Paul Walker - Everything You Need to Know

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Shouldnt this clip be zero seconds long?

👍︎︎ 7 👤︎︎ u/RobinsShaman 📅︎︎ Dec 06 2021 🗫︎ replies

Hosted by the motoring world's James Corden.

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/hoilst 📅︎︎ Dec 07 2021 🗫︎ replies
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- What makes someone an icon? Is it image, is it ability? Is it humanitarianism? Or is it something harder to pin down like being the right person to make the right moves at the right time? Maybe it's everything? Well, for car nerds all over the world, myself and everyone else here included, Paul Walker is an icon. His role in the "Fast and Furious" franchise made him the face for car culture in Hollywood and beyond. And for a lot of us, he was like the first car guy we saw that was wearing fricking jean shorts. But who was Paul Walker really? Let's find out. It's time to get you "Up to Speed" on Paul Walker. (bright upbeat music) A huge thanks to carparts.com for sponsoring today's video. Well Carl, your truck is 100% fixed. What are you doing, dude? - Sorry, cousin. I was just saying goodbye to the California moon. Can't believe it's my last day as Donut intern. - Listen man, even though you destroyed my Jetta, I sure had a good time fixing up your truck with the help of carparts.com. They made it quick and easy to find all the parts that I needed. - All right, well, I guess it's time for me to go. - Wait, that's yours? - Yeah, this all goofer is all mine. And this is yours. - The keys to your truck? - The keys to your truck, cousin. You know, we had so much fun fixing that old girl, changed the headlights, fixing the brakes. Heck, I launched myself into that air, remember that? Mimo. I think it's only right that you take it over. Be the custodian of our beautiful pickup. - I can't take your truck. - You know, I stayed out in California here to make sure that you got the truck that you deserve. - Well, honestly buddy, thank you for this. And remember, if you ever break down, head on over to carparts.com to get any parts for any job. - Sayonara cousin, take care. (engine roaring) - These are house keys. Carl. - [Carl] Mimo, I'm coming home. - Now, when we started writing this video, we made sure that we did not want it to be about the "Fast and Furious" or somehow turn into a character study of Brian O'Connor. But Paul Walker was uniquely qualified to play a laid back California car guy, why? Because he was one. - Wooo! - Paul William Walker IV, P. DUB W 4, was born on September 12th, 1973 in Glendale, California. He and his four younger siblings grew up in a small town of Sunland situated right next to Soquel Driving Mecca, Tujunga Canyon. Paul's mom Cheryl worked in the fashion industry buy Paul's dad, Paul-3 was a contractor, a writer and a photographer. When it came to writing and taking pics, Papa Walker focused on his life's passion, choppers. And he regularly contributed to motorcycle publications like Easyriders and Street Chopper magazine. And we'll get back to that in a minute, all right? Paul's parents jump started his acting career at the age of two years old, getting small parts in commercials. - This is my son, Jonathan. His bottom is very close to my heart. - Paul took to it. Acting throughout his entire childhood with small television roles until he was cast in his first movie, (beep) the same guys that made "Toxics Avenger". This thing was called "Monster in the Closet". He was 10 years old and check out this clip. I'm pretty sure that they don't have a trademark department. (man groaning) - I got family. - Paul was then cast in his first radio TV role at 13 in the short lived sitcom "Throb". I know this was like a while ago, It was probably like late 80s but I think throb still meant the same thing as it does now, right? Here's a clip of "Throb". (chuckles) - As you get older, your aim will get better. (audience laughing) - Now when he wasn't acting, young Paul discovered his first true love. Typical of any Southern California upbringing, he loved ice hockey. JK, it's surfing, dude. He figured out that this acting thing could pay for surfboards and travel expenses. So this is what he's gonna do forever. His teen years were blurb, acting, hitting the waves and getting into mischief around Sunland. That is cool of an upbringing as you can imagine, plus he's so handsome, so handsome. Life's already cool, we haven't even talked about cars yet. - What? - Dude is like the most handsome guy. Those eyes- - [Nolan] You get lost in 'em. - Paul's dad being so into motorcycles, you might imagine that this passion was passed down to Paul. Sparking a love for anything with a motor and two wheels. Well, you'd be wrong. Papa Walker got rid of all his motorcycles when Paul was born and didn't want his kids to have anything to do with bikes 'cause they're dangerous. He'd lost a few friends in motorcycle accidents and understandably shielded the children from that lifestyle. And according to Paul's younger brother, Cody, who is a friend of ours and we talked to when putting this video together, their dad raised his kids to be terrified of motorcycles so that they stay away from them. Now while Paul would eventually own some dirt bikes and ATVs, it was actually his old grandpa George who turned him into a car guy. Grandpa George was Paul's maternal grandfather, an old school racer from a bygone era who always had a racing story to tell and Paul always listened. Grandpa George has stories about the trips to the Barbell Salt Flats, drag races and other hot rodder, hooliganism, lit the cornered fire inside of a young Paul. And while he would later become known for JDM and Euro cars like GTRs and lightweight M3s, Paul started out as a muscle car guy and he wanted to do some hot rodding of his own. Maybe he wanted it a little too much as Paul would later total his dad's Chevy, a few blocks from their house. Let me know in the comments, how many of you have wrecked your parents' car, an embarrassingly short distance from your house? I have. I ran into a curb in my stepdad's maroon Honda Accord and broke an axle when I was 14. All of the Walker clan acted when they were young. Paul was the one who stuck with it until adulthood. His confidence was his greatest asset in audition. And as someone who's been on a bunch of auditions, yeah, you gotta be confident. He radiated an extremely relaxed energy as if he didn't even care whether he got the role and that might've been true, he'd probably rather be surfing but casting directors loved it and in the 90s, Paul's acting career gained a lot of momentum. The late 90s saw Paul's career really take off. Paul's first leading role in a feature film was 1998, "Meet the Deedles", portraying Field Deedle, a slacker surfer turned park ranger bumbling around Yellowstone with his twin brother. "Meet the Deedles" had Steve Zahn on it, one of my favorite actors ever, love him. But Paul, twin brother was not played by his real brother, Cody Walker, who looks just like him. It was played by a guy named Steve Van Wormer who I imagined was the most stoked when they showed him Paul's headshot and were like, hey, everyone thinks you look like this guy. Here's Paul, here's Cody, here's Steve Van Wormer, the same. Shasta Steve Zahn, I'd love to have you on "D List", hit me up, dude. Please check the blue check. Next, he started along A-listers Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon in "Pleasantville" which is an awesome movie. Then there was the box office hits "Varsity Blues". I don't want your life. She's all at with Richard Lee cook and Freddie Prinze Jr. Look at the cast of these movies, you guys. Paul was in an amazingly talented group of peers. Then in 2000, the call came. Paul was cast in the most important movie of his career so far. A summer smash hit, sequel, spawning, phenomenon known as "The Skulls". Starring Pacey Austin's Creek. Paul starred along fellow late 90s, early 2000s heartthrob Joshua Jackson in this college campers secret society thrill fest, it actually holds up surprisingly well. Leslie Bibb is great. "The Skulls" made 50 million bones, no pun intended at the Box Office but that's not why it's important to Paul's story. It was directed by a guy named Rob Cohen and he and Paul hit it off really well on set. Rob loved Paul's attitude and work ethic and filled Paul in on his next project. Rob said, "Hey, Paul, I think I got a movie for you "that you might really dig." And Paul's like, "Oh yeah, what's it about?" Rob goes, "Fast cars, hot chicks and you get a gun "and you're an undercover cop." And Paul is like, "Dude, I'm in." That movie, of course was, "Redline". "Redline" was a heist thriller set in the street racing scene of Southern California. The story was based on a Vibe magazine article called Racer X by a journalist named Ken Lee. Racer X depicted the exploits of street racers in New York Sweeney but "Redline" will take place in Southern California with an undercover detective story twist. To prepare for his role, Paul immersed himself in the world of illicit street racing, heading out to meets in the middle of the night. Seeing firsthand how real street racers operated. Paul appreciated how different the cars were from the ones that he had grown up lusting after. These out while racers weren't driving big whole muscle cars like his grandpa George, they were driving Integras, Eclipses, Civics. This was Paul's first step in the world of tuning cars and he loved it. In retrospect, "Redline" was a big risk for Universal Pictures. It was a $38 million car movie held by a director whose previous work included a Bruce Lee biopic and "DragonHeart" where Sean Connery played a dragon. - How will you make a living, knight? - Shut up. - And this cast didn't have any big names. Paul was probably the most well known actor in the cast followed by a Vincent Diesel who at that point had voiced "Iron Giant", did a big part in "Saving Private Ryan" and starting the SYFY action flick "Pitch Black" where now that I'm saying those things, those are all very, very good movies. Those are really good, That's a really good first three. Now I don't even think that this movie would get made today. From the outside, the only thing that this movie had going for it was the presumption that street racing was on the edge of the cultural zeitgeist and that's it. A few months before the release of "Redline", the studio changed the title to the one that we know today, "The Fast and the Furious". Studio execs may have had some doubts at the back of their minds but those were quashed as soon as the debut screening was over. Apparently, everyone in the audience knew there was gonna be a sequel as the credits rolled. I mean, how could you not? Have you watched that movie recently? It (beep). Work on the sequel began almost immediately. - Let's do this. - But this is where the franchise's troubled history begins. "The Fast and Furious" was a huge hit at the Box Office raking in $207 million on a $38 million budget. Naturally, and I'm on their side here, the cast wanted more money in the sequel, well, they earned it. - No crust. - And I have it on good authority that Universal did not wanna give Vin Diesel more money. So they did not invite him back to play Dom Toledo but Paul loved the role of Brian O'Connor so much that he agreed to the same pay rate that he got in the first movie. Finally, the studio hired Tyrese Gibson to co-star and "Two Fast Two Furious" with another Box Office smash but this success was ironically not great for Paul's role in the franchise. Universal figured that since audiences still saw "Two Fast" with only one original cast member, the next movie could just have no returning cast members at all. An entirely new cast of lesser known actors would be paid less so, that's what Universal decided to do. - Why don't you nice boys let yours cars do the talking? - "Tokyo Drift" featured entirely new cast and an entirely new setting. And right now you're probably thinking, hey, I thought you said you didn't want this video to end up being all about "The Fast and Furious" and you're right to think that but this franchise was such a big part of Paul's life. So much that according to Cody Walker, his brother, Paul was crushed that the studio decided not to include him. Now here's an actor, he's a real car guy, who's immersed himself in the scene that his movies are helping to define. He's researched and decided a lot of the cars and now the people making the movies tell him that he's not in the movies anymore, that sucks. And Paul wasn't the only one that thought it sucked. Test screen audiences wondered where the heck all the actors that they loved from the first two movies were. Why is this called "The Fast and Furious" at all if there aren't any people from "The Fast and the Furious"? Some people even blame the actors themselves for not being in the movie. Word got out to the general public that none of the original cast were returning for the threequel. An angry fan sent letters to Paul accusing him of being too good for the fan base that has supported the series. But they had no idea that Paul had zero word in the decision. He was understandably pissed at Universal and the studio was starting to wonder if they had maybe messed up. Yeah, I think they did. So to salvage the situation, they devised a plan to shoot a new scene for the end of the film. Brian would show up connecting the previous movies to "Tokyo Drift" and in the process, tell the audience that a sequel with the familiar characters is on the way, the Box Office would be saved. Paul was at a funeral in Oregon when he got the call and was in no hurry to go back. So Universal made up with Vin Diesel in the form of a fat check and that's why "Tokyo Drift" ends the way that it does. Unfortunately, no amount of re-shoots could save "Tokyo Drift" from being kind of a flop, bringing $159 million which was 77 million less than "Two Fast". I'm no Hollywood big shot, I tried to be for years but usually you want your sequels to make more money, not less. Could it have been more successful if the original members were included? Yeah, probably. With a low revenue and even lower critical reception, put the franchise on the hold. And in the meantime, Paul had roles in other films like "Eight Below", "Running Scared" and "Flags of our Fathers". Now something that made Paul stick out in Hollywood was the fact that he didn't wanna stick out. Despite being a 90s heartthrob and the star of two huge blockbusters, Paul wasn't the kinda guy who wanted to go out on a town and be seen. Most of the time he drove a pickup and when he did wanna have fun, it wasn't behind the wheel of a flashy exotic, it was something only a car nerd at the time would know is awesome. Like his prized R34 Skyline GTR, kinda like the one Brian drove at the beginning of "Two Fast". At the time, this generation of Skyline was not technically legal in the U.S. but Paul bought the Sonic silver at 1999, V Spec from a company called Motorex whose entire business model was built around importing R34s and making them street legal. The Motorex story is an entirely different can of drum flavored worms. We made a whole podcast about it, I'll put a link down below so you guys can listen to it. It's fascinating and thank God, Paul was finally able to make his return to "The Fast and the Furious" series in 2009 with "Fast and Furious". No those this time. A soft reboot in a time before soft reboots were the norm. The original cast was back this time and to no one surprise, the fourth installment absolutely demolished at the Box Office. Made $360 million. It's almost a million dollars for a day. "Fast and Furious" took the series from domestic hit to worldwide sensation, allowing Universal to compete with other monster franchisees like "Harry Potter", "The Hunger Games" and Marvel but Paul was still Paul. Well, each fast movie grew his star, Paul continued to stay out of the tabloids. Only talking with the press when contractual obligations mandated that he do so to promote the movies. He was way more famous than he had ever planned on being with more money than he knew what to do with. But when disaster struck a small nation, Paul figured out what to do with it. On January 12th, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake decimated Haiti causing 200,000 deaths. Images of this awful natural disaster shocked the world and sent Paul in action. He knew that he was in a position of vast financial privilege and that meant that he had a moral obligation to help. Within days, he maxed out a credit card buying supplies. It was on a plane to the neighboring Dominican Republic to assist in the relief effort. Just five days after the quake, Paul and a few of his buddies were on the ground passing out the supplies they had brought with them. This was the birth of Reach Out Worldwide, Paul's disaster response organization exclusively funded by Paul's acting paychecks. This dude doesn't fundraise, let me say that again. Paul Walker's disaster response organization was exclusively self-funded. As in, all of the money came out of his bank account. Paul decided that running his own organization was the right course of action. Figuring that if he worked with an existing charity, they would probably use him for press instead of letting him help out in the field. He also wanted to avoid using government grants as those can sometimes have stipulations on which countries you can and can't use the money on. There's a lot of celebrities that want people to think that they're involved in big causes but Paul actually was and he uses own two hands and his own money to get things done. And to date Reach Out has completed 61 deployments in 61 different countries powered by 1,778 volunteers. That's pretty cool, right? Back to the car movies. Under new director Justin Lin, "The Fast and Furious" series took a turn into a more action oriented direction. And as a result, the movies made even more money. "Fast Five" doubled the previous installment at the Box Office raking in 626 million bones. "Furious Six" added 150 mil on top of that. Paul and his co-stars were certified mega celebrities recognized around the world. The kid from Sunland who just wanted to surf and drive a muscle car like his grandpa was the face of one of the biggest movie franchises in the history of movies. By every measure, Paul had made it huge but that didn't stop him from driving a Toyota Tundra pickup truck to work every day. On November 30th, 2013, tragedy struck. We knew it was coming. Paul was on a drive with Roger Rodas who was Paul's partner in a tuning shop venture called Always Evolving. Paul was riding shotgun in a Porsche Career GT, a notoriously difficult to drive mid-engine super car. And we know the rest. (somber music) The news sent shockwaves through the car movie worlds but instead of focusing on Paul's passing, I'd like to keep his legacy in mind, right? Paul's charity Reach Out Worldwide is still very active today. Run by his brother, Cody Walker and his wife Felicia. You can actually support Reach Out by attending any of the totally bad-ass FuelFest car shows that they host in different spots around the world a few times a year. And of course, you can always donate money to Reach Out as well. I'm gonna put a link in the description down below, no pressure but if you're gonna donate to something, this is a good one. For car nerds all over the world, Paul Walker is an icon but he's also a man of contradiction. He starred in some of history's biggest movies but he hated being famous. He could afford to buy any exotic car he wanted but instead filled his garage with old Nissans and drove his truck to set. And at the end of the day, Paul Walker was a man with a big heart who loved his family and just wanted to surf. Thank you guys for watching this video. It's really like a close to our heart. Paul was a huge influence on what we have going on here and we're close with his brother and it was really meaningful to tell his story and I hope you guys liked it. Big announcement, the Donut Underground has a shirt now. We gotta a shirt. Now, if you don't already know, the Donut Underground is our membership club for super fans. Members get access to behind the scenes videos, a Discord server, exclusive stickers, merch discounts and now, there's a shirt. A freaking shirt, has the same color way as our new stickers which members voted on a couple of months ago. You get input into what we make. The shirt is $25 and only available to Underground members. To find out how to join, click the join button down below on this video or on our channel page or for iOS users, check out the link in the description. We got a shirt. Hit the subscribe button and the like button. We have merch available in donutmedia.com. Really, you should check out a FuelFest event, maybe we'll do something with them in the future. Let us know down below if you want that to happen. I love you. (bright upbeat music)
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Channel: Donut
Views: 1,815,164
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Keywords: Paul Walker, Fast and Furious, the fast and the furious, the fast & the furious, fast & furious, 2 fast 2 furious, fast five, fast and furious 6, fast & furious 6, reach out worldwide, paul walker up to speed, brian o’conner, brian oconner, Donut Media, donut, doughnut media, Cars, Automotive, Car Review, Car Science, Car Tech, Best Cars, James Pumphrey, Up to Speed, review, everything you need to know, automotive history, donut media up to speed, up to speed donut media
Id: JpGq1MEZ2DM
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Length: 22min 16sec (1336 seconds)
Published: Thu Dec 02 2021
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