Brad Pitt revealed he wants the chance to improve on his Formula 1 debut after just falling short of his 200mph target during a run in Lando Norris’ 2023 McLaren.
The star of F1: The Movie, Pitt got behind the wheel of a fully-fledged F1 car for the first time as part of a Testing of Previous Cars programme for McLaren at Circuit of the Americas.
Pitt, 61, plays returning racer Sonny Hayes in the F1 blockbuster, released globally this week, but the cars driven by the A-lister and his APX GP team-mate Damson Idris are based on F2 models.
Taking to the track in Austin, Pitt had been given advice by Lando Norris, whose 2023 MCL60 he then got to experience first-hand – but was left wanting more.
“I got to hit 197 (miles per hour) this week,” Pitt told the Beyond the Grid podcast when talking about the experience.
Brad Pitt opens up on ‘extraordinary’ experience of shooting ‘F1 The Movie’
Taking some time to discuss the project at the Yas Marina Circuit during filming in Abu Dhabi, Pitt told F1 TV’s Will Buxton where his passion for the sport came from, how the movie came about and what viewers can expect when it hits cinemas.
“I’ve always loved racing,” Pitt begins. “I grew up with Jackie Stewart [racing in F1 as] some of my earliest memories. In the ’90s I really got heavily into MotoGP. Then I started veering into F1, and here we are.”
He continues: “I’ve been trying to get a racing movie done for 20 years. I’ve tried bikes, I’ve tried cars, I’ve tried different disciplines, and for whatever reason they never came to fruition.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Brad Pitt (F1 The Movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Fight Club) is an Academy Award-winning actor and producer. Brad joins the Armchair Expert to discuss whether it makes him nervous to talk to Dax in public, holding two realities about people he knows that are famous actors, and leaving school one week shy of completing his degree for Hollywood. Brad and Dax talk about getting shut down trying to get his SAG card, still feeling like the kid from Oklahoma learning his way through this whole thing, and why his favorite humor is the most irreverent kind. Brad explains that there’s no bummer about being in a Tarantino movie, having to work up a case for insurance that it’s actually safer to drive at higher speeds while filming F1 The Movie, and the visceral high of delivering lines at 180 miles per hour.
Damson Idris recalls accidentally spitting in F1 costar Brad Pitt’s face
Damson Idris says he had a “say it, don’t spray it” moment on the set of his new film, F1.
In an interview Wednesday on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Idris — who plays a rookie Formula One driver named Joshua Pearce — recalled an embarrassing moment while shooting opposite his F1 costar Brad Pitt, who plays Pearce’s mentor, Sonny Hayes.
“He is such a giving actor. We once did a scene where I had to scream in his face, and it was like the biggest scene for me. I was so nervous. And in between a take I spat in Brad Pitt’s face,” Idris admitted. “It was an accident! It was a rageful scene!”
The actor said that Pitt flinched a bit in surprise, but then just kept going with the scene. “In my head, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I spat in Brad Pitt’s face! I’m gonna lose my job now,'” he joked. “I watched the spit the whole take, it was just there dribbling down [his face].”
Read more. I think this is just too adorable and funny, Damson is.
