Summary

Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, and Javier Bardem chat with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff about F1.

In this interview, the trio dish on the pressures of making the movie, including filming from inside a Formula One car.

They also discuss the most challenging scenes to capture in one take, the physical training it took to race, and more.

Following Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch, From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, and Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, the next big 2025 summer blockbuster is about to arrive: F1. Joseph Kosinski returns to the director’s chair alongside producer Jerry Bruckheimer to take on this pulse-racing movie set on the tracks of the beloved sport, with the pair following up on the global box office and critical success of their 2022 hit Top Gun: Maverick. However, it isn’t just those behind the camera making F1 a must-see movie, with the film also boasting an eye-catching central ensemble, led by Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes, a once-acclaimed racing driver who, following a tragic accident, feared he’d lost it all. Now, many years later, he is offered a chance at redemption. That chance is offered by his former teammate, Ruben Cervantes, portrayed by the ever-brilliant Javier Bardem, who joins the likes of Damson Idris and Kerry Condon in a stacked cast. Ahead of the movie’s release, Bardem, Idris, and Condon all sat down with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff to discuss all things F1, including the intricate pressures of filming on the track and how the camera would obscure your vision whilst racing at 180 mph. They also shout out the unsung heroes who made this ambitious project possible, and chat about much more.
Mid-Racing, Damson Idris Had to Adjust to a Scene Change in One Take

“We had probably five minutes to get a shot.”

PERRI NEMIROFF: One of the things that fascinates me most about this movie is how much you had to do in one take, and the fact that this big, gigantic blockbuster kind of had a live theater feel. Can you each pinpoint a scene that you had to do in one take where that kind of pressure and energy invigorated you? DAMSON IDRIS: I was on the track. We had probably five minutes to get a shot. It was in Budapest. They came up with an added moment during the Grand Prix while I was on the track, so I had to get around to a specific place on the track, and notes were being fed to me, and I had to hit the right speed and come out of the pit lane right in time as the car was passing me, and we did it in one take! I had to celebrate and everything. KERRY CONDON: Yay! I love those moments. Good job! IDRIS: Everyone was like, “Damson, we got it!” It was during the Grand Prix, and the crowd was there. It was absolutely amazing. CONDON: Mine’s very minor compared to yours now, but without giving away the story, it’s in Las Vegas, so it’s a nighttime race, and something dramatic happens, and I have to react to it. We had to have two takes because a car pulled in behind us that shouldn’t have been there, but it was a dramatic moment. But I have to credit the camera operator because he lined it up where you couldn’t see the car behind me, so he kind of saved my ass on that one. JAVIER BARDEM: Mine was that I have to say a line in English that was very long, and then I have to… [Laughs] CONDON: With the names! BARDEM: Yeah! With the names. That one. When I was introducing the team.

Image via Apple

IDRIS: Take that, Duolingo! [Laughs] CONDON: They were hard. BARDEM: I couldn’t remember the names, I couldn’t remember the technical… IDRIS: That was your first day? BARDEM: Yeah. I was like, “Whatever.” And after 15 takes, I was able to do it. CONDON: It was Casper. IDRIS: Oh my goodness, I remember that day. “Casper Mullinsky…” BARDEM: “Whatever! He works here.” It was way more difficult, my thing, than any of his things. [Laughs] IDRIS: So funny!
Damson Idris Takes Us Behind the Wheel for ‘F1’

“Sometimes there’d be cameras in front of your face, and you can’t even see, and you’re going 180mph.”

Image via Apple

Damson, I have a training question for you. I feel like when we think about this movie, we think about all the aspects of actually driving the car that are really tough, but I’m so fascinated by the physical toll that race car driving takes on the body. What would you say surprised you most about what that would feel like, and then tell me a little bit about how you had to train in order to prepare your own body for that? IDRIS: Wow. The more laps you do, the more strenuous it is on your body, so that was really surprising to me. I had heard that the drivers lose weight after driving 70 laps or so, so I was. I was just shredding throughout. When I first started the picture, I was 83 kilograms, and then I went down to, like, 77 kilograms. The abs were popping, though. CONDON: You were starving, as well. Well, not at the time, but you were hungry. IDRIS: Bloody hell, Kerry. [Laughs] IDRIS: And then, of course, the neck exercises and just being in the garages with the guys all the time. Going from the different cars, as well, from F4 all the way up to F1, and then the F2 cars, which we modified. We had about six that were made by Mercedes. And just learning the different techniques in those cars. Each car is driven differently. So, just doing that alongside Brad [Pitt] was so much fun. When we did it over the course of about four months, and then dotted it in between filming over the two years. My favorite track was Austin, Texas. It was so much fun. But when you think about the training, it was interesting because we would train without the cameras, and then we’d shoot with the cameras. So, sometimes there’d be cameras in front of your face, and you can’t even see, and you’re going 180mph. So yeah, I made it! I’m alive! CONDON: Thank God!
It Took a Whole Pit Crew to Make ‘F1’

“That’s so many people.”

One thing that I love that is said out loud in the film is that this is a team sport, and I feel like a lot of people might not think of that because we are so focused on the driver, but there are so many people involved in pulling off a successful F1 race, and I think the same is true of filmmaking as well. So, inspired by that idea, can you each name an F1: The Movie unsung hero, someone who contributed big time to you pulling off your own work? CONDON: That’s so many people. Like the whole camera department. IDRIS: I’m going to go with Mikey, the guy who gave us our food. CONDON: Yeah, that’s a good one. IDRIS: Yeah. He kept me fed and kept me prepared for all the driving.

Related

’F1’s First 10 Minutes Confirm the Team Behind ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Would Never Let Us Down

The Brad Pitt-led movie races into theaters in June.

BARDEM: Everyone, but Toby [Hefferman], the first AD. CONDON: Oh my god! BARDEM: Being able to put all that together, and, most importantly, doesn’t make us feel the pressure of it, but makes it easy for us, and also tries to accommodate us into it without feeling the tension that these guys may feel every day. That was something that really is amazing. IDRIS: He’s brilliant. CONDON: Claudio Miranda, our DP, because he made us all look pretty good. He was also extremely calm all the time, as well. You could go over and chat to him and just have chit chat about random stuff. IDRIS: I used to steal his candy. He’d always keep a bunch of Snickers bars, and I’d go steal them. And he found out it was me, like, probably around six months into the shoot. He was like, “You’ve been stealing my Snickers bars!” [Laughs] I was starving! F1: The Movie races into theaters on June 27.

F1

Release Date

June 27, 2025

Director

Joseph Kosinski

Writers

Ehren Kruger

Get Tickets