Paul Walker's Costars Are Humans, Too

Following Tyrese Gibson's emotional visit to Paul Walker's crash site yesterday and outpouring of mourning from celebrities on social media, another The Fast and the Furious co-star of Walker turned up to pay his respects yesterday evening. The six-time costar in the Fast and Furious franchise and longtime friend to Paul Walker arrived at the crash site Monday night and gave a moving speech to fans. Vin Diesel thanked the fellow mourners for "showing that angel in heaven how much you appreciate him" before quietly exiting the scene.

Unfortunately for Diesel, being a cast member of the popular action franchise and a celebrity eclipses the fact that he's an actual human being that lost a friend and a loved one. TMZ was naturally close by when he turned up at Walker's crash site to break his silence following the actor's untimely death and asked what seems to be the unspoken (but still incredibly loud) question — When will Fast 7 start filming again and what will its fate be?

I understand that as a wildly successful franchise with an extremely loyal following, fans and publications are interested in any news surrounding the anticipated seventh installment, but is it necessary to ask that question now just days after its star's death? To TMZ's intrusive and basically insensitive question, Diesel had the most perfect response, "I can't even think about anything but the loss of a loved one." And he shouldn't have to.

Diesel is first and foremost a human being and friend who's mourning the loss of someone close to him. He should be allowed to do that without being pressured for information at the site of Walker's fatal accident about something so mundane. I know, this is a classic case of not treating celebrities like human beings and blah blah blah, but it is truly insensitive to approach a person in mourning with a trivial question about their work, even if it refers to the deceased.

It's incredibly sad that celebrities need to go into hiding after the loss of a loved one out of fear of the press's insensitivity (á la Lea Michele seeking asylum with Kate Hudson after the tragic loss of Cory Monteith) rather than publicly mourn with their fans. Diesel bravely ventured out to honor his tragically fallen friend and he should've been able to do so without being asked production questions that he probably has no answer to in the first place.