‘Fate Of The Furious’ Newcomer Celestino Cornielle Beat Out Pitbull To Join The Franchise

Celestine Cornielle’s role in the “Fast and Furious” franchise was a long time coming to say the least. The actor stars in a new lead role in “The Fate of the Furious,” but it wasn’t his first attempt to join the action-packed franchise.

The actor’s journey into Vin Diesel’s on-screen family started when the film’s 2003 sequel, “2 Fast 2 Furious,” was in pre-production. Originally a model, Cornielle was sent to audition for the film, which he says he did to appease his agent. “I never considered myself an actor,” Cornielle told International Business Times.

His “awful” audition resulted in what he calls his “magical” journey into the latest film. “I left that room with my heart in my hand. I was brokenhearted, but it did ignite a fire in that, ‘I’m not going out like that. I’m going to prove myself,’” Cornielle told IBT. From then now, he began taking acting workshops and during one, realized he was meant to be an actor.

“In that very moment I made myself promise to just follow this dream of mine and wherever it may lead me,” he said.

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One year later, he booked his first film. After years of starring in small movies and TV shows, Cornielle is due to make his feature film debut in “The Fate of the Furious” on April 14.

“Years later, here I am one of the leads in one of the biggest installments in the franchise yet. It’s very exciting,” he said. “For me its almost prophetic. It’s like the universe has smiled upon me and said, ‘OK, now you’re ready.’”

Being selected to play his character Raldo, a car-racing king pin in Cuba, however, wasn’t easily won. While director F. Gary Gray immediately “fell in love” with how Cornielle played the role, Cornielle says the studio fought back against the filmmaker hiring him in favor of giving a bigger name the part.

“What generally happens is that a big name is chosen for these parts. The studio themselves had a name picked for the part and I knew from the very beginning that that’s what I was up against.”

After two months of waiting, he learned he was offered the part, which Universal initially wanted to give to rapper Pitbull, who Cornielle says he’s a huge fan of.

“Up at my first day filming, that’s when Gary tells me about this big fight that he went through for two months where they actually made him recast certain roles just so he could keep me on.” The rest, is history.

Watch Celestino Cornielle’s feature film debut when the “The Fate of the Furious” hits theaters Friday.