The opening of the cockpit for a
Formula 1 racecar is required to be a maximum of 850 millimeters long
(about 33 1/2 inches) and 520 millimeters wide (20 1/2 inches). So how
are you supposed to fit a Norse god inside one of them?
That was the problem faced by Oscar-winning director Ron Howard in making his new movie, "Rush,"
the true story of a rivalry between two F1 drivers that electrified
motorsports fans in the mid-1970s. To play the tall, blond, and brash
British racing legend James Hunt, the director cast tall, blond, and
brash Australian actor Chris Hemsworth,
best known to audiences as the hammer-swinging Marvel hero Thor. But to
turn the god of thunder into a titan of speed, Hemsworth had to trim
down his world-famous "Avengers" physique.
"[Chris] is the height of James
Hunt, and they’re both 6-3," Howard said in a phone interview with
Yahoo! Movies earlier this week. "But he had to slim down drastically.
And in kind of a no-muss, no-fuss way, he put himself through a pretty
remarkable regimen, and got himself to James Hunt's size."
That meant Hemsworth went quickly
from the bulked-up size he was at for "Marvel's The Avengers" (topping
out at a reported 235 pounds) to James Hunt's slimmer build (the real
driver weighed in at around 175 pounds).
The effort worked, and Hemsworth
was able to slip into the narrow confines of an actual F1 car to drive
it on film. "We did nothing to the car to make it so that he could fit
in," Howard said. "He just got lean and like an F1 driver."
Watch the exclusive trailer for "Rush" below, and keep reading to see
how much race driving Hemsworth actually did himself, and just how
dangerous filming actually got.
"Rush" reunites Howard with
screenwriter Peter Morgan, who wrote the Oscar-nominated "Frost/Nixon,"
and this is another true story set in the '70s about a bitter rivalry
that turns into begrudging respect. Except this one takes place at 180
mph.
The film is set during the 1976 F1
championship season, as controversial Brit Hunt (Hemsworth) battled
with German driver Niki Lauda (played by "Inglourious Basterds" star
Daniel Brühl) for supremacy. But at that year's German Grand Prix, Lauda
had a horrific accident, suffering severe burns on his face. Still,
within weeks Lauda was back on the track, dueling with Hunt all the way
to the final finish line.
Howard said to prepare for their roles, both Hemsworth and Brühl
attended intensive driving schools to learn how to handle real racecars.
Then they spent another two weeks rehearsing on the track to master the
moves they would need to recreate on camera.
"Of course, those things are dangerous," Howard said, "And the scenes
we were throwing them into were particularly dangerous." So the scenes
that called for top speeds were done by stunt drivers. But, Howard
explained, the actors "had to get good enough so that they could come
tearing into the pit stops and then accelerate out. And that’s around
people, and that’s harnessing the power of those machines in a situation
that really requires precision." He said that Hemsworth and Brühl did
get their cars up to speeds around 100 miles per hour, but "the cars go
180."
Director Ron Howard and Chris Hemsworth on the set of 'Rush' (Photo: Universal Pictures)
Howard said filming fast cars and
breakneck action reminded him of his directorial debut, the 1977 Roger
Corman-produced "Grand Theft Auto," though safety standards have
definitely improved over the course of his four-decade career. "I had
flashbacks of those Roger Corman days," Howard said, "And thank God we
didn’t flip any cars and/or T-bone anything like we did in 'Grand Theft
Auto.'" Howard noted that while no one got hurt on his first film, its
stunt coordinator, Vic Rivers, did die in an on-set accident the
following year, "so none of this is to be taken lightly."
Howard said that the high-risk
environment of filming "Rush" recalled another fiery flick of his,
1991's "Backdraft." "I remember heaving a tremendous sigh of relief when
we wrapped 'Backdraft' and there were no serious injuries, and I felt
the same way about 'Rush.'" That wasn't to say the shoot was entirely
without incident. "We had some mishaps," Howard said. "We had some
spinouts and a couple of light moments where there’s some contact and
things could’ve been a lot worse but they weren’t."
The filmmaker revealed that the
driving team they assembled for the film was so good, in fact, they were
able to capture much of the racing action with real cars and not
special effects. He said they filmed more precision driving --
"dangerous overtakes and hairpins… wheel-to-wheel bumps, [and] touching"
-- than he ever expected they could ever do safely. "And I’m glad to be
able to underline the word 'safely' because [there were] no injuries.'"
The real Niki Lauda and James Hunt in 1977 (Photo: Grand Prix Photo/Getty Images)
Hunt, the driver played by
Hemsworth, died in 1993 at the age of only 45 after a sudden heart
attack. But Niki Lauda is still alive, and he even took Howard out for a
spin on the Ferrari test track. After Hunt retired from racing, he
became a popular racing commentator in the U.K., and Howard said that
Hemsworth poured over tapes to capture both the real racer's accent and
his attitude.
"Every once in a while Chris would
improvise a line, and I'd say, 'That's hilarious,'" Howard recalled.
"And he'd say, 'No I just got that from the documentary. James said
that.' So he had a little list of James comments that were hilarious and
raw and sexy that he was always trying to work into the script."
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