1
15...
Happy birthday
to you
Happy
birthday to you...
Happy birthday, dear Paul...
The reason why we all
were devastated
about Paul Walker
is because he's the nicest dude
on human feet.
Happy birthday to you
Make a wish.
Paul had real
relationships with everybody.
You felt his love.
You felt his spirit.
You felt his energy.
You felt the morale,
the camaraderie,
the inclusion.
Birthday boy,
look this way.
Paul,
look this way.
Look at Daddy.
He was somebody that cared,
and he was somebody that really
was experiencing life,
and on the daily
trying to experience it
to the fullest.
"Never back down"
mindset, you know?
Go big or go home.
He was just
a kid from Sunland-Tujunga,
you know, the gun-toting hippie,
balance of opposites, you know?
A lover and a fighter.
He got in a lot of fights
when he was younger.
He didn't lose very many fights.
He would
have been a great fireman.
He likes to grind.
He's not afraid to get dirty,
talks a lot of trash.
He just fits in.
I just thought
he was the coolest guy
in the world,
and it had nothing to do
with the movies, nothing.
Here's a guy
who's getting phone calls
left and right from creditors,
and right in the middle of that,
he's like,
"Dude, I'm going to be a dad."
Ladies and gentlemen,
give it up for Paul Walker.
Aw, dude, ladies flip out.
When you meet this dude,
you felt like he
jumped out of a magazine.
You know what I mean?
It was like, that's who he was.
The cinema
didn't capture it all,
couldn't capture it all.
Paul was always an actor
who had one foot in
and one foot out.
He would just disappear.
When Paul wasn't making movies,
he wasn't in L.A.
He wasn't even in the country.
He would be, like,
in the Amazon,
or he'd be, like,
diving with sharks.
Hey, we got him hooked good!
Each time he appeared
in a Shark Week episode,
he donated to my non-profit.
He didn't even tell me.
He did take care of people,
to the point where he wasn't
looking after himself.
He'd pretty much
made a decision
that he was going to back away
from Hollywood.
He was like, "Time?
I don't have time.
I don't get time." You know?
"I got money.
I don't got time."
New fuels,
new devices
to get the most out of engines,
and new thrills.
My dad
set records in Bonneville.
Our family car
was a car that he raced
when I was growing up,
and Paul wanted to hear
all of these stories.
Yay!
He loved it.
Paul used to go visit my dad
and just want to be with him
in the shop,
and my dad was not a talker,
but he would talk to Paul.
He became a gearhead
because of my dad.
- Wow.
- Yeah.
My brother
had big shoes to fill.
My brother was actually
the fourth Paul Walker.
My grandpa was actually
the second Paul Walker.
He came from a line of just,
like, bad-asses.
My dad's totally a guy's guy,
tough guy,
you know, military guy.
Shooters ready.
Go get the arrows.
What are you
doing, Paul?
You going to blow
some bubbles up?
Yeah.
Whee!
Yay!
Okay, swim to the side.
He was always sweet,
always kind, always nice,
the most loving person
I've ever met in my life.
I mean, like, if he cared
about you, you knew it.
L.A. is a big place,
and Paul grew up
in Sunland-Tujunga,
which is definitely
just an ordinary,
common street with homes,
and very much
of a blue-collar place
to grow up and raise a family.
There's cool dude.
This was Paul and I.
We'd just get outside.
Whatever it was,
let's just get outside
and do something.
Just fun memories of just
doing things outside,
all the time.
I have to say,
it didn't surprise me
that he became
so successful in acting.
That's Toby next door.
I'm not supposed to feed him.
Whenever I feed my puppy
this new puppy food,
Toby goes crazy.
He would try out
different voices...
Sorry, Toby.
...and characters,
and really
took a lot of pleasure
in tormenting me
with some of these characters.
Paul,
in your opinion,
which of
the two of you
looks better
onstage today,
you or
your sister?
This is serious?
Yeah, it's serious.
Right here.
Myself.
He always had
that, like,
ability to tell a story,
and of course he had the looks.
He must have landed
or got a callback
on, like, 80%
of the calls he'd go on.
One of the people that really
showed a lot of faith in Paul
was Michael Landon.
Look,
I'm a stranger around here.
You kids know the Drake plant?
My mother's
Mr. Drake's assistant.
She knows that place
inside-out.
Rita Travers.
He cast Paul as one part,
I think it had to do
with the ocean
and fishes and stuff,
and then there was another one
they needed a kid to play
in the Special Olympics.
Todd...
where do you live?
A-at... at the group
foster care home...
...with Mrs. Burke.
I was surprised
at how good it was,
even though I was there
watching it being filmed,
because he had this innate
ability to just feel.
I'm your brother.
M-my... my brother?
Yeah.
My brother!
My... my brother!
Wild man.
When Cody came into the family,
he was a surprise
to my parents,
and so obviously
a surprise to all of us,
but Paul was almost 15.
Cody, Cody.
I remember always
a really sweet,
really tender relationship
between the two of them.
Because of that age gap,
Paul wasn't just like
a big brother to me.
He was another
father figure to me.
If we were going on vacation
or, you know, for spring break
or whatever,
we knew where
we were already going.
We were going
to Carpinteria State Beach,
which is just south
of Santa Barbara.
We'd get a camp site,
tents for the kids.
Every night we were roasting
marshmallows and s'mores
and doing
the whole campfire thing.
That was
the Walker family vacation.
Carpinteria was...
That's where we went
for everything.
I would wake up
early in the morning
when it was going to be
minus tide at daylight,
and I would get the kids up,
and we would go out
to the tide pools.
Paul was just fascinated
by all of that,
and that's where his heart
always went after that.
We had a motor home,
but the boys always
popped up their tents,
and there's a...
Paul is sitting
in the opening of the tent,
he's eating,
like, a bowl of cereal.
- Is it good, Paul?
- Mm-hmm.
And his little brother,
Cody, came over
and just put his arms around him
and gave him a hug.
Aw, now he's
giving him a hug.
You don't forget
stuff like that.
Say hello, Paul.
Hello, Paul.
- Hello, Paul.
- Hi.
Move out
of the way, Brent!
Don't look at me.
He's camera shy.
Yeah, that'd be the day.
When Paul reached 18 years old,
the acting thing
was, you know,
it was...
he really wasn't
too thrilled with it.
All right, we're going.
Bye, Paul.
See you.
In the process of walking away
from, you know, this career
that his mom had put so much
effort to and everything,
um, a lot of things,
you know, went sideways.
Money was gone
that he thought he'd earned
to be able to go to college.
Hey, Paul.
Look...
Hi.
So what is today?
Graduation.
Really?
And did you make it?
There was explanations for it.
Whether it's the truth,
I don't know.
I think it, uh, possibly went
to his, you know, education,
going to Village Christian,
doing all these things.
In my opinion,
he would go make money,
and it was so easy
that then he would
spend it easy, too.
Yeah, definitely not the best
at managing his money
and all that kind of stuff,
but who would be
if you grew up where it would
come like that?
I was scared.
I was scared that he wasn't
going to turn around
and go to school
and do the things that we had
talked about his whole life.
He wants to figure it out.
Let him have a break.
Here he is, 18.
He's already been working for,
what, you know, 15, 16 years?
You know?
Let him go
do what he's gonna do.
He was one of those
kind of kids
that parents hate.
He was fearless,
and that scared me.
I don't mean to say
he was amped out of his mind
on adrenaline.
He liked to do exciting things.
Paul was just that way.
He got in a lot of fights
when he was younger.
He didn't lose very many fights.
No one messed with Paul.
You know, you don't really
think of that as Paul.
You think of him
as kind of like a heartthrob
if you don't really know him,
but, you know, Grandpa and
Father were always showing us
how to punch,
and, you know, all that stuff.
He was a tough kid.
He grew up, he had a tough dad
that was, you know,
a Vietnam vet
and just, uh, played all sports,
and was just very athletic,
and-and very scrappy growing up.
Paul's super loyal,
so if there
was anything that would happen,
a circumstance that would happen
that he feels like
his friend's being threatened
or something like that,
there's a little bit of a switch
that Paul could turn on,
you know?
And it gets real serious
pretty quick.
I can remember one time
Paul is walking to the store,
and a guy was walking out,
and had his arms full of cans
or whatever he had,
so Paul opened the door
so he could walk out.
As he walked by Paul,
he goes, "Thanks, bitch."
It was on.
So Paul tuned him up.
Basically K through 12,
we all
went to the same school.
We just grew up together.
We got in fights together.
We got chased by the cops
together.
We did things where our parents,
we'd get in trouble together,
and by the time I became
a stuntman and was doubling him,
it was just brothers
that grew up together.
He told us,
he had us around because
we'd keep him in check.
He knew we wouldn't let him
get away with stuff.
He saw other actors
losing touch with reality.
Sometimes he didn't like
the answer we'd give,
and he'd be mad at me
for a couple days,
and then it was always better,
you know?
I met Paul for the first time
at some party in Glendale.
Paul was just kind of like
this bro guy.
"Hey, what's up?"
He and I hit it off right away
because he was a surfer guy
from California.
I was from Hawaii.
We'd both been actors
when we were kids,
and he just automatically...
He's like, "Dude, you've got
to meet my friends.
You've got to come hang out.
We've got to go camping.
We've got to go surfing."
So I was, like, "Dude, great."
We lived in Huntington Beach for
a while,
and that was not
healthy for him.
There's too many guys down there
who want to fight,
especially if you're an actor.
Some guy on the street
that rips off his shirt
that's 250 pounds and looks
meaner than anybody,
Paul's going to snap.
His acting skills would come in,
and he would act
for a few seconds,
and half the time
I wouldn't know
if the fight was on
until it was halfway through.
He was living in a garage
and the whole bit,
and he's got this phone
that keeps ringing nonstop,
and I'm like, "Dude,
is that, what's that,
like, your girlfriend?
Like, what is it?"
He's like, "No, it's another
bill collector."
He was getting calls
from bill collectors,
like, every two minutes.
It was crazy.
And, uh, he just really
didn't have any money.
He started getting
a lot of pressure
to come back and do films
or TV shows, things like that,
from his previous agent
from when he was a kid.
I talked to him
about it considerably.
"Look at the numbers.
You're already a commodity.
You've already
got your foot in the door."
Sometimes I regret
that I did it.
Based off his age and his look
and his, you know,
just his vibe and everything,
I think he kind of
knew instinctively
that there might really
be a crack here.
He was like,
"All right, you know,
might as well do this for real."
And he made some phone calls,
reconnected, got a manager.
I remember first meeting Paul.
His hair was...
I don't want to say afro-y,
but it was definitely
big curls and longer.
He had a great sense of humor,
a lot of energy,
like, a very magical
look in his eyes,
and, uh, it was
kind of mesmerizing, actually,
when he looked at you,
but he really looked at you.
Just a really present
human being.
We definitely had a bond
and a trust with each other,
and, uh, I did right by him,
and he did right by me.
He ended up testing
for some serious films,
and then ended up booking
"Pleasantville" shortly after,
with a major, A-list director,
Gary Ross,
and an incredible cast.
What's all the commotion?
Where's the cat?
Um...
it's, um...
I'm a naive '50s jock, uh,
captain of the basketball team,
the dreamboat,
the dreamboaty guy, I guess.
I'll see you at
school, Mary Sue.
Who's that?
He was always known
as "the vagrant."
Always barefoot,
shop at the surplus stores
for, like, army clothes.
Paul had a truck
that would break down
all the time
on his way to auditions.
He would skip auditions.
But when he went into the room
and he actually
met with directors
or read with casting directors,
he executed.
Happy birthday, Deedles!
Whoo-hoo!
Happy birthday
to us, bro!
That's right,
Big 18!
Fully legal!
The "Meet the Deedles" premiere
was the first big premiere
that, like, our whole family
got to go to.
Pretty photogenic
yourself there, buddy.
Look at that.
Hi, Paul.
How are you doing?
What's today's
date?
- I forget.
- March 27th.
I remember, like,
almost crying,
seeing his name on the marquee.
Oh, bro, we're
a walking Kodak moment.
It's fully
Deedle-mania.
We all got in our best clothes
and met up at the family home.
It was... it was stressful.
Paul was dressed really nice,
and at the last second,
had to go get a dry shirt.
You know, like, he was worried.
That was one of those times
where I actually got to see
my brother really human.
But he liked being able
to share those moments with us.
Here's a guy
who's getting
phone calls left and right
from creditors,
and right in the middle of that,
he's like,
"Dude, I'm going to be a dad."
And I'm like, "Oh, my god,
this is horrible, dude.
What are you going to do?
You know?
You've got no money,
and you're an actor."
You have to know
that his relationship
with Rebecca was from...
they were...
they were kids together.
They were sweethearts,
and then they were friends,
and they were sweethearts,
and then they were friends.
He was scared.
The idea of having a baby
when he wasn't really ready
to have a baby...
They weren't married.
I said, "Well, you guys
could just get married,"
because I thought
"They're in love.
They're never going
to be apart anyway."
I was taught, I mean,
Mom and I were
going to be together,
and I was raised Mormon.
I was told Mommy and Daddy
were supposed to be together,
and it was a hard one for me.
I was so conflicted.
I was thinking down the road,
I was like,
I knew where I was at.
I was into chicks and having
fun, you know what I mean?
I was an animal.
I want to be there.
My heart wants to be in it,
but the mind
just isn't following it.
Rebecca had been
around our home so much.
I treated her
as if she was my daughter.
We just became a family
that's a little different.
You know, you have kids young,
that's part of the game.
You know,
it sounds cool and all,
but, you know, you look back,
and it's like
you thought knew yourself.
You just didn't.
Emotionally I wasn't there yet,
because I didn't even know
who the hell I was, you know?
Say hi, Meadow.
Wave.
He wanted to be,
like, the super dad
and be there
as much as he could,
but at the same time, that's
when his career went crazy.
He was all over the country,
filming different movies
and, you know, being gone
literally half the year.
Quarterback Lance Harbor!
Let's hear it!
I was lying in bed
last night...
...and, uh,
I drifted off to sleep,
and I had a dream
that we were beating Bingville
14-3.
Paul Walker
is a heartthrob
both on and off
the big screen.
Good to have you
with us this morning.
Okay, your movie,
"Varsity Blues,"
big, big hit at the box
office this weekend.
Yeah, that's so exciting.
You guys don't even know.
How psyched are you?
Are you recognized
when you're
walking down the street?
Not too much.
I mean, I'm still the new guy.
He smells good,
just like you, Andy.
It's good
to have you onboard.
Yeah, thanks a lot.
Thanks so much
for having me by.
Just super
to have you here.
Paul Walker,
everyone. Wow.
25 years old.
I was casting "The Skulls,"
and Paul comes in.
You know, I don't...
He's sort of like a surfer dude,
but, you know, he looks right,
and I said,
"Let's read this part,
and remember, in this part
you have to leave California
behind.
You have to adopt
the east coast,
and east coast
back to the Mayflower."
So he read it, and I said,
"We're going to have to work
on this language thing."
"Oh, Erik, you and I, we need
to move to New York City."
He said it a few times, "We
gotta move to New York City."
I'm like, "Why do we got to move
to New York City?"
"We've got to get the
California, all this out of us.
We've got to become, like,
sophisticated guys
that wear, like, turtlenecks
and sit at coffee shops
and.
We've got to shake the "bro"
if we want to, you know,
if want to be taken seriously
in the film business."
I took him aside and I said,
"Look, I want you
to come back in,
but please
don't blow this audition.
Come in here
and give me the east coast."
He came in.
He was dressed differently.
He was much more buttoned down,
and he... he did it,
and I gave him a hug,
and I told him,
"You've got the part."
What are you
talking about?
I know what you did.
What are you talking about?
Know where I found this?
Hm?
He was so good in that scene.
He gave Josh
such a run for the money.
He was so threatening and dark,
and he's, "Why is that, Lucas?"
and he was aiming these lines,
and-and you really
felt the power.
From the time of the cage scene
to all the rest of the movie,
I was working with him
like an actor, right?
Not like a pretty
California boy, you know,
surfer dude, football jock,
you know?
It was, like,
"you're acting now."
He was sopping it up,
because I don't think
any director
had ever talked to him like
he was a legitimate actor,
and, uh, and I knew he was,
and I did.
I feel like I really worked
with a director
that I really clicked with,
and when I talk to my agent
or I talk to my representatives
back home,
the thing I say
over and over again
is that I either want
to work with Rob again,
or I want to work with someone
just like him.
And he goes, "So what are you
working on next?"
and I said, "Well, you know,
I'm at the very beginning
stages of this thing.
I don't know."
And he goes, "Is there
a part for me in it?"
I said, "I told you, yes,
I'm developing the lead
for you."
He goes, "Well...
Well, tell me about it."
I said,
"Well, you're a cop
who goes undercover
in the street-racing world,
and instead of
doing your job as a cop,
you fall in love
with the people."
"I get a gun.
I get the girl.
I get a fast car.
I play an undercover cop.
I've got a big conflict.
What else is there
for an actor?"
He goes, "I'm in. I'm in."
He really liked the cars,
and on those movies,
he got into it.
He could tell you
what size turbos the cars had,
or what they should do different
to make 'em better,
and the other actors
don't even know
how to drive
a manual transmission car.
He did his homework
like nobody else.
If you took Vin Diesel, okay,
and if you've ever been
to New York
or on the east coast,
what kind of guys
are in New York?
The kind of guy
that's in your face.
And then you go to Paul Walker,
and he's like, "Yeah, cowabunga.
Kick back.
It's all good."
So you took each coast
and you ended up, like,
throwing them together...
Smoke 'em.
You know, it'd be
like oil and vinegar,
and you've got
this great salad dressing
for some unbeknownst reason.
It's like, you know,
it mixed good.
I owe you a 10-second car.
I remember sitting
on the lawn of Universal,
Vin and Paul and me,
doing the press junket,
and I said,
"You know, I think all our lives
are about to change.
I have a feeling this film
is going to be so much bigger
than anyone's expecting."
I always believed
the subject matter had a chance
to be successful,
but when I walked
out of that screening,
I knew he was a movie star.
I'm enjoying it.
I have a blast.
I love my job.
I get to travel.
Gosh, I mean, it's just amazing.
I mean, this has really
been going on for me now,
like, maybe like six years.
I think "Pleasantville" I did
like six years ago.
Please welcome Vin Diesel
and Paul Walker. Boys?
You know, I don't ever
want it to end.
I saw the transition
immediately.
I remember coming out
of a Detroit radio station.
Paul and I are going
on the sidewalk
and saw a girl
break down in tears
that Paul
was coming out of the...
and we looked at each other,
like, "Did that just happen?"
You are just, like,
the hottest guy
I've ever seen.
Has anyone ever
told you that?
Yeah, what are you trying
to do to me right now?
Are you trying to make
me blush, or what?
The ladies love
you, Paul Walker!
Oh, my goodness.
It's just really bizarre.
I mean, just not too long ago,
I was...
I was living out of a garage,
and I was panhandling.
Hey, how's it going?
I'm Paul Walker,
and this is my rolling crib,
so why don't you come on in
and check it out?
This is where we keep
all of our surfboards.
Probably the height
of our memories of surfing
was the Surfing Safari trip.
We got our old beat-up
motor home.
It was a nice motor home,
but anyways,
we started in northern Cal
and went down
the California coast, surfing,
just stopping
at all the different breaks,
the best breaks of California.
He actually makes his...
his first "MTV Cribs"
in our motor home
that we went
on the Surfing Safari with,
so it was just funny.
It's classic Paul, right?
Like, hanging out
in this beat-up motor home
for MTV Cribs.
Um, but yeah, thanks again
for coming out. Appreciate it.
You guys went ahead
and make yourself at home.
Take care. We're outta here.
Being a movie star takes
a lot more responsibility,
just the way you carry yourself,
the way you are in public.
Paul was always willing
to take a picture
if asked by somebody.
He was always willing
to sign an autograph.
He was very gracious with that,
but it never changed his spirit.
It never changed his heart.
How much
of an issue
is paparazzi
for you now?
I guess they're
going to start
hounding
you very soon.
Are you
prepared for it?
I know how to hide out.
- Yeah?
- Yeah.
Things were not easy
for Rebecca,
because of people realizing
who Meadow was,
and they would come up
in the grocery store
and try to pick her up,
and it was a little scary.
So she wanted
to go move to Hawaii
to finish college
and become a teacher of art.
And I think that was, like,
"Wow, I've made enough money
to be able
to pay for my baby's mama
and my baby to be in Hawaii
and do this,"
and it was like
a real dream of his
for her to grow up
and learn about the ocean,
and learn about, you know,
just kind of being a hippie
and learn that style.
Paul showed up one day,
and I
was the only one home,
and he said, "How is a person
supposed to balance this?
I want to be there for Meadow.
I want to spend
all my time with her,
but you gotta work
while there's work."
"2 Fast 2 Furious"
had a bunch of women on the set
and a bunch of women
in the city.
To be young, handsome,
making all that money,
the token negro
and the token white man
in Miami...
it was, uh, it was hard
to get a lot of work
done out there,
you know?
My god.
Girl, you know your boy
can help you
put that fire out!
Look at the bubble on that.
I don't know.
We just got along really well.
The only problem, really,
was, though,
we got along so well
that we were screwing around
more than half the time.
While you were
supposed to be working?
Yeah, exactly.
And so we got, you know,
John Singleton
barking at us
every once in a while,
telling us to get serious.
Right. What up
to John Singleton.
In that one, I did a big
car jump over a drawbridge,
yeah, in a little Nissan Skyline
with no suspension,
so it was...
it was a hard landing.
Whoo!
He would ask me
how big the hits were
and how much
it really hurt, or...
you know what I mean?
He was so curious
on that part of it.
I like to think
that's what separates me
from some of these other cats.
It's like, hey, I want
to do these stunts, you know?
As many of them as I can,
anyways.
Shit.
Damn, Rome!
How do you like them apples?
Show-off!
If you had
to look up the definition
of ideal handsome white man,
Paul fit every profile there is.
Blond, blue eyes, 6'3",
surfer dude,
muscles at all times.
I mean, this dude had muscles
in his kneecaps, man.
He was full throttle.
Some dudes where they handsome
and they become arrogant
with it,
and they're unapproachable,
as a man,
he wasn't intimidating,
because he was so regular
and so grounded and so cool.
He was the guy that every woman
wanted to be with
and every man wanted to be like.
Our personalities
just clicked, man.
We both shared this kind of
feeling, like,
it's perception versus reality.
I think
there's nothing more scary
in me and Paul's eyes
than to have someone to give you
all this good energy,
and they have the worst
of intentions toward you.
You run into executives
at studios all the time,
and it's almost like...
it feels mafia. Like...
It's like,
"Hey, oh, we love you.
We love you.
Get rid of him right now, okay?
Thank you.
Hey, man!
Let's do lunch later."
It's like, wow,
they were so cool,
and then...
you find out how they
really feel about you.
And so me and Paul had plenty
of those conversations.
I think after
"Fast and the Furious 1,"
he became much more
hypersensitive
to what he wanted to do.
For most part,
Paul was always conflicted
on whether to do a film or not.
You know, I think
it's just patience.
You know, I've gotten to
a point now where, you know,
I'm fairly comfortable,
and, you know, if I'm going
to do anything,
I want to...
I want to take pride in it.
Paul was screen testing
for "Superman."
I think it was
a $10 million deal,
and he was the frontrunner.
I knew he was up for it.
I knew he was thinking
about doing it,
and I knew he did not want
to do three or four "Supermans"
and be Superman
for the rest of his life.
And all of a sudden,
the phone rings, and it's Paul.
"I've got an ass on.
I've got a cape, boots,
the tights.
This is not me.
I'm getting the
outta here.
I gotta go. you." Boom.
And he was gone.
I should be out there
prospecting.
Quit your job?
No, I was fired,
but it's all part of the plan.
I'm just going
to get this thing going,
get the boat shaped up,
get out there, make a big find,
and we'll live the rest
of our lives on our own clocks.
Paul, he loved the water.
He loved to scuba dive.
He loved action.
"Into the Blue"
checked a lot of the boxes.
I think it started off
as a good script
and everything like that.
I'm not saying
he didn't like the movie,
but definitely did that one
for the location and the time.
To be able to go to the Bahamas
and rent a big fat house
on the water
and work with cool people...
He loved the ocean.
He loved the water
more than anything.
I mean, going out on his boat
and stuff
was so fun for him.
He got hurt on that show
on his day off.
Wake-surfing behind the boat,
and twisted his knee.
He was just
very honest and pure.
He just wrapped it with ice
and came in straight away
and told them, and then, like,
"No, I'll just finish the show,
and we'll make it work."
Did not want to get surgery
and get it handled then.
When we were offered a film
and Paul was considering it,
it was always
a major process to...
to get to the starting line.
It was never easy.
We saw "Running Scared"
as a vehicle
with a great filmmaker
that could put Paul
in a grittier light.
When they told me, they said,
"Hey, look, uh,
you really have to read this,"
their words were,
"This is exactly what
you've been looking for,"
and I was like, "Oh, really?"
So it was either
we understood each other
and we were going to be working
together for a long time,
or we were going
our separate ways, you know?
What's your name?
Conchita.
Conchita.
Now, you listen to me, Conchita,
you listen to me real good.
I don't want to hurt Manny.
Until he was proposed
for "Running Scared,"
it wasn't somebody
that I thought
was ideal for the film.
The Fast and Furious,
they were entertaining movies,
but they had more of
a comic book, cartoonish
kind of feel to it.
As silly as it is,
I actually think that was
more of who he was, you know?
Fighting bad people for the law,
like a good guy,
where Brian O'Conner was a narc
that undermined the driving,
so he was really never stoked
on Brian O'Conner.
"Fast and Furious" fans
will hate that,
but you know what I mean?
Paul committed to the movie,
we start pre-production,
trigger the financing,
everything,
and then I can't hold of Paul.
The clock is ticking.
Uh, we're weeks into
preproduction.
We're getting ready to start.
Finally I'm like, "If Paul
doesn't call me this week,
we're recasting the movie."
It's, "You have 24 hours."
"What's going on?
Have you seen him?
Have you seen him?"
Like, he's calling everybody,
like, around the clock,
because he can't reach him.
Paul finally calls me,
and he goes, "Hey, Wayne,
how's it going?"
I said, "Paul, I've been trying
to get hold of you,"
and he goes, "Yeah, sorry
about that, I've been..."
I don't even
remember where he was.
"But don't worry.
I'm going to come to set
a couple of days before.
We'll figure it all out,
and I'll be there for you
1,000% every day,"
and he was right.
You know anything about a gun?
- No, no.
- No?
No, it's lot five,
number 602.
That's where he is.
Okay.
We have to do the scene
where Paul, uh,
tracks down
the janitor's home address,
and he... he knocks on the door,
and then
she's holding a newborn baby.
You don't call Manny.
You don't tell Manny I'm coming.
You don't warn him for anything,
because if you do,
I'm going to come back here!
As soon as we call "cut,"
the baby's mother
rushes onto the set,
grabs the baby up,
sweeps it off,
and everybody on the set
is, like, "This is intense.
This is too far."
Then Paul comes over,
he drops down next to me
behind the monitor,
and he bursts out laughing,
and he's, like,
almost hysterical.
He goes,
"This is so up."
He was always
a little bit risky,
and a lot of times he'd, like,
break a finger
or break a bone in his hand
at the beginning of the movie,
and he wouldn't say anything
to anybody the whole time.
Inside he liked it,
because it
gave him a little pain,
something to react to.
I don't want to sell pain.
I don't have to act pain.
Hurt me.
That was who he was.
Paul was a real tough guy.
He wouldn't back down
for anybody.
He just had an aura
of, uh, intensity about him.
Paul loved the making
of "Running Scared."
He loved the finished product
of "Running Scared."
He really respected Wayne.
Every day I'd be saying,
"God, we've got to get
a technocrane for this,"
and the line producer would go,
"We've got no more money
in the budget,
so forget about it."
The next day, there'd be
a technocrane on set,
and I'd be like, "Great,
we got the technocrane."
I would find out afterwards
Paul was paying for it all.
Paul was saying,
"Don't tell Wayne
where this is coming from."
So...
I mean, that's who Paul was.
He was a super generous guy.
When he finished filming
"Running Scared,"
he said, "You know what?
This is what I needed,
but I'm still, like, all gnarly.
I've got to get it out of me.
I've gotta go surf."
He called me up
one time and said, "Dude."
I don't know where he was,
but he was like,
"I gotta get in the water."
Call it the negative ions.
Call it whatever it is.
He felt anxious.
He loved his time off,
and would just disappear
and check away
from all of us, actually.
Paul wasn't a guy
who was off getting,
you know, up
or doing anything crazy
or any of the rest of it.
He just knew
when he needed a break.
I think that
wasn't as much of an escape
as just going back to reality.
That was real for him.
A lot of times, you know,
you get good waves
and they could be
in nice places,
and in some
pretty impoverished places,
and I think it exposed the world
to him in a tangible way.
A lot of the times
in his movie career
he'd be just, like, "Enough.
I'm out. I'm outta here."
He's definitely
not a puppet.
You know?
He's definitely not somebody
that's gonna just
be told to do something
and then do it.
He didn't like
just going to a press line
and talking about himself
and the movie and the role.
He wanted to talk about things
that he really cared about.
When I met Paul,
I was about 10 years
into a great white shark
research project
at Guadalupe Island.
When Paul joined us
for an expedition,
we were catching
these big females
and attaching these satellite
transmitters to them.
Basically we were hauling up
giant monsters from the abyss,
great white shark,
anywhere from
15 to 18 feet, you know,
over 4,000 pounds,
all in the name of science.
The first time
Paul saw a white shark
get pulled out of the water,
he was like a little kid.
Hey, Mom, look at me.
His face
was the biggest childish grin.
I will never forget
the look on his face.
The estimation was 16 foot.
Looking out on the water,
it's 16'5".
Nice.
That's it, dude!
That's what we needed!
You're so stoked,
your hands are shaking.
Yeah, I'm trembling inside.
This was his
very first opportunity
to see a white shark
right up close.
I mean, you can touch it.
That'll get your
heart rate going.
He had a blast.
That's where he was
in his top element.
It was way more important
to talk about that
than it was any movie.
Adventure.
Hey, man, I've jumped out
of helicopters, you know?
Snowboarded in, like, plush
champagne powder, you know?
I've done all that cool stuff.
Dropped in on waves, you know?
Twenty-foot-plus faces,
you know?
And this still takes the trophy,
I'm telling you.
Our common ground
was the ocean.
We both loved to fish,
loved to spearfish,
loved to dive, loved to surf.
By the time he got off the boat,
I had a whole new respect
for Paul.
He started making plans
on "How can I really
have an impact...
Paul Walker have an impact
on the ocean?"
And he knew he couldn't
do it by himself.
Whoo!
You know,
I've traveled the world.
I've been to a bunch of places.
I've-I've experienced a lot,
but nothing compares to
what I experienced on this trip.
I'd walk away from it all
to do this full-time.
He'd always say, like,
"I wanted to be a park ranger,
you know, make 28 grand a year,
and, like,
live in the wilderness."
Like, that's really
what he wanted to do.
Paul looked around hard
where he wanted to settle down,
'cause he was very nomadic.
Santa Barbara
is a special place.
Most of my time
is spent, you know,
Santa Barbara north.
As I've grown older,
I appreciate more where
it's more lush and more green.
There's nowhere else like it
on Earth.
It's... it's unique.
Santa Barbara to Paul
was like his safe haven.
350 acres
just up above Carpinteria.
He had a place
where he could
go up there and hide
and run around, get muddy,
and plant trees,
and, you know,
just do guy shit, you know?
What?
You almost
lost it.
Oh, I thought
I was going for sure.
Paul liked to race cars...
not street racing,
but really
race cars on tracks.
Our common interest was cars.
Cars brought us together.
He walked over to me,
go, "Hey, are you the guy
that just bought my GT3?"
And, "Yeah," I told him
that I'm the guy,
and I also told him
that, you know,
a man should never sell a GT3
in his life,
and from that moment on,
we become close friends.
Really good driver,
conscientious at all times.
He talked about it,
he... you know, regularly,
"I need to be that role model.
I need to practice
what I preach."
He's an adrenaline junkie,
if you know him.
He loves adrenaline.
He loves things that's fast.
"Always Evolving,"
Paul built that
along with Roger.
They put together a team,
and he started hanging around
more and more
with professional drivers,
and he started
really, really learning
a lot of great skills with cars,
because look, back in the day,
we have a lot of famous actors,
they're race car drivers.
Steve McQueen, right?
You have Paul Newman.
He went from a movie character
to really become
a race car driver.
A lot of respect for that.
He'd get to go to the track,
spend a day being himself,
talk some trash, and, you know,
who's fast, who's not fast.
I remember going and seeing
his private collection of cars
up in Valencia,
and there's
an amazing amount of cars.
It wasn't even pretentious cars.
He wouldn't go for, like,
the most expensive Ferrari
or whatever it was.
He liked
his Japanese racing cars.
He truly loved
the Nissan Skyline
and those kind of cars
more than muscle cars.
He liked the technical part
and the better brakes
and all the stuff,
but then, really, what he drove
in his everyday life
was the Tacoma truck.
He wanted somebody to cr...
you know, ding him,
and he'd be,
like, "Don't worry about it,"
and they'd just be shocked.
If he was here right now,
and, you know, had
something cool parked outside
and you made a comment
about how cool his car is,
he would literally
throw the keys at you
and say, just,
"Cool, go have fun."
It didn't matter, like, when he
didn't have anything at all,
and then when he had everything.
Like, nothing about him changed.
Paul had a passage
from George Bernard Shaw
that said, you know,
"I want to be all used up."
You know, "I'm not just
some flickering candle.
I'm going to be a torch,
and when I'm done,
I want to be thrown,
completely used,
on the trash heap of life,"
and, uh... I can actually say
he did a lot of things
that made a lot of difference
in a lot of people's lives,
you know?
He... he was a giver.
That massive earthquake
in January of 2010,
Paul was frustrated with, like,
"Well, what can I do?"
He made some phone calls,
got friends that knew firemen,
paramedics, EMTs.
Within
the firefighting community,
there's kind of a group
within a group of guys
who sign up
because they're willing
to literally go anywhere.
We remember watching
Hurricane Katrina happen,
Hurricane Rita,
and being frustrated,
and so the same thing happened
in 2010
when the earthquake hit Haiti.
That's when
one of Paul's childhood friends
reached out to me and just said,
"Hey, I know you really
want to go help out.
I have a way that you can go.
Would you be interested?"
And I said, "Yeah."
One day I got a call,
and he said,
"I'm on my way to Haiti."
I said, "You're what?"
I was very proud of him,
but I was also terrified.
He kept talking to people
who kept telling him
"No, that's not possible,
no, you can't do that."
"You've got to have clearance
from the governments,
and how is he even
going to get there?"
They don't have plans,
flying by the seat
of their pants.
There was no chance
that they were going
to get a plane
into Port Au Prince.
I remember we didn't have
any way into the country.
The flights
were getting turned around.
The airport was only accepting
certain flights,
so we had talked about
flying into the Dominican,
and so we just had
the basic plan
of, "Let's get to the Dominican
and see what we can do."
You know,
Paul's relationship with Vin
over all of the years,
uh, Vin's got family in...
and contacts and stuff
in Dominican Republic,
which is right next door.
I remember meeting Vin Diesel
and some other people,
just hearing about,
"Yeah, we might be able
to get you guys a helicopter,"
so the next day we were...
I remember we were loaded
into a couple vans
and taken to an airfield.
I remember
looking out the window,
watching the country go by.
We were thinking a lot
about our families,
because there was a lot of scary
rumors that were going around,
um, about attacks
on aid workers,
the machete bands of, you know,
warlords and things like that,
so I remember there was...
it was a quiet flight,
and we were all just kinda,
"All right,
we're gonna do this."
Haiti was like
nothing I'd ever seen.
I've never seen anything
like that since then.
It was literally
the worst traumatic scene
you could imagine.
People were being shipped in
with multiple amputations,
multiple crush wounds,
no painkillers.
It was awful.
Paul was literally
holding a kid down
as we set his bone into place.
I remember seeing that
and thinking,
"Man, that's...
that's real genuine.
That's...
that's why I want to be here."
I appreciate that about him,
and the fact that we were there
because he reached
into his own pocket
and got us there.
I'll never forget that.
When Paul started
"Reach Out Worldwide,"
he warned me.
He said, "No press.
No PR, no press.
I don't want any...
It's not about that."
Everybody wants to go viral
for what they're doing,
you know?
If you're doing it
from your heart,
why do you want
all the attention?
He never did Reach Out Worldwide
with the intentions
of press and PR
and wanting people to know
that he was
the hero that he was.
Let's join R.O.W.
by supporting their efforts
in the Philippines,
because together,
we're going to realize
a much bigger impact.
The race to relief starts now.
One thing that I'm
wondering about
is the "let's."
"Let's join R.O.W."
It's sort of, um,
separating yourself
from the
organization,
like you're not
a part of it.
Ah, they don't need to know
it's my thing. You know?
It's like... it's something
that I believe in,
so let's join it together,
and it makes it more
like we're doing it,
as opposed...
"we're joining them"
as opposed to "join me
and R.O.W."
You know? I just...
I think it's cooler.
There was an intensity
in Paul's life
that you knew, like,
okay, now, this is...
this is really what matters
to him.
This isn't just the Paul
going chasing waves,
but this is the Paul
that cares for people,
and, uh, really makes an impact
on people's lives.
I don't think anybody
can go to a place like Haiti
after that event
and not come back changed.
I think we all
came back different.
I know we all
came back different.
I wasn't in part 3,
I wasn't in part 4,
and it wasn't because
I didn't have interest
in being in it.
There were various other people
that was kind of...
going out of their way
to snuff that out.
Paul Walker was on a mission
to get me
back into the franchise.
This just went
from Mission: Impossible
to Mission: In-freaking-sanity.
You know, we talked
a lot about family.
We talked...
we both have daughters.
As a father, you find yourself
chasing your career,
chasing your relevancy
in Hollywood,
and so when it comes to money,
one would say,
"You just made all of that,
so you don't have to go
do three, four movies in a row.
You could just
get this big chunk of money
and then go spend all this time
with your daughter
and be at home and go surf
and live your life."
At that time,
his life was all about Meadow,
and he would just be, like,
"Dude, she's the coolest.
Like, she's like...
I'm so proud.
You know, I mean,
she's just a cool girl."
When Paul found out
talking to his daughter
that she wanted to leave Hawaii
and she wanted
to live with her dad,
it made him so happy
to know that she wanted
to come and live with him.
He was, like, riddled with fear,
because he referred to himself
as this Disneyland dad.
"I'd always show up
and she'd get
to go travel with me,
go do this, go do that,"
and he said that.
It was, like, you know,
"Rebecca's a great mom,
you know, and I didn't have
to go through, like,
the flu, the chicken pox,
you know, this, that," you know.
He goes, "Now I get
to be there, you know,
probably in the most important
time of her life,
and I've got to be that dad."
She tries to be
a little tougher
than I want her to be.
I want her to be more revealing,
like, "You're not home enough,"
or, "You don't pay enough
attention to what I'm saying."
Like, I want her
to say those things.
She's honestly,
she's the best partner
I've ever had.
She lives with me full-time now,
and, uh,
so we're in all this together.
When it comes time to,
you know, considering a project,
whether
I'm going to do it or not,
we sit down and we pow-wow.
We discuss it.
He would be, like,
"Dude, I only got six more years
until she graduates high school.
I only got five more years
'til she graduates high school,
and I'm contractually obligated
to do this or that,
and they'll sue me
if I don't do it,"
and when it's time to work,
he's gone for months on end.
The "Hours" was...
we went after that script.
We loved that role for him.
We loved that script for him,
and I think the "Hours"
was one of the best performances
Paul ever had.
Yeah! Hello? Hello?
Hey, can you hear me?
This is Nolan Hayes.
I'm at Saint Mary's Hospital.
I've got a baby on a ventilator
that needs a rescue team.
Right away, please.
She needs to be moved.
You know, he's
trying to save his daughter,
and I knew he tied in,
and he told me he tied in
on that.
As he was getting older,
and the way
that he was changing,
being a father,
doing the things that he was...
Hello? Hello?
...He was actually stepping
into becoming
a really good actor.
I knew he was gonna be.
There was only so many guys
that are in their late 30s,
early 40s
that looked the way he looked,
that were built
the way he was built,
that could do the action.
I always said to him,
"You're going to be
Steve McQueen
in your 40s, you know?
In your 50s, even.
You're so handsome right now,
that age is actually
going to be good for you.
More lines on your face,
give you some grit."
You know, we were
on an upward trajectory.
The sky was the limit.
Paul! Paul!
Hey, Tiger!
Paul! Paul!
Paul, to the left,
please!
Being a big Hollywood star
and the whole thing
is, like, it's...
it's so difficult to do that
and
to have a functional family.
He told me he actually
had some conversations,
like, "What if I just
take some time off?"
But ultimately he said,
"I have a responsibility
to a lot of people.
A lot of people
rely on me doing this.
I have a publicist, a manager,"
and he goes, "I help provide
for you, Ashlie.
I help provide for Mom."
What are you doing?
Happy birthday.
You're going
to give me a car?
It's a Lexus.
Who says material things
don't make people happy?
He did take care of people,
to the point where...
he wasn't looking after himself.
I worried about him.
I worried about that
taking its toll on him,
and I wish sometimes
that maybe I had been more...
had a hand in helping him stop.
I think Paul wanted most
to be a great father,
and I think that...
when he was away from Meadow
or he wasn't spending time
with his daughter,
that wore on him the most.
What is
success to you?
Uh, success is, uh,
balance in life.
That's the most hard...
that's the most difficult thing
to find.
Every single person
in my family,
every single person
that calls Paul a friend,
has been told by Paul,
from his mouth,
"This is the last one.
Oh, this is the last one.
This is the last one,
and I'm done."
Heard that forever,
but he couldn't walk away.
He couldn't quite...
he couldn't quite
walk away yet, in his mind,
and, uh...
that's one thing
that's, like, so killer,
that sucks so bad about...
You know, he never got
to really enjoy,
like, just watching
his daughter grow up,
and enjoy everything
he had worked so hard for.
He was finally starting
to really kind of
put that together and, like...
Yeah, and then he just got...
got cut short.
He took Meadow
out to breakfast,
and when they came back,
I was in my pajamas
in the kitchen,
a little embarrassed
that I still was in my pajamas,
but he said, "Oh, Mom,
it's, you know, fine."
I think he got a text
on his phone,
and he looks at me
and he goes, "Oh, my gosh.
I'm supposed to be somewhere
right now."
He told my mom, he said,
"Oh, there's an event
that I'm supposed to go to.
Um, it's this toy drive."
We made plans to be
back together in the evening
and decorate a Christmas tree
that night.
And then
after he left her house,
he called me.
He had, like, this...
this game plan on, like,
how to
bring the family even closer.
And then after he got
off the phone with me,
he called Cody
and had a similar conversation.
He actually called me
on his way to that toy drive...
and, uh...
I was at work that day,
uh, and, uh...
god, I'm so glad
that I wasn't on a call.
I was able to answer the phone.
When the toy drive
was finished,
I was driving the Carrera G from where he was parked,
trying to put it
back into the garage.
Roger comes out,
joking around with me,
saying that, "Hey, you know,
you probably don't know
how to drive a Carrera GT right,
and it's my car.
Let me take it home."
And that's when
Paul was leaving,
and said he wants
to take a ride with Roger first.
It's just so stupid.
I've been
on that same exact loop.
It's an industrial park.
There's nothing there
on the weekend.
There's no cars. There's...
It's all closed up.
There's nothing there.
And it was just kind of like,
"Oh, you just, like, do a loop,
and, like, get it...
get the car running up to temp,
and then, like, put it away."
You gotta let these cars run.
You've gotta run them.
You've got to rotate the tires.
You've got to do these things,
and this is a customary thing.
And so we're there,
still cleaning up.
The next thing we know,
we hear a loud noise,
a loud bang.
Supposedly...
the impact knocked him out,
and then the car
just became this inferno.
He's stuck in this car,
he's unconscious on impact,
and then he just burns alive.
After Paul left
for that toy drive,
my mom called me
and asked me what I was doing,
and, um,
I went over to the house,
and we ran an errand together,
and...
Lucas Wimer
walks through the door,
covered in soot,
like, singed eyebrows.
He told me that he couldn't
get him out of the car,
and then he said
he couldn't find him in the car.
Well, I'm immediately saying,
"We need to go find him."
I didn't know
what he was trying to say
was he couldn't find him
because the car was on fire
and they couldn't get to him.
At the scene of the crash,
deputies had to wrestle
one of Walker's friends away
seconds after it became clear
Paul and Rodas
couldn't be saved.
Our coroner's office
also determined
that the cause of death,
Mr. Walker,
is combined effects
of traumatic
and thermal injuries,
and the manner of death
was Accident.
I... I was actually the one
that had to call
each member of my family.
I felt like I had to keep
breaking more people's hearts.
If you knew Paul, you loved him.
That's just how it was.
I tried reaching Cody.
I couldn't,
so I got ahold of his fiance.
She said, "Oh, he's working."
There's my wife,
and she's just sobbing, and...
my supervisor says,
"You're going to go home,"
and, uh, she pulls me outside,
we start
walking towards the car.
I'm like, "What's wrong?"
She's like,
"Something really bad happened."
I said, "What's wrong?
You've told me that.
What's wrong?"
And, uh, she just looks at me,
and she goes,
"It's your brother, Paul."
Take your sword.
I will.
Say it
right now.
- Hey!
- What?
My name is Cody.
Do you want to fight?
Yah, yah, yah!
I said, "Okay, so he got hurt?
What's wrong?
Is he...
Is he going to be okay?"
And, uh,
she just shook her head.
To lose somebody like Paul,
it's not, uh,
it's not for the weak, you know?
It's not for the strong, either.
It's just something
that's totally messed up.
Your son's not supposed
to go before you.
I... it's your worst fear,
and it came to pass.
How old
are you now?
Okay,
this is the...
We're going
to test you now.
This is the test.
What's today's date?
September 20...
I mean, December 24th.
Yeah? What year?
19... um, 1986.
Uh-huh.
I just remember
the very first time I...
I heard it.
You know, I immediately
jump in my car
and I drive down
to be with the family, you know?
I remember, uh, giving...
giving Cheryl a hug,
and, uh, her words were,
"Paul and you were brothers,
and you will be forever."
I guess, like, uh,
a little bit of,
"What can I do to help," right?
With Meadow
and everything like that,
you're, like,
there's so many uncertainties.
He would have helped out
if it would have been reversed.
He would have been the one
taking care of everything
for my family.
I really just wanted
to go to sleep
and not have to get up again,
because I just wanted
to be with him.
Swim to the side.
Come on, I'll
hold onto you.
Swim! Swim! Swim! Swim!
Kick those feet!
Even if I died
age 80 or whatever,
I will never live even a third
of the life Paul lived.
I mean, that guy...
that guy made the best
of every single minute.
Whoo!
He was just a guy
who... could take life
on its own terms
and find the joy in it
at all times.
There's nobody
that ever worked with him
or ever knew him
that doesn't feel the loss.
I'm so, so grateful
that he was in my life,
and that he was my friend.
He was a, uh, supporter,
and a, uh, you know,
a champion for you.
He would be
going absolutely bananas
over the fact I've discovered
a brand-new population
of adult white sharks
very near his back yard
in Santa Barbara.
I know he would have
been bugging me 24/7,
"Hey, let's go again,"
and I really wish
I could have him
out there with me.
Paul taught me that,
it may seem simple,
but to do good.
Many times
when he hung up the phone
or, uh, ended a conversation,
he said, you know,
"Be good."
And he meant it.
He wanted to do good things.
He wanted you to do good things.
He wanted us to do more
to do better for the world.
I had no idea
the impact worldwide
that Paul has had
until he passed away.
I think we were all
amazed to see
how far and wide
Paul's influence went,
and how many people loved him.
Beef jerky
time.
I learned a lot
from Paul, man...
humility,
treat everybody the same,
respect and love.
Go out of your way
to create moments
of uninterrupted quality time.
He gave the best hugs, man.
There isn't a day
that's gone by since his passing
that I haven't
thought about him,
and sometimes
I just talk out loud.
I say what I want to say,
what I'm thinking.
"We still miss you.
We still love you.
It'll always be like that."