Vin Diesel Holds Back Tears While Singing In Tribute To Paul Walker At ‘The People’s Choice Awards’

Vin Diesel gave a rousing speech while he accepted the People’s Choice Award for Favorite Movie on behalf of Furious 7. Earlier in the evening, someone pulled a Kanye West while talking about Kanye West, and Diesel stepped onto the stage to lend some dignity to the evening’s presentations. It’s been about two years since Diesel’s good friend and longtime co-star, Paul Walker, died in a Porsche accident. Since this franchise was where the two men forged their bond, Diesel carried a great emotional load onto the stage. The audience expected some thoughts on Walker, and Diesel did not disappoint. He did admit to feeling unprepared for the wave of feelings:

“It was a labor of love. My only message to you is you’d be amazed what you can do with love. You’d be amazed at how powerful a force that is. When we didn’t want to come back to filming when the tragedy was too heavy, it was the love of everyone combined that saw us through to the end.

“You know, as I was coming up here, I always do this. I say I’m not going to get emotional about winning these awards, and I was cool when I was sitting in my seat, and then they handed me two awards. One for favorite action movie and one for favorite film. You all thought that this was your favorite film. I think of Dom and Brian and I start to think of Paul.”

Diesel then broke into a rendition of “See You Again,” which he started with sadness but ended with a smile. Here’s a longer version of the speech with Diesel’s crooning at the end.