Brad Pitt is a movie star who seems to be in the quality over quantity mindset when it comes to his career these days. Prior to this weekend’s F1 release date, the actor hadn’t been the star of a movie since 2022’s Babylon! So how did the F1 producers get Pitt to become the star of the Formula One racing movie that required him to drive speeds up to 180 mph? Here’s the story.
Jerry Bruckheimer is one of the key producers behind F1, who previously made Top Gun: Maverick with Tom Cruise, on top of other hits like the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Bad Boys, National Treasure and Beverly Hills Cop. While speaking to Deadline, Bruckheimer was asked what made Pitt say yes for F1, especially considering the actor is currently over 60 and might not “want to be climbing mountains.” As he responded:
Brad’s the opposite of everything you just said. He loves motor sports, period. He’s been riding motorcycles for years, and he tried to do a movie with Joe previously. It was called Run Like Hell, I think, and it didn’t work out.
As the producer shared, Brad Pitt isn’t the kind of actor who’s not up for a physical challenge, even if Formula One drivers are typically in their 20s. But even so, we can imagine they knew he wouldn’t say yes to just anything. As Bruckheimer continued:
So we put together a team. First thing we did is we went to Lewis Hamilton, before we had Brad. Joe and I said, ‘This is the kind of movie we want to make. We’d like you to be a producer and make sure we get it right.’ He leaned in right away, said, ‘I’d love to do it.’ Joe came up with a story, and we pitched that to Ehren Kruger to write it. We had pieces, but the linchpin was Lewis, and that was enough to coerce Brad into doing it.
As it turns out, Formula One legend Lewis Hamilton being involved as a producer was really what convinced Brad Pitt to star in F1. Jerry Bruckheimer said he “wanted to be accurate” to the sport, and asserted that he wouldn’t do the movie if they used bluescreen. Thankfully, he was working with the guys behind Maverick, who got the entire cast of the Top Gun sequel in real fighter jets.
Brad Pitt and Damson Idris were put through the ringer with four months of physical training that allowed them to prepare for their bodies to withstand 5 Gs, but before that they had the chance to drive with Lewis Hamilton in the driver’s seat to get a sense for “what he’s in for,” per Bruckheimer. Apparently in retrospect, Brad Pitt was a better candidate than Tom Cruise for the role too, because the Mission: Impossible actor “pushes it to the limit.”
The result is a movie critics are calling “a hell of a ride” that sounds built to be a crowd pleaser. Brad Pitt isn’t one to do press, but the actor’s even been making an exception because he’s so “invested” in the movie. You can check out the latest of 2025 movies this weekend in theaters!
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