Damson Idris has the drive to succeed in Apple’s big money blockbuster, F1.
Sitting in a hotel in 2023, Damson Idris had just landed the most important role of his life. Legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Joe Kosinski, the team who took over the box office (OK, and the world) with Top Gun: Maverick, wanted Idris for their high-stakes Formula 1 blockbuster, F1. Idris would play Joshua Pearce, a young gun rookie modelled on Lewis Hamilton (also a producer on the film), and Brad Pitt would play his team-mate and rival, Sonny Hayes, a grizzled veteran who returns to the sport to partner Pearce on the fictional APXGP team.
As far as big breaks go, they don’t come much bigger than this. So you’d imagine Idris’ mind might be racing faster than the F1 car he didn’t know how to drive (but would soon master).
Damson Idris as Joshua Pearce and Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes in a scene from “F1: The Movie.”Credit: AP
“Not really,” deadpans Idris, speaking to me from South Africa, where he is shooting his next film. “I was just consumed by one thought: I need to be faster than Brad Pitt.”
Fast-forward a year or so, and after hundreds of hours on the practice circuit, seven months of training, more than a few crashes, several headaches, and roughly eight kilos lost purely from sweating on set, Idris learned a valuable lesson. “Brad Pitt is annoyingly good at everything,” he laughs. “And I mean everything: acting, racing, even walking. The way he walks on screen is second to none.”
I mention that one of my favourite YouTube clips is a super cut of Brad Pitt eating in all his different films (it’s called 15 Minutes of Brad Pitt Eating, and well worth a watch).
“Oh, don’t worry, I’ve seen it,” says Idris. “I attempted eating in one scene during F1, and they scrapped it, and you know what? Good on them. I’m with the greatest on-screen eater of all time. Come on, man, what were you thinking?”
‘What were you thinking?’ is a question I’ve been meaning to ask director Joseph Kosinski.
In 2022, he helped “save cinema” (Spielberg’s words, not mine) with Top Gun: Maverick, a sweeping sequel to the 1986 original that was critically and commercially celebrated, grossing $1.496 billion worldwide at the box office. Such a feat warrants time off. A mini-break. Honestly, Joe, what were you thinking?
“Well, as with so many people, during the pandemic, I became obsessed with Drive to Survive on Netflix,” says Kosinski. “I went to school for mechanical engineering and aerospace, so the way these cars work is fascinating to me, and then factor in the personalities and team dynamics, it’s rich with story.”
Pitt and Bruckheimer shared Kosinski’s obsession, and they all agreed that if they were going to make a racing film, it had to look real.
The first step was getting Formula 1 on board as an official partner on the film, with a view to embedding production in real Grand Prix races worldwide. Having seen F1’s popularity surge following Netflix’s Drive to Survive, CEO Stefano Domenicali was open to the idea but harboured concerns about how the sport would come across. Thankfully, super producer Jerry Bruckheimer is no stranger to sweet-talking nervy organisations.
“When I did the first Top Gun, the navy was worried about how they’d be portrayed, so Tom Cruise and I went to the US Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego to convince them it would be a good thing, and instead the admiral threw us off the base,” laughs Bruckheimer.
“So Tom went to Washington and met with the Secretary of the Navy at the time, and he understood what a movie could do for recruitment. We got to shoot Top Gun, and after it came out, naval recruitment went up 500%. Oh, and the other admiral was fired.”
Bruckheimer’s Top Gun-inspired pitch was enough to convince Domenicali, and the group secured Formula 1 as an official partner, allowing them to film at 14 Grand Prix events. Current F1 drivers, including our very own Oscar Piastri, agreed to appear.
Brad Pitt and Jerry Bruckheimer on the set of F1.Credit:
The next hurdle was figuring out how to bring the audience inside the chaos of a machine that can reach a top speed of 374.97 km/h. “Cameras,” says Kosinski, perking up. “And lots of them.” He’s not lying.
To ensure authenticity, the film’s team, in collaboration with Mercedes-AMG and Formula 1 team engineers, built six F2 cars, which were then customised to resemble modern F1 cars.
Each car came affixed with four IMAX-certified cameras in 15 possible positions, plus up to six additional cameras inside the car’s cockpit. “We worked closely with Sony, who created the cameras for Top Gun, to create a smaller version that would allow us to swivel between the driver and the track.”
Kosinski is a self-described “attention to detail fanatic,” meaning F1 would always look the part. However, few people know how it feels to race—the sounds, smells, noise, fury, joy, and heartbreak. Enter Lewis Hamilton.
With seven World Drivers’ Championship titles, Hamilton is the most successful F1 driver of all time (tied with Michael Schumacher), a driving prodigy who holds the records for most wins (105), pole positions (104), and podium finishes (202). He also happened to be the only driver Kosinski knew.
“We talked about casting him in Top Gun: Maverick; he’s friends with Tom [Cruise]. We couldn’t make it happen, but through that conversation, I had Lewis’ email, so I asked for help, and straight away, he was on board,” says Kosinski.
According to Bruckheimer, Hamilton wasn’t shy of critiquing the film’s inaccuracies during production. “We were filming in Silverstone, where they host the British Grand Prix, and in turn three, Lewis could hear that we were in the wrong gear,” he says. “Brad was in third gear, and you take that turn in second gear; not many people in the world would know that.”
Aside from gear changes, Hamilton’s insight as the first black driver to compete in the F1 proved invaluable to Idris. “The beauty of this movie is that Lewis exists, and the barriers that he’s broken down means Joshua Pearce can exist on screen too,” says Idris. “We spoke about what it means to be an advocate without seeking out that label, so I modelled Joshua on Lewis.”
On paper, F1 is the kind of film destined for success. A high-octane blockbuster based on a hugely popular sport featuring an all-star cast on screen and Hollywood heavyweights behind the scenes. However, in an increasingly competitive marketplace, films still need to be sold to audiences, which might be the one thing Brad Pitt isn’t good at.
Earlier this year, Bruckheimer attended Liberty Media’s (the company that owns Formula One) investor day in New York. He discussed Pitt’s reluctance to self-promote there, telling the crowd, “He doesn’t like to do press.”
This approach is at odds with Bruckheimer’s other most recent A-list collaborator, Tom Cruise, a famously shrewd marketing machine who boosts the profile of his films with attention-grabbing stunts and endless global press tours.
However, with a reported budget of $463 million, Bruckheimer requires Pitt in full salesman mode ahead of the film’s release. “Brad has told me he loves the movie and wants to go out and support it, so he’ll join us on the world tour.”
Brad Pitt and girlfriend Ines de Ramon at the 2024 British Grand Prix.Credit: Getty Images
As for Idris, he seems to be channelling the rookie energy of F1’s Joshua Pearce, all wide-eyed enthusiasm accompanied by mild disbelief that any of this is happening. “To be talking about working with Brad Pitt on a Formula One movie still blows my mind,” he laughs.
On the day we speak, it’s announced that he will play jazz legend Miles Davis in the upcoming film Miles & Juliette. The movie will explore Davis’s romance with French singer Juliette Gréco during his 1949 trip to Paris. Anamaria Vartolomei will portray Gréco, and the film is produced by Mick Jagger’s company, Jagged Films.
“There are so many interesting icons out there that I want to pay homage to, and Miles was at the top of my list,” says Idris. “This is my dream job, and I can’t wait to stretch myself, show my range and learn the trumpet!”
And should he need someone to teach him how to play? Well, I bet Brad Pitt’s good at that, too.
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