LOS ANGELES ? ?You ask Vin a question and he?ll keep you here for two days.?

Vin Diesel may have been wrong in choosing some film projects in the past but boy, was he right on the above self-assessment. Speaking to us in a New York hotel on Park Avenue last month, Vin at one point decided to stand up and walk around the room as he gave answers to reporters? questions that seemed as long as the combined running times of all his ?The Fast and the Furious? movies.

But you cannot accuse Vin of being boring. Charming even in his self-aggrandizing way, the actor with the shaved head can outtalk any of his fellow native New Yorkers. He can put on quite an entertaining one-man show for journalists. At this noontime interview, he was out to hype ?Babylon A.D.,? his new action/adventure/sci-fi/thriller of a movie.

Set not too far in the future, ?Babylon? chronicles how a mercenary (Vin, of course) tries to smuggle a young woman named Aurora (French actress Melanie Thierry) who could be the world?s savior, from Kazakhstan to New York. Aurora?s guardian, Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh), completes the trio as they flee pursuers in submarines and snowmobiles across harsh landscapes. Gerard Depardieu and Charlotte Rampling are also in the cast of the movie directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, who directed Halle Berry?s ?Gothika? and acted in Steven Spielberg?s ?Munich.?

Landing the mercenary role

When a reporter asked if it was true that he took the role away from French actor Vince Cassel, Vin smiled and addressed his manager who was in the back of the room: ?Stacy, did you hear that? They had a French actor in mind. And I said, ?I wanted to do that role.? And they threw him out. Where is he now? Let?s find this guy, first of all, and make sure he?s okay.?

He then said with a laugh, ?It didn?t really go down like that. It?s amazing how this story changes. It?s insane, isn?t it??

Claiming that he understands from experience how hard it is to land roles, Vin declared, ?I?ve never been the kind of actor who takes a role from somebody else. If anything, I?ve been the type of actor who turned down roles so that other people can have the job.?

After a lengthy explanation, he finally got to the specifics of his version on how he got the mercenary role: ?The reality is that Mathieu very much knew that he wanted me to be in this role. We spent a year talking about it. One time, he knew I was in Paris so he came to me. I don?t know if there were other actors who were in talks about doing this movie before me. There?s always a wish list of who to cast in every script. There could have easily been some talks with people. But when I was approached about this project, it was fresh. If anything, it was ?Vin, can you come to America with this project and champion it???

Budding filmmaker

Before he became a star of commercial movies, Vin was a budding filmmaker with promising credentials. He made an indie short, ?Multi-Facial,? about the challenges of being multi-racial at auditions (he is the product of a Caucasian mother and an African-American father whom he reportedly never met; he is very close to his adoptive father) that was entered in the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. Steven Spielberg created a role in ?Saving Private Ryan? for Vin upon watching him in ?Multi-Facial? in Cannes. By coincidence, Mathieu also had a feature entry, ?La Haine (Hate),? that won him the Best Director prize.

Of working with Mathieu, Vin said, ?The idea of working with a French auteur in an action genre picture was exciting. As you know, I was coming off working with Sidney Lumet (in ?Find Me Guilty?). I want to work with different types of directors. Mathieu and I were both in Cannes in 1995. It was way before anybody knew me. The fact that we had a similar past with independent films, coupled with the idea of doing something within my comfort zone ? an action film ? and doing it with a European flavor was exciting.? There are reports that Mathieu and 20th Century Fox, the studio behind the movie, have differences over the movie?s cut.

When we asked Vin about Michelle, Vin quipped, ?Where do I start with Michelle, aside from her being a bully, which she is? It?s our running joke because she comes on the set and basically bullies everybody. Like someone would say, ?Oh my God, here comes Michelle ? she?s going to kick our ass!??

?I can?t say enough wonderful things about her,? he added, seriously this time. Vin was pressed to comment on the fact that in ?Babylon Babies,? Maurice G. Dantec?s novel upon which this movie is based, Michelle?s nun character is described as 60 years old, short and French. Michelle is obviously not any of those. He explained, ?We all remember ?The Shawshank Redemption.? Morgan Freeman?s role was originally written as an Irish guy. Morgan came in and did such a wonderful job in that movie. I think hiring Michelle is one of the best casting decisions. It is a real good example of how sometimes casting against type could enhance a picture. It was important having Michelle. She brings weight to the Sister Rebeka role.?

Vin paid the Asian actress the highest compliment: ?She is probably the best person I?ve ever worked with.?

Does his mother, Delora, who is an astrologer in addition to being a psychologist, give him free readings? Laughing, he admitted, ?I always ask her, ?Mom, look at my stars, my chart. Do an update.? Maybe because she just doesn?t want to get into the pattern of having to do my chart every week, she would always say, ?I?m too close to you. You?re my son. I?m going to read the planets wrong if I try to do your chart.? So I always get shafted. She never gave me any astrological advice.?

Being a parent

Vin, who is 41, became even livelier when his daughter with model Paloma Jimenez, born last April, was brought up. ?Parts of your heart that you never knew existed open up,? revealed the tough dude in ?xXx? and ?The Chronicles of Riddick.? ?And the definition of love changes when you have a child because your love for your child is unconditional in a way that nothing else in life is. You grow up fast when you have a child. All the things that I?ve done beforehand become insignificant. It almost doesn?t matter what I?ve done before. Nothing is more miraculous, special and sacred than having a child and being a parent. Now, I am very clearly looking into the next generation with some kind of responsibility.?

E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com and read his blog, ?The Nepales Report,? on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.