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Damson Idris says he felt ‘absolute fear’ before F1 test drive audition

Damson Idris talks F1 in a recent Entertainment Weekly interview.

Though Idris never had a problem with the fast speeds, getting the car started was the true challenge. “I was really good at driving at crazy speeds,” the actor says. “I was really good at driving around the track and doing all the crazy turns. The hardest thing for me was actually getting a car started. The clutch is a hand clutch.”

Idris adds, “Brad was just exquisite at it. But man, there was some sort of coordination that just was not clicking with me. Once I got it started, I was ready to fly.”

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Idris, 33, caught up with PEOPLE recently to discuss his fine jewelry line Didris. During the conversation, the British actor said the mentor-mentee-type relationship his character takes up with Pitt’s Formula 1 racer is “exactly the same” as the friendship they developed while making the film.

“It was a seamless dynamic between us. As soon as they’d yell ‘Cut,’ we both sat at our seats and giggled,” Idris recalls. “He’d be telling me stories of when he first met Prince and Sidney Poitier. And I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this is just too iconic, you’re a walking monument.'” Read more.


• x004 F1 – Stills.

Heart of the Beast: J.K. Simmons joins forces with Brad Pitt

After generating much buzz with his hard-hitting action flick The Beekeeper, David Ayer is partnering with Brad Pitt for Paramount‘s Heart of the Beast. Ayer’s latest project finds the director re-teaming with J.K. Simmons, who starred alongside Christian Bale in Ayer’s action thriller Harsh Times. Pitt and Simmons have also worked together in 2001’s The Mexican and the Coen Brothers’ comedy Burn After Reading. Unlike the Coens’ satirical crime thriller, Heart of the Beast finds Brad Pitt and J.K. Simmons traveling to the Alaskan wilderness for a chilling survival tale from Cameron Alexander.

According to Deadline‘s description, Heart of the Beast “follows a former Army Special Forces Soldier and his retired combat dog who battle for survival after a plane crash deep in the unforgiving Alaskan wilderness.”

Alexander will executive produce and write the screenplay, which Damien Chazelle and Olivia Hamilton will produce through Wild Chickens Productions. Ayer will produce via his Crave Films banner alongside Temple Hill Entertainment and Brad Pitt’s Plan B studio.

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• x018 On set: Queenstown – New Zealand.