There’s one kind of victory that’s always eluded Brad Pitt. And most people have likely never even noticed. Nearly 40 years into his career, the American actor and producer has left an indelible mark on both film and pop culture at large – with two Academy Awards to his name. But unlike his megastar peers, he’s never made a true crowd-pleasing blockbuster. That is, until F1 The Movie.
After earning $144 million globally in its opening weekend and boasting stellar reviews from critics and audiences alike, the film is poised to be one of the summer’s biggest hits. For Pitt, that would mean he’s finally vanquished his white whale.
“I had always wanted to make a populist film – something that just gets better every time you see it. Something that brings people together. And I still didn’t understand that this could be that one,” Pitt tells The National.
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NEW YORK – “You’re kidding,” says Brad Pitt. “Javier’s leaving?”
With that, Pitt is out of his chair and bear-hugging Javier Bardem. Seconds later, Kerry Condon and Damson Idris pop up from their seats and smother the smiling Spanish actor.
A group interview with the core cast of “F1 The Movie” (in theaters June 27) is indeed interrupted when Bardem apologizes that he has to dash to the airport.
“Love you bro, thank you for everything on this movie,” Pitt tells Bardem before turning back to the group. “You know he’s going to play Max Cady in the new Apple TV+ series adaptation of ‘Cape Fear,’” says Pitt, rubbing his stubbled chin. “He’s going to kill it.”
Any doubt about the genuine chemistry between this quartet is put to rest by this impromptu moment in a hotel meeting room.
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There’s a roar beyond the grandstands—something atavistic, something mean and mad and on the prowl. Those of us standing on the pit wall of Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina Circuit snap our heads expectantly in the direction of the sound, holding our collective breath for a T-Rex to emerge, or for Brad Pitt’s F1 car to come screaming down the start-finish straight.
Whaaaa! There it is, sliding around the track’s final turn and onto the stretch. And in three…two…one, Pitt’s car rockets by with the speed and power of a fighter jet, belching flames out of its tail as it thunders through turn one and disappears from view.
Our hair blown back, I hear someone say, “I will never get sick of that sound.”
For those wondering: Yes, Brad Pitt is really driving the car in this movie. In fact, Brad Pitt and Damson Idris really driving the car has become, in some ways, the point of the movie—or at least the emotional nucleus during production.
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Brad Pitt Talks to Director RaMell Ross About How His Basketball Career Unexpectedly Influenced ‘Nickel Boys’
Read an excerpt of the pair’s conversation below and watch the full video, an IndieWire exclusive, right here.
Brad Pitt: Thanks so much, man, for taking time out to talk about “Nickel Boys.”
RaMell Ross: Pleasure is mine, man. Pleasure is mine.
I haven’t seen anything like it. It’s so original. And I have some questions.
I’d love to field them. I’d love to field them.
Well, first starting with “The Nickel Boys,” it’s based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name. Tell me about the pressure, the responsibility, the joy of interpreting this, what you co-wrote with Joslyn Barnes.
Yeah, it’s a lot of pressure, but I think the real pressure, honestly, was not messing it up to the point where this opportunity wouldn’t be afforded to others. I think it’s pretty unprecedented that companies like yours, and this isn’t a promo for Plan B, but you guys support some pretty wild ideas, like how do you make a film that is so reflexive, but also in conversation with Black visuality and also supporting Colson’s narrative and elevating the Dozier School boys to the annals of film? These are big ideas. So the pressure was, I think, to satisfy the concept, to give life.
How Wolfs director staged a Brad Pitt, George Clooney movie reunion
Jon Watts is trading in spiders for animals of a different kind.
The director of the Tom Holland-led Spider-Man trilogy wrote and directed the action-comedy Wolfs (in select theaters Sep. 20; on Apple TV+ Sep. 27), about two fixers — played by George Clooney and Brad Pitt — who are brought in to help clean up a big crime involving Margaret (Amy Ryan), a New York D.A., late one night. The problem is, they don’t work with each other, nor did they expect the other to be there, but circumstances now dictate that these two lone wolves work together, like it or not, to get the job done.
The story plays out over the course of one night — one very cold winter night in NYC. “That was so stupid of me,” Watts tells Entertainment Weekly, laughing about the predicament he created. “I wrote the movie, I could have written it anywhere. I could have written it at any time of year. I chose New York at night.”
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