Vin Diesel has made a career out of playing tough guys. Xander Cage, Dom Toretto… Groot. In his personal life, he’s a big softy. It turns out, one of his favorite things to do is one of the least “tough guy” things out there. He loves Dungeons & Dragons. Diesel is hardly the only Hollywood A-lister to play D&D. Stephen Colbert, Jon Favreau, Drew Barrymore, and Diesel’s fellow Fast & Furious star Dwayne Johnson also play the role-playing game.
Diesel has never been afraid to fly his nerd flag when it comes to the game. In XXX, the star took the opportunity to put a (fake) tattoo on his stomach of his D&D character’s name, “Melkor.” His love of the game also led directly to his movie The Last Witch Hunter. When Diesel and screenwriter Cory Goodman first met, they immediately hit it off because of their mutual love of Dungeons & Dragons. CinemaBlend asked the actor about it at the time, and he confirmed there were bits of dialog directly inspired by that conversation and the game as a whole. Diesel even had a D&D-themed birthday cake a few years ago. What can you say, the man loves the game.
Vin Diesel helped lead the charge to make Dungeons & Dragons cool
For years, D&D players stayed in the shadows, hesitant to admit their love of the role-playing game for fear of being bullied. But in the last few years, everything has changed. Wizards, Rogues, Rangers, and Clerics of all levels have come out of the closet (and the basement rec room) and declared their passion for the game. Hit shows like Netflix’s Stranger Things have glamorized it and even so-called tough guys like Vin Diesel have let the cat out of the bag.
The tabloids have picked up on Diesel’s love of D&D
Last year, Star published a silly report asserting Vin Diesel and Mike Myers played together. Myers has also admitted to playing the game growing up. In typical tabloid fashion, the outlet falsely connected two dots by making up a story that wasn’t true. Gossip Cop stepped in to debunk the weird story. Myers’ rep told us at the time that the article was “absurd and false.”
Diesel’s skills in the game were on display when he played a game with Geek & Sundry in 2015.
So next time you break out that 20-sided die and jump into a new campaign, think of Vin Diesel and don’t be afraid to let your own nerd flag fly.