ctor Vin Diesel says his late “Fast & Furious” castmate Paul Walker played a starring role in his journey toward become a father.
The 49-year-old Diesel revealed Walker served as a major influence in his steps toward starting his family so much so that he named his 1-year-old daughter Pauline in the actor’s honor.
“He must’ve been God-sent because he put me on the right path. He set me up,” Diesel explained in a Facebook Live video on Saturday. “And when we did the first ‘Fast & Furious,’ I was already 30 years old or something, but he was a father.”
“When we were in the cars in between takes, he would tell me, ‘Hey, Vin, it’s not a scary thing to become a father’ (and) give me all the good advice,” he continued. “Next thing you know, I am a dad, which is why I named my daughter Pauline because of the credit that Paul Walker deserves in my personal life.”
In addition to Pauline, Diesel has an 8-year-old daughter named Hania and a son named Vincent, who was born in 2010, with wife Paloma.
Walker, meanwhile, had one daughter, 17-year-old Meadow, before he was killed in a one-car crash in November 2013.
The two actors starred in six of the seven “Fast & Furious” films together, with Walker appearing posthumously in the most recent installment, “Furious 7.”
Diesel has regularly spoken about how much his longtime co-star meant to him since his untimely passing, including in May when he said Walker would be proud of the upcoming “Fast 8” film.
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“Many of the crew members who have worked on several of the past Fast films are here again to help us make something special,” Diesel posted to Instagram under a photo that showed him with Walker.
“One of them at the end of the week came up to me and said, ‘Wow what we are capturing on film is excellent,'” he continued. “And then looked at me and said, ‘Paul would be proud.'”
“Fast 8” is due out next year on April 14.