‘Fast and Furious’ writer addresses discrimination despite franchise success

Screenwriter for the popular Fast and Furious franchise, David Ayer, claimed that he has not benefitted from it despite playing a major part in its success.

During his appearance on Jon Bernthal’s Real Ones podcast on Tuesday, Ayer, 55, shared that the Fast franchise is “biggest in Hollywood” and “I don’t have any of it.”

“I got nothing to show for it, nothing, because of the way the business works,” he told Bernthal, 46.

Ayer’s comments come amid a larger conversation about the treatment of writers in Hollywood. The Writers Guild of America went on strike in May and by July Screen Actors Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists also went on strike over an ongoing labour dispute with Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

Ayer detailed how the first drafts, which were written by Gary Scott Thompson and Erik Bergquist, were set in New York with all Italian kids.

He explained that he went ahead and set it in Los Angeles and wrote in “people of colour” along with the “street stuff” and the “culture” no one knew about street racing at the time.

“I went to a shop in the Valley and met with, like, the first guys that were doing the hacking of the fuel curves for the injectors and stuff like that, and they had just figured it out and they were showing it, and I’m like, ‘Oh f—k yeah, I’m gonna put that in the movie.’”

He speculated that the reason he isn’t recognised for his contribution is because he doesn’t go to parties and the ones who did were able to “control and manage narratives” as they socialised.

“I was never socialised in that part of the problem so I was always, like, the dark, creative dude, beware.”