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The Empire Film Podcast Episode Summary
Episode Title
F1: An Empire Podcast Interview Special ft. Jerry Bruckheimer, Damson Idris & Kerry Condon
Episode Overview This episode features an in-depth discussion about the movie "F1," directed by Joseph Kosinski and starring Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, and Kerry Condon. The film, which follows two drivers from a struggling Formula One team, has garnered significant success, grossing over $600 million globally. The episode includes interviews with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and the film's stars, Idris and Condon, offering insights into the filmmaking process, the unique challenges encountered, and the film's reception.
Key Highlights
Film Overview
- Director: Joseph Kosinski
- Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer
- Stars: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon
- Plot: Focuses on two drivers from a struggling Formula One team who must learn to work together to win a single race.
- Box Office Success: Over $600 million globally, marking it as the biggest hit of Brad Pitt's career.
Interviews
Jerry Bruckheimer
- Career Overview: Renowned for producing iconic films such as *Top Gun*, *Pirates of the Caribbean*, and *The Rock*.
- F1 Film Success:
- Discussed the challenge of introducing Formula One to an American audience unfamiliar with the sport.
- Emphasized the importance of word-of-mouth marketing, which helped sustain the film's success beyond its opening weekend.
- Production Insights:
- Described the extensive collaboration with Formula One teams and drivers, filming at nine Grand Prix locations around the world.
- Noted the difficulties of shooting scenes under strict time constraints, such as only having minutes to capture crucial moments during races.
- Shared the significance of authenticity in creating a racing film, including the real-world dynamics of Formula One.
Damson Idris
- Character Insights: Plays Joshua Pierce, one of the main characters.
- Preparation: Underwent rigorous training and character workshops, including discussions with real F1 drivers to accurately portray the mindset of a racer.
- First Impressions: Recalls his initial interactions with the cast and crew, highlighting the camaraderie and preparation required for the film.
Kerry Condon
- Character Role: Portrays Kate, the technical director for the APXGP team.
- Character Development: Worked closely with real-life F1 strategist Bernie Collins to develop the authenticity of her character.
- Production Experience: Described the intense environment of filming during live races, emphasizing the challenges and excitement of shooting in such dynamic settings.
Themes and Concepts
- Collaboration in Filmmaking: The importance of teamwork between cast, crew, and real-world professionals from the sport to create an authentic film experience.
- Challenges of Filmmaking: The hurdles faced during production, including filming logistics, time constraints, and the need for precision in a high-stakes environment.
- Audience Engagement: The film's success hinged on the ability to emotionally resonate with viewers, making them care about the characters and their journey.
Conclusion The episode wraps up by highlighting the film's release on Apple TV and providing additional recommendations for listeners interested in deeper analyses of the film through the *Empire Spoiler Special Podcast*.
Key Takeaways
- Successful films often require a combination of authentic storytelling, emotional engagement, and effective marketing strategies.
- The collaborative nature of filmmaking is paramount, particularly when working in an industry as specialized as Formula One.
- Unique challenges, such as filming live during actual races, can lead to innovative storytelling and production techniques.
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Listen to the full episode [here](https://empire.supportingcast.fm/).
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Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:14Hello Pod, I'm Chris Hewitt and welcome to a very special episode of the Empire Podcast.
0:30F1 the movie, whichever title works for you. It is, of course, Joseph Kaczynski's film, which stars Brad Pitt and Damson Idris as two drivers on a struggling Formula One team who have to learn to put aside their differences in an attempt to win one race. Just a single race, that's all they want. The movie was shot with the cooperation of Formula One and all its teams and drivers and principals at nine Grand Prix across the world, and is an often exhilarating experience that puts you as close as you can get to being behind the wheel of an F1 car without subjecting yourself to hideous G-forces. It's also a reunion for Kaczynski and his Top Gun Maverick producer, the legendary Jerry Bruckheimer, and ahead of F1's debut on Apple TV, which is today, Friday, December 12th, I sat down with Bruckheimer at Claridge's, the top London hotel that played a small part in the development of the movie.
1:27Bruckheimer, of course, should need no introduction, but I'm going to give him one anyway. He is a legendary producer, the man behind, sometimes with his former partner, the late Don Simpson. Iconic movies like Beverly Hills Cop, Flashdance, Top Gun, The Rock, Con Air, The Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Top Gun Maverick, and of course, F1. It's been a hell of a career, and while our conversation was focused on F1 and the challenges of making it, we touched upon how things have changed for him as a producer over the last 50 years, including his previous car movie, Days of Thunder. I loved doing this interview, and I hope you enjoy it.
2:04Here is Jerry Bruckheimer. The legendary Jerry Bruckheimer. Welcome to the Empire Podcast. How are you, sir? Chris, it's great to be here, and thanks for having me. I don't know about the legend part of it, but... You know, the number of people I introduce in the podcast is legendary, and they all say, I don't know about the legendary part. Have you looked at your IMDb recently? I don't. I actually don't. I just worry about the next one. Because that deserves a sobriquet legendary, believe me. You have made some amazing films. F1, of course, is just one of the latest. Congratulations on the film's success.
2:40Thank you so much. I was looking at it today, and it has bucked a trend. there's been a bit of a worldwide trend this year at the box office of films doing pretty much internationally what they did domestically f1 has bucked that trend big time yeah can you explain that what's the what's the reason for that do you think well uh america is not in tune with f1 yet and after the movie it is but it they never heard of it i mean when you ask somebody are you going go see f1 they'll say what's that yes they have no idea they looked down as a keyboard for the uh screenings you know test screenings and and they're blind recruits so the people don't know what they're seeing all they know is a summer movie yeah so they come in and then you take a focus group of 20 people after the movie and you ask them questions so the first question is how many of you are aware of f1 one hand goes up out of 20.
3:40and one of the women raises her hand and said you know when i heard it was a racing movie i want to get up and leave i really couldn't care about racing but after seeing it i love it i'm going to tell all my friends to go see it so it's a struggle to get them in but once we get them in it's the word of mouth that kept the movie going as long i mean it's still still going it's still going yeah it's it's got plenty of petrol in in the tank uh so to speak but that's that's fascinating so as a producer one hand goes up i know f1 everyone else in the room to keep your hands down that must be nerve-wracking at that point you're going oh my word uh how are we going to get this how are we going to get people in in the first place because once we got them in it's great but the key is is the word of mouth yeah and once once you start the movie and it had a nice opening not a huge but it just kept going and kept going and kept going all summer it just played and played and played and then they put it in august it was playing so well they put it back on imax yeah so it's i think the highest grossing movie on my on imax this year yeah Yeah, which is pretty amazing.
4:54So take me back to the beginning. So you do this focus group. You ask the question, who knows F1? One hand goes up in the room. When did you first hear the words F1? When did you first know of F1? Well, I was aware of it, but I didn't really know much about it. Yeah. Because I guess during Days of Thunder, you would be aware of the rivals and all the races. And they would all say that F1 is, there's always one guy that's always going to win. It's not, you know, it's about the car, not the driver. Yeah. So NASCAR, they say it's about the driver, of course. Yeah. But they're just going around in circles, so F1 is a lot harder to drive.
5:37But it was great to be a part of it. It was fantastic to get inside their world. And what I love is I make process movies, some of them, not all of them, where we take you inside a world you'll never be a part of and show you how it actually works. And that's what F1 did for an American audience. And even for a worldwide audience, because you don't know all the inner workings that we showed them and how important tire changes are and all the different things that go on in that world. Qualifying and all that sort of stuff. So how did it first start for you, this movie? We were finishing Top Gun Maverick.
6:14Yeah. And I'm working with Joe Kaczynski, who we hired to do that film. and he comes to me, he says, you know, I've been watching the show Drive to Survive. And what's interesting about it is they're focusing on the last place teams, the teams that never get a point. And for me, that's kind of interesting. And he came up with a storyline that was really intriguing. And he had met Lewis Hamilton during the making of Top Gun because Tom was a friend of his. And Lewis called Tom and said, I'd like to be in the movie. so Joe and Lewis talked and when Joe said well we'll need you for about four months Lewis says wait a second I have a day job I can't give you four months so Joe called Lewis and we met him for lunch in Los Angeles when he was there and we said here's the idea for the movie we want to make the most authentic racing movie ever made and we want you to be our partner and he said I love movies, I love to do it And that's how it all started with Lewis.
7:19Then we called, Joe had worked with Brad not in developing something that never happened. So he called up Brad and he said, I have this idea for a film. Can we talk? And Brad came over to Joe's house and they sat and chatted and he told them a story. And the one thing Brad said, if we're going to do this, I have to drive. No blue screen, no wind machines, none of the normal tricks that we do. and Joe said that's the only way I want to make the movie then what we did is we hired Aaron Kruger who did Top Gun Maverick as a writer and he flushed out the story and then we pitched it to nine different studios and they all bid on it but Apple raised their hand and said we understand how you want to make it and we agree with you that's the way to make this movie, make it for real okay so we got a studio now we need to get F1 That's the next - Oh, okay.
8:17So you hadn't called F1 at this point. No. All right. Okay. But we'd met with Toto because Lewis was on Mercedes that year. And Toto said, I think we'll build the car for you. And then we went to Stefano, who's the head of F1. And Joe was very smart about this because he brought Brad with us. And we called him and said, would you like to have a meeting with Brad Pitt and Joe and myself? and nobody's going to say no to Brad Pitt. That was the clincher. So we sit down, we talk to Stefano, we explain the kind of movie we want to be. He got very enthusiastic. And then Joe brought over Top Gun Maverick.
9:00It hadn't been released yet. It was three months prior to the release. Oh my God. And screened it for people at F1. Okay. And you could see smiles when they walked out of the screening room after seeing that movie. and and they were in they were stefano got really more excited after he saw top gun maverick so how do you then what do you do so you have 10 teams 10 key principles and then you have 20 drivers and joe explained to stefano we want to be at nine different races we want to film it on your tracks we want to be there during the beginning of some of the races with the crowd all around us.
9:40We want to have our car on the track with Brad and Dampson driving. And he said, let's see if we can figure it out. And somehow we did. And it was amazing what we had. They embedded one of their employees named Tim Rampton, and he was phenomenal. He had worked for McLaren for a while, and now he's working for F1. So he was with us every day to kind of grease the wheels. So now you have that, then you have to talk to the team principals because that year it was a battle between Red Bull and Mercedes. They didn't like each other. Yes, that's true. Understatement, I think, Jerry, but okay. So since Lewis is driving for Mercedes and Mercedes is building our car, Christian for sure was going to be the villain in his mind.
10:33and you know max felt they all felt the same way so it took us a year wow to go around and and meet with every principal meet with the drivers but what we did is joe put together a reel on how he made top gun maverick since there are no russian jets the f-14 doesn't fly anymore what we did was we took an f-18 and used that and then we skinned it with an f-14 digitally yeah yeah and So it had the aerodynamics of a plane. Yeah. It was, we just changed it to a different body shape. And we said, we're going to do the same thing with, so we showed them how we did Maverick. And then we took one of the races, a clip from one of the races, and put our car in it.
11:16We skinned one of their cars and put our car in the race. Okay. Yeah. So they could see the process on how flawless it was going to be and how Joe was going to direct the movie. And it took, I mean, they got used to us being around the track for those nine races and even more. So I became friendly with a lot of the team principals. And I think they were very happy with the movie when they saw it. That was pretty interesting. I can imagine they would be. So the first race that you were at, correct me if I'm wrong, was it the British Grand Prix? Yes. Okay. So what was that like? it was pretty scary for brad and damson because they were driving in front of 140 000 people look at we drove between practice and qualifying yeah so we had like eight ten minute slots with a stopwatch because you can't hold up the race then we did a scene actually on on on the the beginning of the race when all the the cars are lined up and we had our actors stand in for the national anthem next to max and everybody else who was and then we did a scene right after that and that scene took six minutes but before we could do it we had to rehearse it in front of the fia and they had a stopwatch so they timed it to make sure it was actually six minutes and then joe rehearsed it for weeks to make sure he could make it now he didn't he's he didn't want to do just all handheld.
12:46He wanted to make it feel like a real movie and not shaky or anything. So technically it was even more difficult. So the actors, they better be on their marks because they did it once or twice and that was it. They were done. No forgetting your lines. No flubbing. No. Nothing like that. Nothing like that. If you get it out of focus, we are screwed. Yeah. Jeepers. So Jerry, I mean, again, I don't know if you've seen your IMDb recently, but there's a lot of great movies on there. Thank you. Has there ever been, can you recall, such a fraught situation where we have six minutes to get this, and if we don't get this, we haven't got this.
13:23We're not coming back. They're not going to put on the British Grand Prix again for us. Have you ever had a situation like that before in your career? Well, we were working with the Navy and dealing with aircraft carriers and planes, and we had certain slots and time periods, but nothing is like this. Oh, my God. This was the pinnacle. But you know what? it was such a great experience and the people were so wonderful to us. I mean, the cooperation we got from all the people at F1, all the different teams, the moment for me, so there's a red flag at the very end of the movie, right? And you see all these cars, you have 10 teams lined up with 20 cars.
14:04That was real. That was in Abu Dhabi. Every single team participated in that with their full crews, their drivers. It was amazing. They were all lined up there for, it had to be at least an hour. I think we had one hour to get that shot. Also in Abu Dhabi, you have that amazing shot of, I spoke to Joe for the podcast when the movie came out. He was telling me about the shot where Sonny wins and Javier Bardem has to react to that while fireworks are going off behind him. And that's a one-take deal. And if he doesn't get that right, then that's it. Again, they're not coming back. I mean, that's a hell of a thing.
14:49That's a hell of a way to end the shoot. Yeah. And you know what we did is we had to shoot two endings because we didn't want the audience to know that Brad's going to win. So we shot one with Damson winning and Brad winning. But you know what? And I've been here now for four or five days. And we've had screenings for BAFTA and for some of the Golden Globes, all the people that live here, the Academy. What's interesting to see how many people haven't seen the movie. It's unbelievable. In our screenings, we've had about five of them or six of them. I'd say 80 % of the audience hadn't seen the movie.
15:30Wow. I mean, they're thrilled when they see it. Yeah. But they hadn't gone out to see it. So it's really been a worthwhile trip because what we want to get across, this movie was made here in England other than going to all the different tracks. Yeah. With a full British crew. Yeah. I mean, it's really a British production, this movie. And it was phenomenal that just how they were so organized that they could get these things done in six minutes, ten minutes, eight minutes. I mean, our AD department, everybody, you know, Toby, who did a phenomenal job on organizing everything, make sure everything happened on time.
16:10It was a great experience. Do you feel, you're in this week for award screens, as you said. Do you feel the momentum building with this movie in the way that it did with Maverick? Because Maverick obviously was a huge box office success. Right. Amazing film. It's usually a kiss of death. Sometimes it is. Yeah. Because awards bodies can tend to be a little bit snobby about films that make over a billion, say. But Maverick powered its way on this wave of momentum to Best Picture nomination, you know, Best Screenplay nomination, all that sort of stuff. Do you feel that you can maybe feel it with this movie that is heading in that direction as well?
16:51Yeah, Apple loves this movie so much. It's done so well. It's their first really big successful movie. And from the top down, from Tim to Eddie Q, they love this film. They really leaned in to make it as good as it can be. Even during a strike, I mean, we went to them and said, we want to continue shooting. We could shoot all the car, a lot of the car stuff and the race stuff in the year. We went to nine races and then came back the following year with actors to fill it in. And so they were so terrific with us. I mean, look, they make quality products and this is a quality film and they're very proud of it.
17:31So they're supporting it. And we're going on streaming, I think, December 12th, which is another reason we're over here to promote that. Again, traditionally, these days, the window from cinematic release to streaming release is so short. Sometimes it's a matter of a couple of weeks, it feels like. It's usually 45 days. But in this case, this is months. So you and Apple have been very, very clear about allowing the film to play out theatrically and about allowing people to discover it theatrically and have those legs or wheels in this case. Yeah. You want to see it on a big screen. It's great.
18:10It's great at home. It's great to see it again. We've had such enormous repeat business on this movie, but people have seen it more than once. When we go to these screenings, and I'll say 80 % hadn't seen it, but the 20 that had, it's their fourth or fifth time. That's what you want. Look, it's the reason I'm in this business is to put big entertainment on a big screen and move people emotionally. It's got a beautiful emotional through line through it, and that's what makes it the success. We're great at filming cars or explosions or speed, or we're fabulous at it. But we got to get that emotion.
18:56That's what makes it, for me, work. And the same thing with Top Gun Maverick. You had that emotional through line, and that's that emotional resonance that carries through and that's why the word of mouth is so good because people feel something. We move them. We make them feel about these characters and it's a redemption story. Everybody wants that. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone wants to come back and win and that's the kind of movies that I think people enjoy and they certainly have enjoyed this one considering if America had been as big as the rest of the world, it would have been over a billion dollars.
19:34Absolutely. But it's a film that is also, it's a great experiential film. Also, I was speaking to Joe about how each race is visually different and the final race, I mean, one of my favorite moments of the year, cinematically, is that sort of final POV shot where Sonny is in Abu Dhabi and everything just melts away. And we get, I think it's for the first time in the movie, we just get a sense of what it's like to be at the wheel of that thing. And all the sound fades away and you're just locked into it. Was that something that you and Joe were very, very keen to do, to exploit the visual possibilities of F1 and off speed, which is actually quite a difficult thing to capture on camera?
20:13You know, it all came from we were here at this hotel with Lewis Hamilton, Brad Pitt, myself, Joe, Jeremy, another one of the producers. And we spent eight hours in a room going through every single line of the movie. And we get to that scene on the balcony and Lewis says, when it's working, when you fuel the car. and you have an opportunity to win, everything fades away. And you're floating. And that's where that scene came from, right out of his mouth. Amazing. And we've talked to other drivers, they feel the same way. Yeah. You're in commune with whatever. Exactly. Yeah. You and the car become one.
21:03That's extraordinary. Have you ever been behind a wheel of one of these beasts, Jerry? Well, first of all, you can't because an F2 driver takes two to three weeks to get used to an F1 car. Yeah. That's how difficult it is. Yeah. And they mold the seat to your body. It's not like you just jump in a sports car and take off. It's like a Toyota. Yeah. Or a Honda Civic. Yeah. I mean, these kids start when they're between five and eight years old. Yeah. And they drive and drive, and then they go to these academies and race open wheel in Italy when they're 11, 12. And if you're really, really good, and if you come from a wealthy family, they take care of you.
21:46If you're not a wealthy family, you've got to go and get sponsors or have teams take you under their wing. So it's a very difficult sport. And the way they pick the drivers, first of all, you've got to be a phenomenal driver to start there. Then you have to be charismatic. You have to be good looking because you're representing a brand. And you look at all those drivers, they all could be actors. They're all handsome. They could be Brad Pitt. And they're terrific individuals, just dealing with them and the amount of competition. And it's like a fraternity, even though when they're on the track, they want to win and they'll do whatever they have to do to win.
22:27Yeah. But when they're off the track, they're congenial and friendly to one another. So it's fascinating. How are you as a driver? I'm not very good. They keep inviting me to go out to one of these tracks and drive one of these cars, and I say, I don't think so. No, you're good. You're good. Absolutely. When this movie was first brought up, the prospect of doing this, were you slightly trepidatious about going back into the world of racing and doing another racing movie? Because, you know, I know that Days of Thunder, great movie, but it was a tumultuous shoot at times. I think that's probably fair to say.
23:04I don't remember that. I guess you black out the pain. But it wasn't terrible. You're taking the fifth, Jerry? I like that. No, it wasn't. It really wasn't. The key for me is that, and I'll tell you first a story about F1. So we're in Abu Dhabi. We're at the very end, and Brad is on his last lap. Okay? Finishes his last lap. He gets out of the car, and he's so depressed because he can't drive anymore. Oh, my God. Okay. And it was my happiest moment because nobody got hurt. And it's the same thing with Days of Thunder. For F1, we built six cars, okay? Yeah. For Days of Thunder, we built 35 cars.
23:48And at the end of Days of Thunder, we didn't have one car left that could move. They were all trashed and destroyed. We have all six of our F1 cars all intact. and they're being displayed around the world. Amazing. Jerry, I've got to let you go in a second. But I'm curious about how what you do and how you approach what you do has changed over the years. For example, you've been producing now since the 70s. Farewell, My Lovely is 50 years old this year. What was the Jerry Bruckheimer approach to producing like back then? and has it changed dramatically over the years? Well, the only thing that's changed is that, you know, I've been doing it a long time, so I know there's almost nothing you can't fix.
24:38We'll figure out a way to get it fixed. When I first started, I was worried about everything. I still worry about everything, but I know there's a path to make it right. Now it's changed because the business has changed. We didn't have streamers. When I started, there were three TV channels in my hometown in Detroit. That was it. Now there are hundreds of TV channels. So many more opportunities for people, even though they say it's shrinking, all this stuff about the business. There's so many more places to sell what you want to make than there were before. And all these platforms have to keep putting new product on.
25:20They can't just sit back. because people dump their subscriptions. So that's why it's really, for me, it's exciting. And for actors and writers and directors, so you do a show for streaming, right? You have new actors in it. We see it and say, well, that could be a movie star or that's a terrific writer or that's a great director. Okay. And so we build from all the stuff that we see that's streaming. and you have different languages on streamers that you would never see, shows from here from all over the world. It's a great time, I think. And even though the press loves to say, you know, this movie tanked and that movie tanked, if we make something they want to see, they line up.
26:07I mean, look at Minecraft. It's a billion dollars. It's fantastic. Look at us, an unknown title, especially in the US. And we did$631 million. plus the money they're making on pay-per-view now. I mean, it's a huge success. The movie worked for an audience, and that's what my job is, to make something that they want to stand in line and pay money for and enjoy while they're watching. That's the key to what I do. And whatever we have to do to get to that point, we try to do it. If we have to go back and pick up scenes or shots or whatever, we do it. We try to please when an audience, We want to give the audience a real experience.
26:49What's the most important decision that you as producer can make before a film begins? It's always the material. You've got to have great material. The writers are the keys to our business, no matter what you say. You have a great writer, a great director, and get great actors, and you've got something special. But you don't get the great actors or the great directors unless you have a great script. It all starts there. Yeah, a lot of people don't consider the script to be too important these days. and maybe that shows. All right, Jerry, I'm going to let you go. But at the beginning, you said that, you know, I was talking about your incredible IMDb filmography, and you were saying that the most important one is the next one for you.
27:30So there's a couple of next ones I wanted to talk to you about very briefly. One is obviously this movie. Is there a sequel coming? It won't be F2, because obviously that's dropping down in class and speed. We're talking about it. Okay. We had a meeting with Lewis Hamilton when he was in LA. We talked to him about it. And hopefully we'll get to go to Vegas and sit with him again. That would be nice. So you're hopeful? Yeah. Yeah, amazing. All right, keep an eye on that one. The other one is Heat 2, which you were producing with Michael Mann. And what can you say about that? I'm tremendously excited.
28:07Well, it's a great book. Oh, it is? And a chance to read the book. You've got to read the book. I've read the book, yeah. And it's also fabulous screenplay. It really is. So we're excited. I mean, Michael, I did his first movie. And he called me about two months ago and said, would you come back? He said, let me send you a script. And I read it and I said, sure, I'd love to do it. Jerry Bruckheimer, it's been a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Chris. Okay, that was Jerry Bruckheimer. And you're getting these interviews in the order in which I did them, folks, which means that next up is the glorious combo of Damson Idris, the British actor who plays Joshua Pierce, the teammate of Pitts, Sonny Hayes, and the Irish actress Carrie Condon.
28:51Yes, the voice of Friday in the MCU. And yes, I chickened out from doing my impression of Friday to her. Your man's in the church, boss. Sorry. Condon plays Kate, the technical director for the APXGP team in the movie. and together the two of them were just a ruddy delight. I had a ton of fun doing this interview, as you're about to hear. Here they are. Kerry Condon, Damson Idris. Enjoy. Kerry Damson, welcome to the Empire Podcast. How are you both? Pretty good. Splendid. Yeah? Okay, good. He's splendid. You're only pretty good. Why? What's wrong? Well, you know, I don't want to peek too soon.
29:34I'll be splendid after the interview. Don't show them all your cards. Smart play. We'll see how you are in 30 minutes or so. Exactly. Can I start with a bit of light admin for you guys? So I was looking at your IMDb pages earlier on, just to see what you were doing next. I am aware of what you've done. Apparently you're in a film called F1. It used to me, but there you go. So I was looking at your, you know those mini biographies that are on your IMDb profiles? No. You need to update yours both, or you need to have someone update yours. Well, it's wrong. So, Damson, yours finishes. I told you that I needed to update.
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30:11Wait, we hear it, though. There's people in the room right now saying, thank you for bringing us up. I told you a month ago. What does it say? This is a live... This was pretty old. We've never had a live firing on the Empire podcast. This is exciting. It's hard to fire your sister. All right, so Damson says his latest lead role is in Netflix's action sci-fi film Outside the Wire, brackets, 2021, closed brackets. Wow. No mention of F1. Wow. That's all I'm going to say. Damn. Kerry. But it says 2021, so then anyone reading it will know that that's old. I know, precisely. That's fine. Carrie Colton is an Irish television film actress.
30:46So far, we're good. Yeah, do we need to generalize my name, my nationality? Is that necessary as an actress? But sure, yeah, go on. Wait, who put the bio? You or someone else? Not me. I can't even send it. An agent that ain't on the team anymore. All right. Best known for her role as Octavia in Rome, Stacey Ehrmantraut in Better Call Saul. Okay. And as the voice of Friday in various films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, no mention of Banshees of Inishirin. No mention of F1. We get to the end. You've got to get Banshees in there. And it's just about Roman Walking Dead. Carrie, what's going on?
31:19I believe like most people will be watching those things as opposed to reading IMDb. I'd like to think that, right? That's what they're doing. And then someone else will have to go on and go, I've just seen F1. I need to update this. And also, you know, maybe it tells people, don't believe everything you read. Maybe that's it. Maybe that is it. is going to be updated in 35 minutes. By your style. Yeah. We'll update it for F1. All right. Let's talk F1 then whilst you guys prepared your admin. So this hotel that we're in right now, I think we can say where it is because this is coming out a month after we're here so no one can stalk us which is good.
31:54We're in Claridge's and this is a very, very important hotel, isn't it? For you guys in many ways. I know, Damson, this is kind of what your first meeting was. Yeah, man. This movie carries the same for you. When I flew to London and we kind of workshopped like three scenes, me, Lucy, Joe, and Jerry, it was in this building. I remember there was construction outside and we're taping. It's an intense scene between me and Brad and someone, I'm saying someone, they were fixing a road outside as London does every second. So it's like drilling and I'm like, oh my God, I'm not going to get this part.
32:32So then I just started getting louder and louder. And it was the scene when I tell Sonny, I climbed a mountain to get here. So I'm like, if I'm louder than this thing outside, I think I'm going to have a shot at getting this. And hey, two years later. I didn't know that it was here in Claridge's. Right here, yeah. Yeah, right here. Bloody hell. So when you walk into the lobby, do you get chills? Do you get little flashbacks? Yeah, yeah. Or did you leave them eating, sweating? It's probably just from the actual weather of London. It's freezing. Kerry what about yourself Was this hotel crucial to your F1 journey No I didn't No I just met in Los Angeles But we did our press tour here in June So I have nice memories Of being here for that I've been asked the same question over and over and over again Well you know it was a beautiful time I was happy to release the movie Because we worked in it for like two years So I wanted everyone To see it but No so I had no other connections to Claridge's.
33:33Alright, so what was your first meeting on the movie? Did you have to get louder to drown out Roadworks? I just had a chat with Joe. I met Joe, our director in Los Angeles quite a long time before the movie and was even in pre-production or anything at his office in Los Angeles. That's where I met them too. I got lucky though because I was doing a general with Joe in 2022. I bet that was the same time. But it was released that they were going to make an F1 movie in 2022. So my savvy team were like, you should meet Kaczynski. Go in there and rub shoulders. So I met him in his office. And then Jerry walks in.
34:14So then I have a whole meeting with them. Serendipity. Yeah, exactly. And then many months after, I read the script in LA in a dark room. Okay. NDAs. and then came to London, did those scenes. Closer to the time we were meeting. It was more of like a workshop. The real thing that I would say when people are like, oh, how did you get this part? I had to do a driving test in Bedford, Palmas. So if I had crashed that day, Joshua Pierce would be Daniel Kaluuya. Well, that's not true because if you'd have crashed, it depends on how you overcame the crash. Because didn't they say that you showed ability, that you were willing to learn and that you were, I think that went in your favor.
34:59I think we both would have fired each other. We both would have fired me. After the crash, I would have been like, I don't think I could do this. I don't know. I think you still might have had a shot. Baywatch 15, please. I'd love to do that. That was amazing. Carrie, what was your way in and what was your preparation for Kate? So once I got the job, we were sent to a Grand Prix in Barcelona. Okay. That was the first thing that Joe, because I'd never been to a Grand Prix race before. And so we went to do that and met like a lot of the F1 people and just were basically there for the weekend to just watch and hang out and just kind of take it in.
35:38There was a lot of heads of department there doing other stuff too. And that's where I met Bernie Collins, who then was a strategist in real life and was from Ireland. And she, my job in the movie is kind of like technical director slash strategist. So it's a kind of a little artistic license that we have her kind of doing both. But Bernie did strategist in real life. And then I just kind of like latched on to Bernie because she was from Ireland and asked her, how did you get into this? Like, where did you go to college and blah, blah, blah. And just then I had her helping me for different scenes and stuff.
36:14Amazing. So did you, right from the off in your first meetings with Jo, were you playing Kate as Irish or were you inspired by Burnley? No, they never debated me being anybody other than who they had met. So it was just like a given that I was going to be. Because Formula One is a very international sport. So it's not bizarre that there would be an Irish accent. It's not strange. If anything, there should be more accents. And there is in the movie. We have all different nationalities because that's the world of Formula One. It would almost be strange if she'd been American. A little bit. Or actually English.
36:51It would have been, it's not, it would have been strange. It just would have been unnecessary. You know, like why would I be putting on an accent when it could have just been Irish? Irish is too sweet to have any other way. Formula One is a team sport. Yes. Thank you. And I also had plenty of other things to be occupying my mind with besides an accent. Oof, yeah. All right. Such as? Such as my headphones, my props, my saying the dialogue in a way that the audience who doesn't know anything about Formula One will understand it. And yet people who do know Formula One will feel like I say it all the time and all sorts of different.
37:32And then we were shooting live when they were filming, when they were really doing the races. We were filming our movie. So it was this radical idea that Joe was like, yeah, so it's going to be kind of live. So you're only going to get like two or two takes, maybe three. It was wild. But I was like, it was so much fun, wasn't it? Yeah, it was amazing to be operating under those stakes, I think. Just like the theater. Yeah. Where you only have one take. Yeah. Yeah. And many of us come from that, so it was nice to kind of bounce around in that world again. Yeah, because I spoke to Jerry just before you guys came in here, and he was telling me about the first race, the British Grand Prix.
38:14And exactly what you were saying, Kerry, you have six minutes to do a scene, and you have two takes max, and you can't flub, you can't fuck it up. You have to hit your marks, you have to hit everything. The camera can't be out of focus. you know so I mean well just taught me through that was that it was a real teamwork wasn't it it was all we all bought like the crew and the cast and everybody everyone was laser focused I remember one time during a red flag scene and I had the helmet on and I'm sat in a car and I'm looking at everyone the crew and everyone and Joe his eyes like he he was so laser focused and he's like orchestrating this huge machine and you know it was purely down to the fia as jerry probably mentioned we'd have to rehearse with a stopwatch and then let the fia know that look we can do this in six minutes and they're like by the way it has to be six sometimes we'd we'd pull it off so well that we'd get a cheeky last take in there and be all excited to play but no one ever got their lines wrong really which was another thing i was just about to ask on you tell me man no one got everyone was so ready and you better be um the odd weird thing would happen we'd rehearse one way and then me and brad would have to walk side by side but then during a take carlos signs wants to walk exactly where i'm supposed to walk so now i've got a kind of like change bounce around him that's the stuff that was happening or maybe a car wouldn't start during the kind of formation lap so then everyone would have to run out and push it into the pits like those those moments there that obviously aren't in a film where we had like many heart attacks but apart from that it was just a well-oiled orchestrated machine yeah between our crew of course and formula one and there's no other way we could have made the movie it was so much fun at the end of those days too do you remember we'd get joe would have a cheers and we'd all be so high because it was just such an amazing feeling that like we all did it and then we'd sit down and watch the race like yeah yeah we'd do a six minute take and then we'd watch the race we'd watch the real race flying past us at the garage yeah it was so great so cool man it was amazing we were very prepared to like joe was such was so prepared so i think that's why when it came to shooting them like we weren't so much nervous because we'd prepared so much it was actually more like let's do it like like now we've prepared let's go and i think that was the ad department were very helpful there was nothing like if there was anything that was bothering you or making you worried you could flag it beforehand and it would be ironed out so yeah by the time it was came to doing it was more like you were excited to do it and and and as each race went on because you guys what did nine in total ending off obviously at abu dhabi did it get easier in a way or did the did the adrenaline ever threaten to subside you're like oh this is old news we did this two weeks ago i've got this in my sleep no no no i'm scared now and the movie's already out abu dhabi was the last one and even at that like that was so tense that one wow it's a new challenge every single time you know and i mean if you really think about the whole process it was around two years right but just from the driving element me and brad trained for about four to five months and then we got better because during the strike we'd go off and train again right so the actor strike happened and then we got a chance actually all right we're kind of bad like maybe we should like get well i was bad so maybe let's go and train some more and how bad going left when you should be going right what's what's the deal man it's the gears you know sometimes you'd be in the wrong gear at certain turns.
42:02And that's the beauty of this film. And just in editing as well, Joe would say that when he was editing with Lewis, Lewis would be like, oh, man, you're going through cops there in the third gear. I wouldn't be in the third gear. I'd be in like the sixth gear. That just shows you, though, his ear, you know, he's so used to it. He knows the sound of the gears. You know, I tried to do turn 13 and 14 in Austin, Texas, in gear five. and I found out very quickly why Formula One is a dangerous sport. Spun like crazy, this close to the wall. Jesus. And I got excited because I was behind my stunt driver, Craig Dolby, and it was for the first time ever.
42:41I was like, oh, I'm getting really close. I'm going to beat him. I'm going to beat him. I'm driving, driving, driving. And just when I'm about to beat him. Like Joshua. Just like Joshua. This close to the wall. Yeah. So again, F1 would have been played by Daniel.
43:01Only not flying through the air like Joshua did. That was a good moment. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, going back to what it took to get into the mindset of these characters, like I said, there was so much love given to us from the F.I.A. and Formula One. But I had a conversation with Grosjean before that scene. And he was able to walk me through the mind state you'd be in when those flames are going. So again, I've never said that publicly, but I tip my hat to him for assisting me and walking through that trauma and letting me understand exactly how Joshua would feel in that moment where you're out of it.
43:44You know, you're thinking, well, I give up. But then you remember all the people who love you and why it's so important to get out. and I loved that scene because no matter how many people are in a theatre you can hear it oh yeah it's a great moment and the sensors are yeah you can hear it you can absolutely hear it that's extraordinary and then the panic I guess you have to fight that initial panic I'm being engulfed in flames clearly something's gone very very bad but you know you've got to trust in the process right you've got to trust in everything that you're caked in that your suit's going to be fire resistant to the point that you can get out Jesus yeah Yeah, that's a hell of a thing.
44:23Wow. And Kerry, what was it like? Were you on set watching that stunt as well? Obviously, Damsin wasn't in the car when it went flying through the air. I think I was there. I went that scene that day because I had to talk to Joe about something, but I can't remember what it was. But then I left because it was my day off. And I was like, you know. I mean, good luck, guys. Well, listen, at the same time, I'm old school, right? So like I'm of a thing where you can't just sit at the monitor when someone else is performing. Like that's a it's a private space. Like that's how I was trained. And I was you can't just sit around like we're all hanging out.
45:00It's a work environment. If I'm not needed, I shouldn't be there. OK. I was at a monitor watching Kerry every time. I can't stand me. There'll be still some acting tips. I hate people being at the monitor when I don't know. She blinks right before the line. I'm going to. I know. So I know. So like that, you know, we were on tracks and stuff like that. And it's such a busy, intense environment. And I just, you know, come on. It's not like we're all in summer camp. Skedaddle. Skedaddle. Yeah, until you're needed. Get the hell out of here. Kerry, in terms of shaping Kate, he's a really, really fascinating character.
45:42I mean, can you talk about, did you work with Aaron Kruger on crafting her? Yeah, no, it was more like, honestly, again, it was, it came from Joe because he was very, he was very, just have fun. He was like, just have fun. And like, that was really the biggest note that I got. And so it was bizarre to work on something with so much money on the line and such a massive role. and yet honestly it was the most fun I'd ever had on any job in my life because Joe was just like just have fun just have fun and just give me options and I'll fill them in just have fun and that was basically how I rolled for the whole thing amazing and he made me feel like nothing I did was wrong it was all just an option I never got this no go back again and do not that there's anything wrong with the director being picky like that that's totally fine but I think by letting us all have fun even off camera you and me all of us would be joking and then joe would come over and i'd go stop like stop joking he's here and he'd be like no no no keep having fun and then when i saw the movie like i was like he captured fun yeah like there was a method behind it all by letting us like loose to kind of relax and have fun he captured this like playful energy yeah that i think would have been hard to get if everyone was very tense you know there's two scenes that that that where that comes to mind there's a scene where um sonny's in kate's hotel room and javier bardem comes knocking at the door yeah yeah yeah and that just you seem to be having such fun with that uh it almost feels like it was improv that that bit where you're like oh no that was the least fun that was the worst day of my life no that was just because like i think of like the ones and this and the actual grand prix days probably the most fun but no that was it that was the script i'll give credit where it's due that was all in the script um yeah and that was on a in this on a sound stage again which was like at this point i was like boring sound stages i want to be on the in barcelona or wherever the hell we were i want to be able to hear the gears oh they're in third gear they should be in fifth at this point i want to be able to discern that yeah and the the other scene is a scene where where kate sits uh sunny and joshua down and basically says guys cut out the fucking bullshit and get on which is such a fun scene for all three of you I guess that must have been a blast.
48:10Such an amazing scene. It was long it was two days. It was two days we shot it in a bar in Mayfair right? It was so tiny. Yeah so we wasn't actually in Vegas. Oh my god we flipped and flopped all over the place with this movie. Yeah we cheated that one and we did the Vegas months later wasn't it like way later because it was in November and we shot that in like June yeah yeah yeah I'd put on weight by the time we actually did get to bake yeah yeah I was eating a lot of cookies and then also that room was very smoky for atmosphere oh yeah we all got sick oh my god this is just our opportunity to complain and we all got sick yeah it was just so smoky I was like Christ it was a challenge and then also obviously continuity wise with all the chips and the cards and stuff.
49:01It became a hullabaloo, that scene. And we improv'd a lot, you know. We did. It was such a great moment because we had been teeing up to this, especially with me and Brad. It was like every single scene, we were like, all right, let's try and be as mean as possible so we get that payoff in Vegas. And still, it's not fully, all right, we're best friends now, but you could see that there is hope there. And if they do pull off that unity, then this team has a shot. But I mean, just... the way carrie played that was just it was just so classic yeah never sent a man to a woman's job i remember just being so exhausted yeah i've got the complaint in your head now you're like man it was dialogue heavy and prop yeah my shoes were tight drinks the whole life yeah oh yeah and i remember the product placement I had to get the Heineken yeah yeah the Heineken yeah it was nice though yeah it was like zero zero Heineken like non-alcoholic Heineken I was backing it seems like a long time ago now this is what I love you know you guys when you were doing the junket in June you're like oh what a great time now the honesty comes out now we know now we see what you guys went through the highest grossing sports movie of all time yeah precisely so yeah let me talk shit about my film now I know I suppose It's just that like, it's not all fun and games and there are, like it is work.
50:27And isn't that, you know, you don't see the challenges of those things. Yeah. And the music added to that scene too. I think the music was great. Yeah. So amazing. When did you first see the finished thing? Man, I didn't, you know what? I watched it in an editing room. Oh, I remember now. Sorry, go on. An editing room in London by myself, two guys behind me. and I actually didn't want anyone in there, but I remember watching it. The popcorn kept running out. So I was pissed. But then the real time that I really took the movie in was in New York. Was it, what was that crowd? 4 ,500 people. Oh, Radio City Music Hall.
51:08That was crazy. Oh my God. And seeing that and just seeing everyone. And I remember Stefano was sat behind me. Just the way everyone was taking in the movie and just the laughter. And they applauded during the scene when Carrie kissed a movie. At the end, I know. That was cute. Everything was paid off. Like everything we hoped an audience would take away from this movie we experienced in that room. And that was when I realized that we had a banger. I saw it on my own too initially. Yeah, it's hard when you watch a movie for the first time because obviously you're just looking at your own stuff personally anyways.
51:45And just like, so I think the second time was when I was able to step and watch it as a movie and not like pay attention to my own stuff so much. Yeah. How many times have you seen the movie now? I guess I saw it the first time in Santa Monica by myself. Second time was in Radio City Music Hall. I watched it in London at the premiere in London. And I think that's it. Okay. I got you beat by one then. When did you watch it? I've seen it four times. When was the fourth? It came on Apple, of course. And I watched at home. Ah, that's sweet. And I was like, let me see if I still get the goosebumps.
52:18And? Oh my God, the goosebumps. Yay! When Josh and Lewis are going down the straight in Abu Dhabi. And a commentator's like, the rookie battles, the seven-time world champion. And I was like, goosebumps again. So then I'm with Samson K.O., who played Cashman. I was with him yesterday. And I'm like, how many times have you seen it, mate? He's like, 17 times. I'm like, hey, cute. He's rewinding his parts. He's the reason he's made$631 million. Yeah, exactly. He was such a good energy. Sam Siquetto a brilliant brilliant actor and an amazing viewer and a great energy to have around too just the greatest yeah all the cast were just like great energies that's something that is I think I'm taking from this for every movie I do it's like that chemistry when it's seamless I mean it's just there's no regrets that's amazing everything yeah that was the fun thing like we all were having fun And I think that was probably a casting thing.
53:20Like everyone was, everyone's face is very unique as well in the movie when you watch it. It's very well cast. Yeah, Lewis was the one who really fought for that. He wanted this movie to represent the world of Formula One that he wants to see, you know. Yeah. People from different backgrounds doing different jobs. And just from this movie as well, I could already hear rumblings of it moving in that direction in a big way. Hopefully, yeah. So that's exciting too. Yeah, absolutely. What was your first, let's talk about Brad, because we haven't mentioned Brad that much, but what was your first big Brad moment?
53:58Big bad Brad. Big bad Brad. I'm thinking of the read-through, but that's not really a big moment. That was more of a read-through. I remember the first time I saw him, he was in costume walking into the garage. Was he in slow motion? he wasn't slow-mo no we hadn't started film because remember i met brad for everyone because we trained for four months prior but i was training and rocking them um i won't talk bad about that that place i'm not gonna say anything bad but i was training there first right so they had me in prison first and i get f3 car right stones flicking up on the straight smacking my knuckle i'm like i'm not transition to Silverstone.
54:48Right. And I remember Brad walking in, in full on costume, and he's looking at the car, he's walking around the car and stuff, and I'm like, in the deep end, I'm like, sizing him up. I'm like, all right. Like, the beef started from there. I had beef. Yeah, yeah, yeah. With Brad. I was like, I'm going to do a method on this thing, and I know he's going to do it. I know he's going to do it to me, too. So I woke up, meet him, of course, and he's like, hey, man, what's up? Big hug. And I'm like, oh, man, it's going to be so hard to be cocky and be Joshua with this guy. And yeah, man, it really was.
55:20I mean, he's just the sweetest guy in the world, man. So accommodating and just always championing you and wanting you to win. Yeah, that was my experience for Brad. I can't remember what our first scene was, strangely new. Oh, I can remember, actually, because we started. Yeah. It was Silverstone. The cat thing? The argument. And then the next day I did the pub scene with him. But we started at Silverstone and then we went on strike. Do you remember? That was our first. Oh, my God. Okay. Oh, yeah. Imagine that. Yeah. My first time. It was. The first scene before the strike. So Silverstone was July 9th, right?
56:01So then we shot for two days before the strike. But my first scene was the scene where I'm having to scream at Brad and call him old man. Yeah, it was. And I was like, just improv and calling them Dumbledore. Do you remember your hand that hit the screen? I broke one of the screens in the carriage. Like, oh my gosh. And it was amazing. And I was like, all right, cool. This is the character. I'm feeling it now. We're juicing up. I was like, hey guys. Yep. So actors are on strike. See you in how long? It was like nine months or something. It was a long time. It was a long time. It was a long one.
56:40Maybe nine, maybe six. I don't know. That picture came out of us on the grid walking and it went everywhere. We got, yeah, and we got quite a bit done. We did the pub scene before we went on strike two. That's first scene in the pub. So we got a kind of a decent amount. Got a teaser out of that. I know, I know. Because that's all the footage we had. So Joe put that nice teaser together and that was put that out there a year before even coming back to start the movie again. Genius how everything worked out. That seems like wild. Yeah. I think that was my first memory of him was that scene. But again, that was such a big scene.
57:17There was so many cast members and there was so much going on that there was like, I was barely registering him at that moment. Movies are really interesting. And I haven't done many. And my experiences on films is you never really know the guy, even on the last day, for me anyway. and certainly not in the beginning. And then after one day of being like, just kind of teasing and dancing and flirting with the character for someone to say, go away and come back. It's like, I'd never want to experience that ever again. I know, but in a way it was great because Joe, like he's so nothing like deters him or, you know, whatever I can't think of.
58:02I'm so jet-lagged. I don't know how to speak English, but basically he used it to his advantage. he shot all the stunt work and the second unit stuff and so he rose to the challenge he didn't go oh man now what am I gonna do so all that stunt stuff it was like they had so much and even he was shooting like inserts like the producers were like ah Joe what are you doing he's like shooting like you know so he shot everything and that I don't think you know that was a wonderful opportunity for him as a director yeah he used it to his advantage calm cool guy man meanwhile Totally. I'm back in LA getting fat, like eating ice cream, crying.
58:40They were so relaxed. Watching Drive to Survive, like, they're never going to call me back. They're going to look at that first day and say I was shit. They're going to call Daniel Kaluuya. I know, but then they couldn't have because Silverstone. Well. Yeah, they could have. They could have. We only did one or two days. They could have looked at that minute. Yeah. yeah but all's well it ends well so but damson when you you seem to have been eating quite a lot in that break then were there were the problems when you had to squeeze back into the suit and into the car you know what is so funny so i was i lost 10 kg for this part right okay because obviously the drivers are so small they're all in the 80 so i got down to like 77 do you remember i was like intermittent fasting for like 30 hours and stuff and everyone was like damson eat and i I was like, no, the drivers have to be skinny.
59:35Yeah, they do. Yeah, but Joe didn't care. But I was doing it for myself. And so then during the strike, I definitely put it back on big time. Like I ate well. When we got back, I lost it again. You had surgery too. I did have surgery. A lot happened during the strike. During the strike. Did you make the strike happen? So you can. We just said it was awful. Yeah, that's what I'm doing. It sounds to me like you've orchestrated this whole thing, so you could go have some surgery. My birthday was the second of September, too. I was like, come on, I want to. I want to step me off for my birthday. Guys, I've got to let you go in a second, but we've asked about your first day.
1:00:20What was your last day on this movie? Oh, the last day was hard. What was the last day? Okay, it would have been Abu Dhabi for sure, because we all wrapped in Abu Dhabi. I remember. And I can't remember, what was the last scene that we did? The last scene for me was Joshua trying to figure out why he crashed in Monza. Oh, yes. And I actually wrapped the movie. I was the last shot. Yes. So Brad walks up to me and he's like, all right, mate. And I'm like, where are you going? He's like, I've wrapped. I'm like, what do you mean you've wrapped? Like, you're the lead. No, you've got to wait until it.
1:00:55He's like, I've got a flight to catch, man. Call me whenever. I remember. And I like that scene actually. Really cool. And it was Brad's idea. When you remember. Right, indeed. Yeah, I like that scene a lot. It showed Joshua is, you know, he's a real racer, you know, and he's figuring stuff out by himself. And that was a moment where he realized that he was in the wrong. It's a good scene. That was my last scene. I remember that because we were all stuck in that studio for 14 hours. Oh, yeah. Yeah, my last thing initially was the goodbye to Brad on the rooftop, you know, it was a nice. But then we had to go and reshoot some of the pit wall scenes in the same studio that he was doing it.
1:01:39But it was kind of cute to end in the pit wall scene together to do the Abu Dhabi race together one more time. Yeah, because I was so close to all those lads in the pit wall. Oh, lovely. It was a nice little one to end on. It's where you started. it's where you finished as well amazing and guys obviously the movie's been a huge success so there's been talk you know Jerry was saying that they're looking into a sequel I hope so yeah which they can't call F2 for obvious reasons what would you call it I don't know man F1 The Adventure continues that's cool something like that I don't know The Adventure that's good the championship yeah the second lap oh there we go well it would be great to see all the people from F1 again like honestly I don't think I can go to an F1 race because it's too sad oh man do you know it's like where are the crew oh I'm there where are the cameras yeah I'm there every chance I get milking it I am oh I can't I'd be like oh it's so too sad so I'd love to go back and see all those people they were so nice to us they were so so nice to us yeah yeah amazing well fingers crossed you know we'll see you down the road to quote the film but before I let you go wrap gifts.
1:02:52I don't have any for you, but what did you get? So, did you get wrap gifts? I did. I got him I own a luxury jewelry brand called Didris. Okay. So I gave Brad a gold ring. Yeah. I didn't give him anything. He wore it to the premiere as well. You're not meant to give Brad stuff. Exactly. He's got everything. He got me some headphones. We got a cool helmet. I got a bunch of stuff. We got the cool helmet. I got a bunch of stuff from Brad I'm going to get some more though I'm going to get some more though I've got his number now We were very spoiled Amazing, well guys you've got some light admin to go You've got to update your IMDb mini bios So go off and do that But it's been an absolute pleasure Thank you very much Thank you so much Alright that was Kerry Condon and Damson Idris Stars of F1 and that is it for this F1 interview special.
1:03:49Our F1 spoiler special featuring an interview with Joseph Kaczynski is available to Spoiler Special subscribers and is well worth your time if you haven't subscribed already. Then check it out. It's£3.49 a month for access to all of Empire's spoiler specials, both upcoming and past. Oh, and check out an upcoming issue of Empire for another interview with Joseph Kaczynski about the film and much, much more. F1 is out on digital formats and, of course, Apple TV right now. And if you haven't seen it, put yourself in pole position to do so right now. Okay, that's enough from me. Thank you so much for listening.
1:04:27See you next time. Bye-bye.
From the publisher
"Yer man's in the pits, boss!" Joseph Kosinski's crowd-pleasingly kinetic F1 was one of the success stories of the year at the box office, displaying impressive legs (or wheels) to take the chequered flag with over $600 million in the global bank, making it the biggest hit of Brad Pitt's career. And now that the film is making its debut on Apple TV, our Chris Hewitt sat down with the film's producer, the legendary Jerry Bruckheimer, and stars Damson Idris and Kerry Condon for a fun, frank and fascinating look back at the movie. It's not a spoiler special, per se, but familiarity with F1 (the movie, not the sport, although that might help too) couldn't hurt. However you're listening to this, we hope you enjoy.