Before They Were Stars: Vin Diesel in “Multi-Facial”


In 1995, an unknown Vin Diesel directed, produced and starred in a short film named Multi-Facial, which was intended as the ultimate venting project for his life as a frustrated young actor. Throughout the nineties, Diesel struggled grealy to get his acting career off the ground and one of the biggest things holding him back seemed to be the fact that he was multiracial, a mixture of Italian and African-American descent. His character in Multi-Facial is constantly turned down for roles because he is either “too black” or “too white” or not black or white enough, which mirrors Diesel’s real-life frustrations. Thankfully, his story would have a happy ending as Steven Spielberg saw Multi-Facial and was greatly impressed by it, so actually wrote the character of Pvt. Caparzo into Saving Private Ryan so that he could cast Diesel in what turned out to be his breakout role.

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