If you’re like me, you may have forgotten that David Ayer had a hand in writing The Fast and the Furious. However, Ayer definitely hasn’t forgotten as he has “nothing to show” for writing the first installment of what became a multi-billion dollar blockbuster franchise.
David Ayer spoke on Jon Bernthal’s Real Ones podcast to discuss his part in The Fast and the Furious. “Biggest franchise in Hollywood, and I don’t have any of it,” Ayer said. “I got nothing to show for it, nothing, because of the way the business works.” The film was based on Racer X, a Vibe magazine article by Ken Li. Gary Scott Thompson and Erik Bergquist wrote the initial drafts, but David Ayer was brought in to rewrite it.
“When I got that script, that s— was set in New York, it was all Italian kids, right?” Ayer said. “I’m like, ‘Bro, I’m not gonna take it unless I can set it in L.A. and make it look like the people I know in L.A., right?’ So then I started, like, writing in people of color, and writing in the street stuff, and writing in the culture, and no one knew s— about street racing at the time.” Ayer continued: “I went to a shop in the Valley and met with like the first guys that were doing the hacking of the fuel curves for the injectors and stuff like that, and they had just figured it out and they were showing it, and I’m like, ‘Oh f— yeah, I’m gonna put that in the movie.’“
David Ayer feels that most people believe that he “didn’t do s**t” on the franchise. “It’s like people hijack narratives, control narratives, create narratives to empower themselves, right?” Ayer said. “And because I was always an outsider and because, like, I don’t go to the f—ing parties. I don’t go to the meals, I don’t do any of that stuff. The people that did were able to control and manage narratives because they’re socialized in that part of the problem. I was never socialized in that part of the problem so I was always like the dark, creative dude, beware.“
Following the release of Fast X earlier this year, we’ve got several more Fast & Furious movies to look forward to, including Fast X – Part Two and anther spinoff focusing on Dwayne Johnson’s character.