Vin Diesel says the last three years have been the “hardest of his life” since the demise of his good friend Paul Walker.

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker

The Fast and Furious star admits he’s still struggling to come to terms with Paul’s demise

The Fast and Furious actor – who is currently in Brazil promoting his new movie xXx: Return of Xander Cage – admits it was tough being in the South American country because he had always been with Paul when he visited there in the past.

He said: “We’ve felt the loss. The last three years have been some of the hardest of my life because of losing my brother like that … I’d been to Brazil two times before and both times that I’ve been here, I’ve always been with my brother, Pablo … It was a lot of tissues and it was a hard morning for me yesterday because I was here.

Paul Walker and Vin Diesel

Paul Walker and Vin Diesel at the Europe premiere of Fast & Furious ( Image: Getty)

Paul Walker and Vin Diesel

Paul Walker and Vin Diesel at the world premiere of ‘Fast And Furious 6’ ( Image: Getty)

Nhanh và tức giận 7

Filming of the last scenes for ‘Fast and the Furious 7’ ( Image: WENN)

“But the irony is the whole cast reached out and his daughter, Meadow, reached out and all that stuff helps you get through it.”

And the 49-year-old actor enjoyed filming the action thriller series as it gave him an opportunity to “laugh and smile”.

Paul Walker’s Fast and Furious co-stars share touching tributes on third anniversary of actor’s demise

Brian O'Conner (PAUL WALKER) và Dom Toretto (VIN DIESEL) trong "Fast Five"

Brian O’Conner (PAUL WALKER) and Dom Toretto (VIN DIESEL) in “Fast Five” ( Image: Universal)

He added to Entertainment Tonight : “Making this movie came after a very difficult time making Furious 7, and so never in my life did I need to do a movie where I could laugh and smile and enjoy myself more than right now, more than the time I made this movie. I needed to do this movie and I’m so blessed that I had the opportunity to make a movie, not to have to do a brooding character, not to have to go to a dark place.”

The irony is, right after doing this, of course, I went to do Fast 8 and Fast 8 was a very dark place and the darkest place Dom [his character] has ever been.

“So it was important for me, for my soul and for my family and for all the people that love me, for me to do xXx and for me to enjoy myself the way that I did.”