Diesel power

Vin Diesel

(CNN) -- It's now official. Vin Diesel, otherwise known to his mom and dad as Mark Vincent, is a bona fide movie action star. That's what happens when your first major leading role makes more than $40 million in its opening weekend.

The box office performance of "XXX" has guaranteed that the 35-year-old New York native will be a part of the Hollywood landscape for some time to come.

In "XXX", Diesel plays Xander Cage, a fearless, daring, unconventional and extreme superspy.

But those words could very apply to the man behind the snowboard and explosions, Diesel himself. Like his character in "XXX", Diesel isn't afraid to go to extremes. When roles proved hard to find, he produced, wrote and directed his own movies.

That led to a key role in Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan". Rather than setting his sights on becoming the standard leading man, he took smaller, more challenging roles. He was a crooked stockbroker in the movie, "Boiler Room"; a criminal turned hero in the sci-fi flick "Pitch Black"; and he was even the voice of the of the cartoon character the "Iron Giant".

Last year's "The Fast and Furious" not only exposed Diesel's pecs but also his action star potential. Now in "XXX", Diesel shows audiences what he's got. To get it this time around proved to be a lot of hard work.

"I had to with the snowboarding experts and I trained with Navy SEALs and all the different aspects of Xander's proficiency had to be worked out in pre-production," says Diesel.

Producers have dubbed "X", the new James Bond franchise, with plans for a sequel. Diesel has already signed on for "X2", at an estimated salary of more than $20 million.

Not bad for a guy, who not too long ago, couldn't find movie roles.

Rosemary Jean-Louis contributed to this article.