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Paul Walker: Hollywood Reacts

Paul Walker

This weekend saw Hollywood lose another of it’s stars. Paul Walker, best known for his role as Brian O’Conner in THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS, was victim of a fatal car crash. The nature of his death, coupled with the fact that he was only forty has left everyone saddened and stunned. It’s now being reported production on FAST & FURIOUS 7 has been halted for cast and crew to process their grief while Universal looks at how to move forward.

The last twenty-four hours have seen the world of social media ablaze with reactions from all corners of the film and television community. The beautiful thing about all tweets, Facebook updates, etc, is the overwhelming outpouring of love and respect for the star. The responses of those closet to him, his co-stars on FAST 7, are as expected gut-wrenchingly sad. The really striking thing though is that even people who only worked with him briefly, or met him fleetingly all sum Walker up as a lovely laid-back, sweet-natured individual. Even actors who never met him have been touched enough to share their feelings, Noah Segan (LOOPER), for example took to website Bad Ass Digest to write a stunningly poetic tribute to Walker.

What follows below is just a snapshot of responses:

A note from Noah Segan, actor and Badass Digest contributor:

Tonight, likely through social media, we heard that Paul Walker, a popular actor of renown, died. I didn’t know Paul personally, although both working in a tiny corner of a small industry, we knew some of the same folks and had colleagues in common. There is no reconciling the disaster of someone dying young, leaving their family, friends and endeavors. As an artist, Paul’s work was far from finished, and like many, I grew up with Walker’s films.

The simple tragedy of Paul’s death is further made poetic by his dying doing what gave fans like myself, so much joy. He was in a car. Corroborated reports suggest that he was driving from a charity event, putting his skill and talent to work beyond his job description. These circumstances don’t make his death ironic. They make it romantic, in the true sense.

Many folks, This Author included, like to think that creativity and art are existential in nature. We’re all afraid of The Unknown, of loss, of death. Art is a way to stave those fears off, to create something, whether a painting, a song, an article or a character, that outlives ourselves. In my opinion, of all modern art forms, cinema is truest to life. Films, and those that make them, mix reality, fiction, emotion and calculation in every permutation of dilution. Regardless of genre, cinema is a record, a way to document that ensures a capsulation, a stasis, a purity, forever.

Paul accomplished what every artist wishes. He brought his work to millions of people in myriad ways. His performances, his art, will never be seen by fewer people, never enjoyed less. His audience will only continue to grow, to be connected to his work. It’s difficult to consider the idea of celebrating someone’s life in their death, but we don’t have to do that. We simply watch Paul’s films, the art he made, and we continue to enjoy and share. He may have left us, but long before his death, Paul Walker became immortal.

Tyrese Gibson:

My heart is hurting so bad
no one can make me believe this is real
Father God I pray that you send clarity over this cause I just don’t understand
My heart hurts it’s broken no one can convince me that this is real…. Prayer warriors please pray real hard for his only child, his daughter and family… ?#?HeartOfAnAngel13YrsFamilyForever? WeJustCelebreatedYour40thBirthday….. My God… My God… I can’t believe I’m writing this

Our thoughts also go out to the friends and family of Walker, as well as those of his close friend Roger Rodas, whose life was also tragically taken in the accident. If you have a spare moment why not check out the actor’s charity Reach Out Worldwide.

Source: Various including Twitter,Facebook, and Bad Ass Digest.

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Kat Hughes is a UK born film critic and interviewer who has a passion for horror films. An editor for THN, Kat is also a Rotten Tomatoes Approved Critic. She has bylines with Ghouls Magazine, Arrow Video, Film Stories, Certified Forgotten and FILMHOUNDS and has had essays published in home entertainment releases by Vinegar Syndrome and Second Sight. When not writing about horror, Kat hosts micro podcast Movies with Mummy along with her five-year-old daughter.

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