Walker talks fast and furiously about car films

Didn't Paul Walker vow never to make another "Fast and Furious" movie? Did Vin Diesel really make more money than Walker for the fourth installment of the illegal street-racing movie franchise? How long did it take the teenage Walker to get a speeding ticket after he got his driver's license?

The blond, blue-eyed former Huntington Beach, Calif., dude, now 35, answered these and other questions in a rooftop interview in Hollywood to promote his new movie "Fast & Furious," which opened Friday and drove away with the box office (an estimated $72.5 million in ticket sales).

Like the third installment, "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," this film was directed by Justin Lin, but unlike the third film, this one reunited the original cast — Walker, Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster — from the 2001 movie ("The Fast and the Furious") that jump-started the successful film series.

This time, the men join forces to battle a Mexican drug lord.

Q: How old were you when you got your first car?

A: I was 18.

Q: What was it?

A: A 1986 Ford Ranger pickup truck.

Q: When did you get your first speeding ticket?

A: Probably within a month of that. They nailed me.

Q: Who taught you how to drive?

A: My mother. My father didn't have the patience for it, particularly for a stick. I learned on my mother's automatic. But then they gave me my father's truck and I had to learn a stick the hard way. I can't even duplicate now what I did to that poor truck.

Q: How excited were you to get your license?

A: I can't describe it. It symbolized freedom. That's what a driver's license is all about. But I have to say that I had no problem being picked up by my friends with licenses for the two years before that. That's why I waited so long to get my license. My friends were right down the street and were always willing to pick me up. I didn't have to pay for gas or insurance. I was no dummy.

Q: Now you're in movies that inspire other kids to drive. Do you appreciate the circle of life inherent in that?

A: Absolutely.

Q: Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you once vow to me that you would never be in another "Fast and Furious" movie?