Director Lumet’s ‘Guilty’ admission

Sidney Lumet said he overcame snobbery about action heroes to cast Vin Diesel in “Find Me Guilty,” which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival this week.

Diesel, who starred in “XXX” and “The Pacifier,” plays Giacomo “Fat Jack” DiNorscio, who defended himself in a 21-month trial in Newark, N.J. The trial ended in August 1988 with the acquittal on racketeering charges of DiNorscio and 19 other alleged mobsters.

“We’re all, and I include myself in this, big snobs about action heroes, we relegate them,” Lumet told reporters. “It’s what we used to do with beautiful actresses ... if you’re an action hero and a star it means you cannot act -- and all of this despite the fact that we know different.”