Steven Spielberg told Vin Diesel that it would be a “crime against cinema” if he did not continue directing.

The Fast and Furious star began his career as a filmmaker, writing and directing the 1995 short Multi-Facial and the 1997 drama Strays. After watching both, Spielberg specifically wrote a character for Diesel to play in his 1998 film Saving Private Ryan.

In an interview with The National, Diesel said: “Speaking of Steven Spielberg, I saw him recently, and he had said to me, ‘When I wrote the role for you in Saving Private Ryan, I was obviously employing the actor, but I was also secretly championing the director in you, and you have not directed enough.’”

The monolithic Jaws filmmaker then supposedly told him: “That is a crime of cinema and you must get back in the directing chair.”

“I haven’t directed enough,” Diesel confessed.

Diesel did return to the director’s chair in 2009, for Los Bandoleros, a short film set in the Fast and Furious universe.

For the past two decades, however, his primary focus has been acting.