The Fast and Furious family is slowing down for their Super Bowl ad debut.
Michelle Rodriguez, Vin Diesel and Ludacris are starring in Häagen-Dazs’ first-ever Super Bowl commercial, dubbed “Not So Fast, Not So Furious.” The 30-second spot shows Rodriquez and Diesel as their Fast characters Letty and Dom “slowing down” with the brand’s ice cream bars.
Meanwhile, Ludacris’ Tej drives next to them asking, “What happened to fast life?” to which Diesel responds, “Not today.”
Rodriguez, who has been portraying her character of Letty since the franchise’s inception in 2001, certainly never imagined she’d be taking the character all the way to a Super Bowl commercial. “We never expected after the first Fast and Furious, almost 25 years later [it would] still be relevant in any way, shape or form,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter.
“It was a celebration,” the actress says of the experience shooting the ad, which Diesel brought to her attention. “He’s always had these ice cream pops [Häagen-Dazs ice cream bars] with the chocolate and the nuts and I’m like, ‘This is really funny that this is how we do a Super Bowl commercial.’”
She says Häagen-Dazs was also the perfect partner to depict “family fun” element of the franchise considering it’s to include several generations.
“After 25 years you look back and you’re like, ‘Wait a minute.’ We’ve got the kids, we’ve got the parents, we’ve got the grandparents now,” the actress says. “The legacy that we leave behind has taken three generations.”
Rodriguez jokes that the ice cream brand’s team must’ve been surprised by the Fast franchise’s rapport with one another, noting that behind-the-scenes and stunt teams from the franchise were part of the ad. “Whenever we work on anything that has to do with the brand, we bring the family together to do that. Everyone’s just super grateful just to see each other,” she says.
The actress likens the franchise experience to that of a long-running cop procedural show. “It’s very rare these days that you have anything that lasts very long periods of time,” Rodriguez says. “Back in those days, sequels were taboo. It’s like you thought you don’t do sequels because it can’t end well.”
As the franchise prepares to wrap up its current 11-film storyline, Rodriguez seems to savoring both the film and commercial process. “We all have our opinions in the cast, and I’m sure Vin’s working hard to assure that the legacy’s in a good place,” she says. “At the end of the day, I think the most beautiful thing that I think the audience has been saying for the last decade, that has really resonated with me the most, is the idea of going back to what it’s about, the culture of it all.”
She says she finds the film’s car culture “beautiful” and notes how it’s grown. “I think that that’s what the first movie did,” Rodriguez explains. “I think ending it with a nice bow tie on that note I think would be just great.”
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