With the booming popularity of Formula One and the skyrocketing attention on the world of motorsport, there’s no surprise that one of this summer’s most anticipated films comes in the form of a racing blockbuster.
The film follows Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), once F1’s most promising driver and now a washed up racer-for-hire, who finds himself back on the track when an unusual opportunity presents itself. Alongside talented but overconfident rookie Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), the two must put their egos aside as the road to redemption is not one you can travel alone.
Tobias Menzies, famed for portraying iconic characters on The Crown, Outlander, and Game of Thrones, now takes on the role of Peter Banning, Oxford-educated venture capitalist and member of APXGP’s board of directors. “The ingredients of the film—the amazing cast and crew—and the ambition of the project was what made me interested in getting involved,” Menzies reflects.
Directed by Joseph Kosinski of Top Gun: Maverick and in close collaboration with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, F1 guarantees a thrilling ride for fans and cinephiles alike. On the eve of the film’s global release, Menzies sits down with Vogue Singapore to chat about his role as the surreptitious Peter Banning, working alongside Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem, and all things F1.
Were you a fan of Formula One prior to working on this film?
Honestly I wasn’t, I didn’t know much about the sport. A bit like the character I portray in the film, I had to play catch-up.
So how did you get acquainted with the world of F1? Did you binge all of Drive to Survive like your character did?
Yes, I watched quite a lot of Drive to Survive. One of the really helpful things about how we shot the film was that we were shooting at actual Grand Prix’s. We were immersed in the world of Formula One, which made our jobs much easier.
Tell us a little about your role. What was it like stepping into the shoes of Peter Banning?
Peter Banning is an investor in Javier Bardem’s race team APXGP, his right-hand man, his eyes and ears on the board. He represents the financial machinations that are involved in the sport, which is obviously very expensive and has a lot of money at stake. When discussing the role, I suggested we make him slightly more gullible, someone who appears to know nothing about the sport and is just a money guy. Without giving too much away, by the end of the film you realise he isn’t quite all that he seems.
What was it like working with Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem?
I’ve grown up watching both of them, their remarkable experience in screen acting—particularly movie acting—which is something I’ve done the least of. It was very interesting to see how they operate around a camera, how they manage their energy on set everyday. I learned a lot.
The film was shot at racing circuits all around the world. What was the most memorable location you filmed at?
There’s a song lyric that says the first cut is the deepest, and that rung very true for me. The first day of filming was on the grid at Silverstone, ten minutes before the actual race was starting. We had seven, eight minutes to shoot a scene with the real grid in front of us and the real crowd beside us. You certainly didn’t want to be the person who forgot your lines or dropped the ball. It was sort of like theatre on steroids—a very memorable way to start.
What was it like filming during actual race weekends?
To be honest, it was hard. I think Joe’s instinct was that there was no way of replicating the atmosphere and the vividness of the circus that Formula One is. So whenever he could, he embedded this multimillion dollar film unit inside these weekends—in the rooms, on the grid, in the paddock club, in the pit lane, etc. It was this weird mixture of a big studio film shot almost like an indie film, with often very small units and having to fit in something we weren’t in control of. It lent an incredible fleet-footedness and almost improvisatory quality on how we were shooting, which I feel gives the film a real energy.
You’ve played many iconic roles over the years—Jonathan Randall in Outlander, Prince Philip in The Crown, Edmure Tully in Game of Thrones—how do you think they would fare in the world of F1? Would they be a driver, a team principal, or a team owner?
Phillip as a young man would fancy himself as a driver, though he may be a bit tall. I imagine Phillip would be drawn to the speed. Jonathan Randall is interested in power so maybe he’d like to be a team principal—he’d like to run the show. And Edmure Tully, I don’t know where he would fit in. Perhaps he would be a bit like Banning in the beginning of the film, a sort of hapless investor.
You’ve done period dramas, historical fantasy, now a huge blockbuster film—is there a genre you’d like to explore next?
I’ve never had a very clear idea about genre, for me it’s always about scripts, always about the words. I’m quite open-minded about genre and roles, be it antagonists or heroes. But [this project] gave me a taste for doing more film. I really enjoyed working on this scale, and I’d be interested in doing some more of them.
F1 is in cinemas now.
