Over the past 25 years, Jordana Brewster has raced around the globe with the “Fast and Furious” movies — from the franchise’s home base in Los Angeles to Rio de Janeiro and San Juan, plus London and Rome. But Cannes was never on the road map, until now.
“It’s super validating, and it’s a little bittersweet,” Brewster says of the $7 billion-grossing series getting a salute from the “iconic” film festival.
It’s Wednesday, and we’re sipping coffee on the patio of one of the luxury hotels that dot the Croisette as Brewster preps for a marathon day, culminating with the midnight screening of 2001’s “The Fast and the Furious.” Right now, she looks casually chic, dressed in a cropped pink button-down and jeans. But in about 14 hours, Brewster will be in full glam, ascending the famed red steps at the Grand Lumiere Theatre with her “Fast” family, co-stars Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez, producer Neal H. Moritz, as well as Meadow Walker, the daughter of the late Paul Walker, who died in 2013.
“I was reading the itinerary and realized that Meadow was standing in for Paul,” Brewster says, her throat catching and her eyes growing a bit misty. “That’s going to be beautiful.”
The Cannes screening was Diesel’s brainchild. The star, who also produces the movies, had the idea to bring the franchise to the French Riviera a couple of years ago, and he finally manifested it into fruition now ahead of the film’s 25th anniversary in June.
It’s been a few years since Brewster last watched the movie, which established the lore of the Toretto family, a crew of gearheads and street racers led by Diesel’s Dominic. Brewster plays his younger sister Mia, whose love story with Paul Walker’s police officer-gone-rogue Brian O’Conner is the heart of the story. Rewatching it made her nostalgic, and she was impressed with how well the story held up.
“With the exception of carjacking trucks for TV-DVD players,” Brewster cracks, as a server arrives with her egg-white omelette. “It’s the only dated thing.”
Jordana Brewster (third from right) and the cast of 2001’s “The Fast and the Furious.”
Universal Pictures
“What was so beautiful about the first one is that every character was fleshed out,” she says. “It’s really hard to do in an ensemble piece, and I think that’s what’s allowed its longevity. Every person relates to a different character.”
Mia, for example, is the franchise’s moral compass: “She’s grounded. That’s a really important element to have in the franchise, because things can spin off in all directions.” (And they have — remember that “F9” featured a Pontiac Fiero rocketing into outer space.) The rewatch also reminded Brewster of the character’s grit. “That’s what I miss,” she says. “Hopefully, that gets to come back in the final one.”
Speaking of spinoffs, Diesel on Monday revealed that, while “Fast Forever” — the 11th and expected final movie — will hit theaters in March 2028, the property will continue through a new television show on Peacock.
“For the last decade, we have realized that the fans have wanted more,” Diesel said at the NBCUniversal upfront presentation in New York. “They wanted us to expand the legacy characters, their stories… And I had to wait till it was right.”
The reveal was breaking news to Brewster, too, but she says she’d relish the opportunity to broaden Mia’s storyline.
“It’d be fun to have me and my two kids, and they’re getting into all kinds of trouble — it’s almost like karma,” she says with a laugh. “It would also be a nice way of perpetuating the Brian character and his family legacy, but we’ll see.”
Jordana Brewster at the 79th Cannes Film Festival.
Michael Buckner
It doesn’t take much prompting to conjure 25 years of memories from making these films. Brewster is quick to recall how intimidated she felt at the first table read with Diesel, Walker and Rodriguez, who plays Dominic’s love interest Letty. She was still a student at Yale, and “The Fast and the Furious” was only her third movie.
“The person who was the most striking was Michelle, because she’s not afraid to speak her mind if she doesn’t like something about the character,” Brewster says. “That was so foreign to me, but I also wished I had some of that. It has come with age, but that’s what I remember of the early days. And also just having no clue how special it was what we were doing.”
Development on “Fast Forever” has been a lengthy process, with a few false starts along the way. In the meantime, Brewster is keeping busy by preparing to play a detective on the upcoming Prime Video series “Bishop,” plus she’s finished her first feature screenplay. It’s an exciting new creative outlet as the actress continues to evolve alongside the characters she plays.
As the “Fast” family races their final quarter mile, Brewster reflects on how rare this experience has been. “It’s kind of like the mafia,” she says of her castmates. “We’ve all got each other’s backs, no matter what. They’re my ride or dies.”
Case in point, when Mia didn’t appear in an early draft of the script for 2023’s “Fast X,” Diesel called for the plotline to be rewritten.
“Vin is really my brother,” she says of Diesel campaigning for her inclusion. “He’s been so loyal for the entire franchise. It could have died a long time ago had he not championed it so fearlessly.”
Ultimately, Brewster only shot a couple of scenes for that film, but they were memorable ones: a major action scene with John Cena and a family dinner with the Torettos’ abuelita, played by EGOT-winning icon Rita Moreno. “That was a pinch-me moment,” she says about Moreno. “We’ve drawn in so many iconic people, which then further validates, like, how special this franchise is.”
The character has indeed been in and out of the action over the years — in part because of conflicts with her filming schedule for other projects, like starring in the TNT series “Dallas.” Then, after Walker died and their characters “retired” to a quieter life at the end of “Furious 7,” it grew more complicated to weave Mia into the storyline. “It’s a really hard needle to thread,” Brewster acknowledges. “I’m tethered to Dom as well, and that’s not something we should ignore. And I love when Letty and Mia get together.”
That said, honoring Walker in the finale film is a top priority. The “Fast Forever” script is still being finalized, but Brewster has high hopes that “whether Brian is shown on film or if he’s just part of the reason they win or succeed, I’d like to see him be the champion of the whole thing.”
