Key members of the Gran Turismo cast as well as director Neill Blomkamp have been speaking to online movie ticket outlet Fandango about the upcoming movie, revealing some more details about how it was made.
Filmed before the recent SAG-AFTRA strike, which may well have some impact on the movie’s promotion, the interview involved Archie Madekwe — who plays the role of GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough — alongside Orlando Bloom and Geri Halliwell.
Blomkamp and Madekwe spoke a lot about the filming of the movie, particularly the action scenes, referencing the fact that as much of the driving as possible is real and not comprised of visual effects. Madekwe in particular noted that whenever you see him in the car, he’s actually driving and there’s no fakery involved.
However the film does use stunt drivers for many externally filmed sequences, which did require an interesting workaround for Madekwe who is 6’5″ (196cm) tall; the team would have to physically swap the seats between the actor and the stunt driver.
Notably Mardenborough himself is one of the stunt drivers, with the actors noting his particular ability to hit marks and timed shots — not necessarily something in a racing driver’s skillset — meant he drove in a lot more scenes than originally intended.
Mardenborough provided something of a resource for Madekwe in other areas too, giving him insight to work with during some of the family scenes — which were not necessarily fully scripted — where Halliwell plays his mother, Lesley-Ann Mardenborough. Halliwell also brings up the talents of Djimon Hounsou who, as Jann’s father Steve — a former professional footballer — she says is someone every father can identify with.
Also noted in the interview is the fact that Madekwe isn’t actually a gamer and isn’t especially into cars either! However Sony delivered a driving rig setup for him to practice, helped by GTPlanet member David Perel to improve for the film.
Bloom speaks about his character, Danny Moore, and the inspiration behind it: former Nissan global motorsport director Darren Cox. According to Bloom, Cox’s passion and “dog with a bone attitude” were what shone through and what he tried to capture in the film. Blomkamp noted that Cox was on set one day and remarked on the dream casting!
Thanks to Good Day for the tip!
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