Brad Pitt is a well-known racing enthusiast — motorcycle racing, that is. The narrator of the 2015 motorcycle racing film Hitting the Apex has been riding motorcycles for years. Pitt, who’s said in interviews that motorcycle riding helps him feel anonymous, also owns a vast collection of vintage bikes that he’s ridden all over the world. Despite this, it may surprise many that the actor was a bit terrified when riding as a passenger alongside F1 driver Lewis Hamilton.
Pitt Showed a Natural Ability for Racing
Pitt plays an aging, has-been racer who’s given a second chance to win an F1 race and mentor a talented newcomer in the upcoming film F1. Joseph Kosinski asked Hamilton if he’d like to be involved, and he signed on to co-produce and give feedback. Kosinski told TIME that Hamilton took Pitt for a drive around a track near Los Angeles to give him a feel for what he’d be doing. âHe gave Brad the scare of a lifetime in a lap,â he recalled. âBrad was clawing at the windows, begging to get out.â
After that, Pitt started training and had to show his driving ability. “Lewis was really interested [in] seeing, did Brad know how to drive right?” Kosinski told the press at an event. “Because if Brad can’t drive, this whole film wasn’t going to work. And what Lewis was very happy to discover was that Brad had a lot of natural ability right from the start.”
“I don’t know where he got that or if he was born with it,” Kosinski continued. “And he rides motorcycles, which I think has something to do with it, but he’s just a very talented, naturally gifted driver. Which for Lewis after that first meeting gave him a lot of confidence that we might have a shot at pulling this off.”
Even Lewis Hamilton was Impressed by Brad Pitt’s Driving
Brad Pitt may have had some initial hesitation about the role after riding with the seven-time F1 champion. Still, the months of driving F2 cars adapted to look like F1 cars obviously made him more comfortable. “Watching Brad drive around at speeds over 180 miles an hour was really impressive to see because it’s not something you can just learn overnight,” Hamilton told reporters in a prerecorded statement. “The dedication and the focus that Brad put into this process has been amazing to witness.”
Kosinski agreed wholeheartedly. “You have to be fearless, and when you see Brad driving, that’s not acting,” he said. “He’s really concentrating on keeping that car on the track and out of the wall during all those scenes. So that’s something that you just can’t fake.”
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