Q & A Vin Diesel

By Rebecca Winters

In The Pacifier, out on DVD this week, Vin Diesel trades destruction for diaper duty. In real life, baby sitting was a surprisingly comfortable fit.

Did filming with kids get your biological clock ticking? Very much so. It happens to guys too. When your co-stars are 9-month-old babies, you fall in love. You start thinking, When am I going to have my own?

Your mom, an astrologist, advised you to take the role. Does she give you a lot of career advice? Every now and then. She had ideas about casting the Elemental character in The Chronicles of Riddick. She thought it should be Judi Dench. So I hoofed it out to London and enrolled the dame.

As the owner of a video-game company, do you think gaming will replace moviegoing someday? I don't. I used to feel guilty about owning a console. When I got on the set of Saving Private Ryan, I discovered, to my amazement, that Steven Spielberg is a gamer.

What's it like to play yourself in a game? If my character gets punched in the face, I feel it a little bit more than the next fella. Wait a minute! That would never happen like that.

At the Oscars, Chris Rock interviewed a guy who hadn't seen any of the nominated films but said Riddick was the year's best. Would you rather be that guy's choice or the critics'? You make movies for the people. If critics happen to like them too, well, that's a home run.

Early on, you found your multiracial background a hindrance to getting roles. Has Hollywood changed? My career is proof that it has. We don't really delve into the origins of Keanu Reeves, Jessica Alba, the Rock.

You're even allowed to play people with hair now. See? We've made progress.