For Cody Walker, the death of his big brother Paul Walker still doesn’t feel real.
The Fast & Furious star was killed in a car crash on November 30 at age 40. Since then, the 25-year-old Cody has helped complete his brother's role in the latest F&F feature – which finished filming in Abu Dhabi last week – and even moved from Oregon to California to work on Paul's non-profit organisation.
Nevertheless, promoting the charity and discussing his brother's last completed movie, Brick Mansions, proved too much, too soon, for Cody.
“Right now, a whole lot of time has not gone by yet,” Cody said in a phone interview. “It still doesn’t feel real, because sometimes, working in this industry, making films, he’d be away from his family three, four, six months at a time, you know. And my only interaction would be a phone call. So, I know it’s going to take a while.”
Cody and brother Caleb, 36 – both of whom bear a notable resemblance to their late brother – were spotted working on the Abu Dhabi set of Fast & Furious 7, which will be released on April 10, 2015.
When pressed for details about his involvement with the movie, Cody responded simply, “I can’t talk about that.”
He recently took on the role of brand manager of Reach Out WorldWide (ROWW), a non-profit disaster-relief organisation founded by his brother in 2010.
But clearly, Cody still needs time to deal with his loss and heal.
“Anyone who’s ever met Paul ...” he began, then stopped for a second.
“He would tell me how jealous of me he was because I still had my anonymity. And he’s like:‘I can’t just go to the movies. I can’t catch the films I want to see. You’ve still got that, man.’ And here he is, talking. It was just so funny to hear that come from him.”
