The film “Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story” came to Archie Madekwe’s radar through a chance encounter.
“I met with one of the writers almost a year earlier [before he was cast]. He told me a story I had never heard before, and I was taken aback when I was sent the material – a couple of podcasts, interviews, YouTube videos,” shares Madekwe, who plays Jann Mardenborough, the real gamer-turned-professional racecar driver whose story the film is about.
“I was really moved, because one thing that appeals to me as an actor is finding unknown, inspiring stories about people who look like me. When I was growing up, these stories – a young person achieving their dreams – were never told about someone whose face looked like mine. So I was unbelievably compelled to tell this story.”
The real Jann Mardenborough agrees. “I hope it shows kids that look like me that they can trust themselves and can go after what they love,” he says.
Like the character he plays, Madekwe had one hiccup when he began racing cars: he didn’t know how to drive. While working on another production, before “Gran Turismo” began shooting, he would shoot his scenes during the day, then sneak in a driving lesson in his evenings.
But learning to drive wasn’t his greatest challenge; he picked it up fairly easily. That was nothing compared to learning to fake drive: to be able to compete for real in the game “Gran Turismo.”
“I had to actually be good at the game,” he says. “To shoot the scenes in the gaming café, we were playing the game for real against the difficult AI, and I had to win. That was daunting, because I’m aware of how much practice and skill goes into being good at games like that.”
To get good at the game, Madekwe was trained by David Perel, who – like Mardenborough – was a sim driver who now races for Ferrari. “PlayStation sent a simulator to my house – a seat, steering wheel, and pedals,” Madekwe recalls.
“And as I wrapped the film I was on before, I just had to practice, practice, practice. It takes so much skill to learn the tracks, the racing lines, the corners, and feeling the brakes. And as soon as you get the hang of that, it’s just repetition. It gave me so much admiration and respect for those drivers, because for them to do that under the circumstances that they have to is insanity.”
Now that he’s had all of the training, does he think he has a future in racing? “With nothing but respect for every racecar driver on this planet…no,” he says. “I hate being in the car. It’s hot, it’s claustrophobic, it’s nauseating, it’s anxiety-inducing. I’m 6’5” – I can barely fit in the cars. And on top of that, you have to make split-second decisions in the middle of those circumstances. You can lose seven pounds of sweat during a race. It’s a total body experience, athleticism to the highest degree.”
David Harbour, meanwhile, always knew that director Neill Blomkamp would bring a genuinely exhilarating feel to “Gran Turismo.” But he didn’t realize how authentic his own experience would be while filming the movie.
“I knew Neill would bring a visceral, blood pumping feel,” says Harbour, who plays Jack, a washed-up driver who becomes Mardenborough’s chief engineer and teaches him the ins and outs of a real racecar.
“What I didn’t really know was how much we were going to be working with actual cars, actual drivers, actual tracks. We’re in the cars, we’re doing pit tire changes and gassing up the cars in real-time with other drivers blazing around the track at 200mph. It’s really me in a helicopter flying 30 feet above racecars. It all plays into the intensity of the experience – which is critical to making a film about people having a very intense experience, risking everything for what they love.”
The actor says that at first, he was skeptical about a movie adaptation of a racing simulator, because for him a movie is not like a videogame. “You want to play the game, to control the characters,” Harbour says.
“One of the things I really liked about this movie is that it’s not a movie about a videogame – it’s a movie that incorporates a videogame into its narrative, which is about a young man with tremendous talent who does something incredible, and about a coach who has been through a lot and become hardened – but who comes to believe in this kid.”
“Gran Turismo” is the ultimate wish fulfillment tale of a teenage Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills won a series of Nissan competitions to become an actual professional racecar driver. One of the reasons Harbour was attracted to the movie was in seeing Mardenborough’s underdog story reflected throughout the characters.
“Jack’s story is an underdog story as well,” he says of his character. “He’s suffered, but he still clearly loves this sport and doesn’t have the opportunity to participate in it at the level that he would like to.”
And though he starts out cynical, Harbour says, Jack starts to see GT Academy as his chance. “He doesn’t believe in these kids, initially, but he starts to realize he has a real opportunity to teach Jann.”
Harbour’s respect for the thrilling style of the movie mirrors his character’s understanding of the cars’ power. “On the surface, the dynamic is fraught and tense,” he says. “These kids are coming out of the game world, and he doesn’t believe in them. He’s a man of a different time, a man of mechanics, of machines, of things that work a certain way, and the world is moving on. And he desperately wants them to understand the power of his world – the visceral, the real – that coming out of the screens into this physical world has value.”
Also starring Orlando Bloom, Darren Barnet, Geri Halliwell Horner and Djimon Hounsou, this heartwarming underdog story opens in Philippine cinemas Wednesday, August 30.