The filmmaker says he met Driver ‘well before’ seeing ‘House of Gucci.’
And, of course, there was the COVID-19 pandemic.
Still, eight years is a long time to wait for the many fans of Manns cinematic style.
Neon
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Neon
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How does it feel to have gottenFerrariacross the finish line, so to speak?
How does the finished film compare to your original vision for it?
Neon
Thats because he really has the mentality of a racecar driver.
It’s a very romantic and kind of addictive perception.
He calls it our terrible joy, our dangerous passion, and thats exactly what it is.
Hes played a famous Italian before inHouse of Gucci.
Did that put him on your radar?
No, the Gucci movie had nothing to do with it.
I met with him well before I sawHouse of Gucci.
Theres a real-world, factual intelligence to Adam.
Hes somebody who, in his own personal history, has lived life.
I sense the strength and the artistic integrity coupled with a pretty fierce artistic ambition as an actor.
It’s not political or charming, which I like a lot.
It’s just there and strong.
It felt to me that he would understand Enzo Ferrari.
Thats when I thought he could be Enzo Ferrari.
I make casting decisions based on that perception of what’s going on inside.
The physical manifestation, the physical look, that’s craft work, thats secondary.
So, it’s not like I had to find somebody who looked like Enzo Ferrari.
Nobody looks like Enzo Ferrari.
Throughout Adams career, hes been compared to that 70s generation of New Hollywood actors likeRobert De NiroandAl Pacino.
Youve worked with those guys as well, so what do you make of that comparison?
Do you see anything in common?
So, its artistic ambition, which is different than career ambition.
So, there’s no fear.
It’s an attitude about your work.
And by the way, it’s not “work” as a four-letter word.
It’s work as a fantastic adventure, and why would you want to do it any other way?
There have been reports that maybe youll work with Adam again inHeat 2.
Yeah, were in discussion.
Thats all I can say about it.
So, I ask myself as an actor would ask himself, What’s my action?
What do I want?
But that means, “How do I want to impact the audience experience?”
Its that singular focus not on what you’re doing, but on what’s next.
Meanwhile, what you’re feeling is agitation, and it’s constantly moving.
I didn’t want them observing, I wanted them experiencing.
So, that determined everything.
We didn’t use trickery or CGI or something to generate the speed.
Everybody in the cars were going that fast.
We built all the cars from scratch.
It did in many ways.
First of all, everything was shot where it happened.
That is Ferrari’s house.
The historic opera really is next door.
The barbershop is, in fact, right around the corner, and the decor is unchanged since 1957.
The barber who’s shaving Adam is the son of the barber who shaved Enzo.
But just as important, if not more important, are the attitudes, psychology, and emotion.
What are the authority structures that are dominating life?
In 1957, the economic recovery, La Dolce Vita, hasn’t occurred yet.
These were very hard times, and I did venture to get a sense of that.
They got the first order for the first Ferrari car in 1947 with a 10-percent deposit.
He didn’t ask her to, she did it on her own.
That first car, six races later, wins the Rome Grand Prix.
So, theyre coming from a state of nothing, and they built this from scratch.
When Enzo says, we have history, this is what he’s referring to.
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