It’s taken a good while, as well as a few miscast roles and fails, but Dwayne Johnson has become one of Hollywood’s hardest working actors. He currently has his name on a variety of franchise, but perhaps the one he’s most known for is his role as Hobbs in the Fast & Furious franchise.

Badass and wise-cracking, it’s a role that certainly seems tailor-made for the tank of an actor. Well, it turns out that assumption was dead-wrong, as was revealed by Fast & Furious franchise star and cheerleader Vin Diesel.

Taking to his Facebook page (as Diesel tends to do), Diesel discussed how the role in Fast Five ended up going to Johnson.

“Back in the fifth film, I was asking ‘Who should I work with?’ The reason why we brought Dwayne Johnson into Fast Five was because of you. There was a girl named Jen (maybe, Jan?) Kelly who said, ‘I would love to see you guys work together on-screen.’ And so, we gave a role that was initially written for Tommy Lee Jones but we gave it to Dwayne, and he shined in it.”

Color me baffled. Maybe there were a number of actors who could’ve taken on the role, but I couldn’t, for the life of me, imagine Tommy Lee Jones taking on the role of Hobbs. I suppose I can imagine him spouting off the cheesy one-liners with Hobbs’ trademark no-nonsense attitude, but the physicality of the character plays such a huge role, and I don’t think Jones could have done it as good a job.

I suppose this is one of the many instances where Diesel having his ear to the ground has turned out in a film’s favor. Say what you will about the actor, but he certainly knows how to bring it for his fans.

Hobbs returns in Fast 8 next year.

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SOURCE: Vin Diesel (via Slash Film)