Griffin Newman is an actor and comedian based out of New York City. Griffin played Kevin Costner's assistant in the major motion picture Draft Day, worked alongside some of the greatest living comedians on three seasons of Colin Quinn's web-series Cop Show, and averaged one line of dialogue per episode on the new HBO series VINYL. He's done some other stuff, but is mostly embarrassed by the rest of his career. 

Above all else, Griffin Newman is a hugely devoted fan of the Fast & Furious franchise and its lead actor Vin Diesel. Over the course of fifteen years and seven thrilling entries Griffin has grown to look upon the main crew of the F&F universe as a second family. Griffin has devoted years of his life to working as a self-appointed ambassador for this epic motion picture saga, tirelessly trying to convince anyone he speaks to for more than three minutes to at least watch Fast Five. Fast Five is a gateway film. Anyone who watches Fast Five will get hooked. It even worked on his grandmother.

Vin Diesel recently announced that Fast 8 (working title) would take place at least partially in New York City, where Griffin Newman resides. It is expected to to begin filming this summer, a period of time that currently looks wide open on Mr. Newman's calendar. Griffin just wants to have some sort of speaking role in Fast 8. He doesn't think that's an unreasonable ask. He's appeared in over fifteen feature films, and countless web-series and TV episodes. He's worked with such acclaimed filmmakers as Martin Scorsese, Ivan Reitman, Kelly Reichardt, Tim Robbins, Mark Romanek, and The Transporter 3 director Olivier Megaton. He has a reputation for usually remembering his lines, eating very little at the craft services table, and being polite (if socially anxious) to cast and crew alike. As a New York resident Griffin would be able to work as a local hire and self-commute to set via the subway, which could save production several hundred dollars.

Who could Mr. Newman play in FAST 8? In a dream scenario the most casually progressive and multi-cultural American film franchise would finally choose to represent the Jewish-American population (approx 5.6 million citizens) by introducing a millennial nebbish without a driver's license into Dominic Toretto's crew. Griffin thinks this type of character could play an important role in providing conflict-adverse beta males worldwide with a clear surrogate character, and help educate audiences on some of the tertiary Jewish holidays. Griffin knows Fast 8 is only months away from production, so there might not be time for the extensive rewrite it would take to incorporate such a major new character into the film. That's fine. Griffin would be thrilled to just have a line or two as a cop, security guard, or car dealership employee. There must be a scene where Vin Diesel as Dom tries to walk past some sort of low-level doorman who yells "You're not allowed in here without picture ID!" before Dom pulls a gun on the guy, to which the deflated nerd quickly quickly retorts "Works for me!" or something like that. Maybe it's Agent Hobbs pulling the gun instead of Dom. It doesn't matter. The specifics aren't important. There's definitely something like that in the current script. It's 100% impossible for there not to be at least one scene with that basic dynamic. Griff would crush that shit.

You know what? It doesn't even need to be a speaking role. He's fine with doing background work. He'd be totally content just being a face in the crowd as long as it's first unit work under director F. Gary Gray and he gets to exist within fifty yards of Vin Diesel, Tyrese Gibson, Michelle Rodriguez, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, Jordana Brewster, and/or Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. He'd also love to work alongside Kurt Russell, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jason Statham, Luke Evans, Lucas Black, Elsa Pataky, and/or Eva Mendes, but those fine actors are definitely on a secondary tier when it comes to importance within the F&F films.

Fine, he'd settle for being an on-set PA. Griffin just wants to work on this movie in some capacity. Dom, Brian (R.I.P.), Letty, Hobbs, Tej, Mia, Roman, Han (R.I.P.), Giselle (R.I.P.) and the rest of the familia have given Mr. Newman so much over the years, and he just wants the opportunity to give something back in return. Also, the paycheck wouldn't hurt.

Sincerely,

Griffin Newman