Los Angeles, Jun 23 (IANS): Vin Diesel has spoken out about the reported feud between him and Dwayne Johnson.

The subject came to light in the July/August 2021 issue of Men's Health magazine, where Diesel opened up about Johnson's involvement in the "Fast & Furious" franchise, reports aceshowbiz.com.

He said: "It was a tough character to embody, the Hobbs character (the role played by Johnson). My approach at the time was a lot of tough love to assist in getting that performance where it needed to be."

The actor added that it took "a lot of work" to bring out the unexpected character of Hobbs, as the audience came in with expectations and assumptions about Johnson.

"As a producer to say, 'OK, we're going to take Dwayne Johnson, who's associated with wrestling, and we're going to force this cinematic world, audience members, to regard his character as someone that they don't know' -- Hobbs hits you like a ton of bricks," Diesel said.

He added: "That took a lot of work. We had to get there and sometimes, at that time, I could give a lot of tough love."

Of his conversations with Johnson, he shared: "Not Felliniesque, but I would do anything I'd have to do in order to get performances in anything I'm producing."

He went on to claim that he is "proud" of the aesthetic they created for Hobbs.

Diesel said: "That's something that I'm proud of, that aesthetic."

Reports of the pair's feud first emerged in 2016 when they filmed the eighth movie of the franchise, "The Fate Of The Furious". During the last week of filming, Johnson wrote in a deleted Instagram post that some people on set "conduct themselves as stand-up men and true professionals, while others don't."

"The ones that don't are too chicken s**t to do anything about it anyway. Candy a**es. When you watch this movie next April and it seems like I'm not acting in some of these scenes and my blood is legit boiling -- you're right," his post read.