Vin Diesel has opened up about his long-standing feud with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson during the Fast and Furious films.

The actor and producer reflected on the “tough love” he gave Johnson in order to get the best performance out of him as Hobbs.

• READ MORE: Fast & Furious 9 review: slick but safe sequel never reaches top gear

“It was a tough character to embody, the Hobbs character,” Diesel said in a new interview with Men’s Health. “My approach at the time was a lot of tough love to assist in getting that performance where it needed to be.

“As a producer to say, ‘Okay, 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.’”

Diesel went on to say why he felt obliged to step in and give Johnson advice on his performance: “Hobbs hits you like a ton of bricks. That’s something that I’m proud of, that aesthetic. That took a lot of work.

“We had to get there and sometimes, at that time, I could give a lot of tough love. Not Felliniesque, but I would do anything I’d have to do in order to get performances in anything I’m producing.”

Fast & Furious 9 will be released in UK cinemas tomorrow (June 24).

In a three-star review of the film, NME wrote: “Like so many things in the F&F franchise, it shouldn’t work but somehow does. Here’s to the next billion dollars at the box office.”