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FEATURE MOVIE

Before becoming an actor he served in the Marine Corps He runs a non-profit organisation called Arts in the Armed Forces He lost 23 kilos for his role in Martin Scorsese’s Silence He is 6 feet 2 inches tall The scar on his face is from a biking accident as a teenager He refuses to watch his own films ut Adam Driver Fun Facts abo

More than 20 years in the making, Michael Mann finally realised his dream of creating a film about ex-racer and visionary Formula One carmaker Enzo Ferrari, with his breathtaking biopic starring Adam Driver. Words Gill Pringle

S et in the summer of 1957, behind the spectacle of Formula One, Enzo Ferrari is in crisis. Bankruptcy threatens the factory he and his wife, Laura [Penelope Cruz], built from nothing ten years earlier. Their volatile marriage has been battered by the loss of their son, Dino, a year previous, and Ferrari also struggles to acknowledge his illegitimate son Piero, whom he shares with his lover Lina Lardi [Shailene Woodley]. Meanwhile, his drivers’ passion to win pushes them to the edge, as they launch into the treacherous 1,000 mile race across Italy: the Mille Miglia. Based on Brock Yates’ 1991 book Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Car, The Races, The Machine , Mann was fascinated by the story of these incandescent lives lived behind closed doors. “There is no equilibrium in his life, and that’s the whole point of Enzo Ferrari,” says the four-time Oscar nominee. “That fascinated me, because that’s more like the way life

Moving to the racetrack, Ferrari’s famed real-life drivers Piero Taruffi, Peter Collins, and Alfonso de Portago are portrayed respectively by Patrick Dempsey, Jack O’Connell, and Brazilian actor Gabriel Leone. A keen racing fan, Dempsey has had his eye on the role of Taruffi for the past 15 years. The actor has competed in various pro-am events - including 24 Hours of Le Mans - once even declaring he would "walk away" from acting if he could and dedicate himself full-time to motorsports. “This period in racing

and Italian culture was like an opera,” says the Grey’s Anatomy star, who boasts his own sports and vintage car collection. “The highs and the lows, the emotion, the death, the sexuality - all of it was just so amazing. “Taruffi survived

and logical; rational in everything to do with his factory and race team. In the rest of his life he was impulsive, defensive, libidinous, chaotic. This asymmetry and wonderful contradiction is what made him, and the other characters in this unique story, so human to me,” says Mann. The driving force of the film is, of course, Driver. “From what I understand, Enzo was a serious person of ritual,” says the

• Ferrari is out on Mar 20

his life in racing,”

actually is. Life is asymmetrical. Life is messy. Life is filled with chaos. Ferrari was precise

he continues.” I think that’s why he may not be as well-known as some of the other drivers. He was 50 years old when he won the Mille Miglia, and then he retired after that race. He may not have been the fastest driver, but he was

Patrick Dempsey lost all of his hair while bleaching it for his role in Ferrari . DYK?

40-year-old actor, who spent two hours in hair and makeup every day in order to portray a 59-year-old Ferrari. “He was incredibly stubborn. When it came to his life with Lina, it was different from his life with Laura. That was the one place where he felt at home. With Laura, there’s such a familiarity, and so much grief and history and also much loyalty. But at the same time, it was hard to find love there anymore.”

the most consistent and the wisest, as far as knowing what he needed to do to take

Adam Driver

care of the equipment and to win the race.”

Patrick Dempsey

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