Vin Diesel has turned in a lot of great performances over the years, including those in movies without the words "Fast" or "Furious" in the title. But did you know Diesel is also a director and, even better, Steven Spielberg is a champion of his work? Yeah, it looks like we're all learning something new and wonderful today thanks to comments Diesel gave in an interview about a recent conversation he had with the Oscar-winning director.

The subject of Diesel's directorial career came up while the actor was speaking with The National while promoting his new film Bloodshot. Diesel's resumé as a director is short considering his career stretches across nearly three decades. The actor's first credited role was in a 1995 short he directed, Multi-Facial, before following it up with his lone feature-length film, 1997's Strays, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. Since Strays, the actor has only directed a few other shorts and one episode of a 2012 TV series called The Ropes. Diesel's work on Multi-Facial ultimately earned the actor a small role in Spielberg's Oscar-winning film Saving Private Ryan.

Upon mentioning Multi-Facial and the Spielberg connection, Diesel told The National, "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. That is a crime of cinema and you must get back in the directing chair.' I haven’t directed enough.”

Even though Diesel doesn't have any specific directing project lined up at the moment (goodness knows he has the clout to do so), it must be pretty dang swell to know Spielberg is in his corner.