Never is anything more shocking than when a bright light is extinguished too soon, earlier than anyone expected, going from shining at its brightest to darkness in a single moment. This week a light in the form of Paul Walker was lost in an accident which maybe echoes the way in which the star lived and portrayed as an actor and a person.
Walker, at only 40 years old, was killed in a car crash in Los Angeles, the passenger in one of the vehicles which perhaps made him so famous around the world, and ultimately caused his end.
Not to go into the details of the above as by now everyone has heard the story of how things happened, the preference would be to remember Walker on screen were most people knew and loved him best.
With the looks and aura of someone who could easily have been typecast and played pretty much the same character for the rest of his career, and made a living better than most from this, Walker instead challenged this perception to create a different opinion of himself, by pushing himself to play different and varied roles, making them his own and showing people that he was more than first thought.
The onscreen world is full of people who take, or perhaps think they can take, the leading role in a film or franchise, and propel it to the highest possible point. Whilst some have success in this, others fail. Walker had the qualities to be a leading actor, and indeed on more than one occasion did this very well. Where the short fall happens in many modern day films is the type of actor that can lift a movie not by being a large screen presence, but by lifting others who have the presence yet maybe lack ability in other areas.
This is where I think Walker was at his strongest, as in the most famous of his roles, and perhaps one of my favourite on screen franchises, the Fast and Furious series. Here we have an actor who perhaps in the first movie was in danger of being overlooked by the shadow that was cast via an actor with great screen presence in Vin Diesel. One way to avoid this is to not compete for centre stage but to make a role your own and to become the centre of which the story revolves. This is where I believe Walker became the actor he was destined to be, starring in all but one of the franchise movies, with larger, albeit maybe less talented actors, he became the glue that held this story together, his character evolving into a much deeper, complex individual beautiful portrayed by Walker, with the skill and talent needed for these films.
In his own time Walker lived the Fast and Furious back story in his own way with his love of fast cars, indeed the opening scenes of Too Fast Too Furious featuring his very own Nissan Skyline with him performing a great deal of the actual stunt driving, perhaps showing more than most how much this franchise and role suited him.
It is perhaps with a sense of irony that he was taken from the world in the way he was, but for someone to do so much in a life so short, this should not be looked upon as a sad thing yet celebrated and remembered. As Walker leaves this world his family and fans worldwide will miss him, his talent and personality alike. Yet sometimes we must remember that the brightest lights are sometimes needed to light the sky above.
