borderline human. He has got enhanced eyes--this enhanced vision--that's kind of similar to infrared vision. His actual eyeballs are adjusted, and he's able to see in the dark. Of course, he's also much more sensitive to sunlight. And he has this enhanced, panther-like speed. But he's a sick, sick, sick killer--at least that's what we're given. So there's obviously no prototype. It's not like I'm playing a cop or a soldier or a gangster or a salesman or an array of characters where I can look back and say, "Well, my father was this or my uncle was that, or I know this guy from down the street." I can't pull from anything. This is a character unto its own. It's almost like playing a superhero in a way. So that was challenging, though I welcome the challenge, because it was also exciting. And it was interesting to do a completely fictional piece. You know, Saving Private Ryan was not a fictional piece! This is a completely fictional piece. So the challenge was: How do you incorporate real emotions? How do you incorporate aspects that people are going to be able to identify with? And that's one of the things I feel really good about. You get a sense that this guy is unfairly judged. And we all deal with that. We all deal with being unfairly judged.

Where was the film shot? Diesel: In Coober Pety, which is in the [Australian] outback. Ironically, it was also the same exact place that Mad Max was shot. So it's interesting that there are parallels even in where we shot.

Did that Mad Max shooting location help you in creating the character? Diesel: I guess the energy was in the ground. And what I mean by that is, I think the energy that I felt more so than anything else was the fact that we shot on aboriginal sacred ground. That was kind of cool. The floors are covered with gypsum, which looks like cut plates of diamond or glass, so it looks like a sea of diamonds. It really gives a kind of otherworldly feel to the film.

Since you were in Australia, did you learn to play the didgeridoo? Diesel: [Laughs] That's so funny! Cole Hauser and my co-producer bought me a didgeridoo for my birthday when we were there. And I did learn to play. I was lucky because the aborigines treat it as a very sacred instrument, and one of them took the time out to actually teach me how to do it. It was exciting, though, of course, I couldn't breathe right--I was horrible [makes a didgeridoo sound]. I don't know how those guys do it!

Most viewers know you from your role as Pvt. Caparzo in Saving Private Ryan. There you're obviously all human, but you also supplied the voice for the Iron Giant, who's a completely robotic character. What made your part in Pitch Black, where you play kind of a half-human, half-who-knows-what character, different from the other roles for you? Diesel: Like I said before, there's no prototype, so you have to completely create who this character is. You have to take references wherever you can to kind of color the overall character.

Wouldn't you in some respects have to do the same thing for the Iron Giant? Diesel: The Iron Giant was different, because I was doing a voice-over, so I was able to go and concentrate solely on my voice--pitch and intonation and whatever. And it didn't matter what I was doing, whether I was jumping up and down, whether I was covering my eyes, whether I was waving my hands around, whether I was punching the air. The only thing that mattered was what voice I was making, and how I put everything together, and how I composed this voice to all the while be this Iron Giant, but at times also play different emotional chords.

What was the biggest difference then between doing Pitch Black and Saving Private Ryan? Diesel: Well, in Saving Private Ryan I had one objective, and that was to bring honor to the soldiers that died. That was a really, really important thing. So I didn't have a creative frame of mind so much in Saving Private Ryan. I was just trying to be as accurate as possible. In Pitch Black, I'm trying to create a world and take you through a new story. What scares you the most about the dark? Diesel: I'm not really afraid of the dark, except if I'm walking. And I guess the thing that scares me the most is the possibility of walking into a wall and busting my lip [laughs]. When I was about seven years old, there was a blackout in Manhattan, and I grew up in this huge building with around 365 apartments, and it had long, long halls. I remember we were playing tag in this building, and I'm running around on the ninth floor, and I ran straight into a wall and busted my lip. So I guess I just have a phobia of busting my lip while walking in the dark.