Mumbai, May 12 (IANS): Actor and rapper Ludacris, who plays Tej Parker in the "Fast & Furious" franchise, shared a host of fascinating insights about his role and the films in the latest episode of the podcast, "F9: The Fast Saga".

Speaking about "2 Fast 2 Furious", the second film of the series that released in 2003, Ludacris recalled how his role and audition happened at the last minute.

"The studio was initially looking for Ja Run to bring back as Edwin, however he turned down the offer and Tej Parker came into existence," he said.

"In the last minute they had to hurry up and fill this role. I remember right before getting on stage, I was in my dressing room and someone told me, ‘You have to try out for this part. They only have one day so you've got to put it on tape now, and here's the sides and you've got to do it.' I was 15-20 minutes away from going on stage," Ludacris recalled.

He added that they were so short on time that he didn't even get the time to be nervous about reading his lines!

Ludacris says "never in a million years" did he imagine he would reprise Tej Parker again before 2011's "Fast Five". He has been a part of every film in the franchise since then.