See that guy in the brown shirt on the airplane? It's rally grunt, drift dodger and star of Castrol commercials, Rhys Millen. You know, the guy who did most of the best stunt driving in ... Tokyo Drift. And that guy on the other side of the girl is apparently D1 chief mouth and the film's technical advisor, Toshi Hayama.
The actors made the stupidest faces as they pretended to drift.
In real life, watching Millen drift a 350Z up the circular ramp at the Hawthorne Mall parking structure was simply amazing.
But it would have been better if the film had just held this one shot instead of cutting away from the real talent on display.
That old fisherman in the blue shirt is Keiichi Tsuchiya-the real and original Drift King.
Another amazing drifting display by Millen we witnessed on the set. He orbited that RX-7 a hundred times in that intersection, remaining just inches off that Skyline's bumper every time. And of course, it was edited so this astonishing feat couldn't be fully appreciated.
When, for a last-minute pickup shoot, picture car coordinator Dennis McCarthy asked us to help him find a modified muscle car for Vin Diesel to drive at the film's conclusion, we suggested Steve Stroppe's 'Hammer' 1970 Plymouth Road Runner. And that's the car they used. Did we get credit in the film? No. Did we get a check? No. That's how hard it is in Hollywood.