Would 'Ferrari' stars Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz want a Ferrari? You'd be surprised.
Paging Ferrari headquarters!
Adam Driver, who plays your fabled patriarch Enzo Ferrari in “Ferrari” (in theaters Christmas Day), has been calling in search of a car.
“I keep reaching out and nobody’s returning my call,” says a miffed Driver, 40, breaking into laughter.
He's kidding, of course. After all, if anyone were able to skip the line for a new Ferrari – the most exclusive models are reserved for select clients of the car company – it would be Driver, who disappears into his legendary character with a slight stoop and gray hair required to play the then-59-year-old automaker in 1957.
Driver and co-star Penélope Cruz, 49, as Ferrari’s wife Laura, shed light on making a movie that focuses on a tense time in Ferrari’s life, when his company hits the financial skids just as his marriage is rocked by the revelation of mistress Lina Lardi (Shailene Woodley) and an out-of-wedlock son.
Michael Mann’s period piece, in fact, demanded extreme authenticity, considering that Enzo Ferrari is considered by many in his homeland to be as untouchable as the pope.
The director did not skimp. He had the Costa Rican company Pacto make period-correct helmets for his 1950s drivers. He took the actors to places where Ferrari lived and worked. He recorded the roaring race cars with multiple microphones to best capture their unique exhaust notes.
“Michael’s been trying to make this movie for like 30 years, so now that he finally got to it, he was relentless,” says Driver, who again takes on the role of a historical Italian figure following his turn as Maurizio Gucci in 2021’s “House of Gucci.” "It makes a difference to the audience because they can tell when something is unique and specific."
Michael Mann whisked Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz off on an Italian holiday to prepare for 'Ferrari'
Shooting in the Italian towns of Modena and nearby Maranello, home of Ferrari’s headquarters, the cast was always under the watchful scrutiny of locals.
“We felt the pressure for sure,” Driver says. “There are not one but two museums dedicated to Ferrari in town. The Ferrari iconography is all over the place. But we couldn’t be defeated by that, we had to play the people we were getting to know.”
For Driver, that meant spending time in racing cars in both California and Italy. It also meant a long scouting trip to Modena before filming with Mann and Cruz, during which the trio visited the Ferrari factory, Enzo’s home, and met with anyone who remembered the icon.
The two actors also got to know Piero Ferrari, the once-illegitimate son who officially claimed the family name years after Laura's death in 1978 and today at 78 is vice chairman of the company. “I was with Piero as he opened up suitcases his father owned, filled with his things,” says Driver. “It gave me great insights into the man I was playing.”
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For Cruz, the time in Italy, a country she has come to know well after shooting a half-dozen movies there, was critical to bringing to life a woman who stayed in the shadows.
“I went to the market Laura shopped at for food, I saw the financial books she kept for the company, and I went to her apartment,” says Cruz. “That place gave me so much information about the sadness she lived with,” pain that included the infidelity of her husband as well as the death of the couple's only son, Dino, at age 24 in 1956. “I think she was in a deep depression for many years.”
Discovering the real Laura Ferrari meant sifting through layers of gossip, says Penélope Cruz
Cruz says conversations with locals at first turned up stories about Laura Ferrari that painted her “as difficult and crazy and scary.”
But the details she eventually unearthed revealed a smart, determined, loyal woman filled with “the strength (needed) to get through all of this grief, her son, her marriage, and survive. She was one of the early investors in Ferrari and being involved there kept her going.”
Cruz plays her with fierce intensity. “I don’t think Laura smiles more than twice” in the movie, she says. Driver thrived on his co-star's power. "She made it easy," he says. "She was available and listening and instinctual."
Driver’s Ferrari is hardly a barrel of laughs. The automaker is fending off bankruptcy while losing friends who drove for him in often deadly car races. He also is told by his accounting team that he must win the 1957 Mille Miglia, a 1,000-mile race that conferred celebrity on its winning drivers and showroom sales to its victorious cars.
Next up for Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz: How about a comedy?
The onscreen intensity radiated by Driver and Cruz perhaps explains why they are now eager to star in a comedy together.
“I like him very much − we have a great time working together and have a similar sense of humor that couldn’t come out in this movie,” she says. “We will look for a smart comedy, something that keeps us working together.”
What this duo doesn’t share, however, is a love of automobiles. Driver says he's "always liked cars" and has coveted a Ferrari ever since he saw the unforgettable Ferrari Testarossa in the 1980s Michael Mann TV cop series, “Miami Vice.”
"I knew Ferraris were simply drivable works of art," says Driver. "But for the majority of my life, I could not attain one."
In contrast, Cruz wouldn’t take a Ferrari if it were free.
“Do I want a Ferrari? Oh, no, no, no,” she says. “I don’t like speed. My first question to Michael was, ‘I don’t have to drive a Ferrari in this movie, right?’ ... I actually get very afraid in cars, and I don’t like people driving fast.”
So, despite co-starring in a big-budget movie called “Ferrari,” she’s never been in a Ferrari?
“Oh, I’ve been in one,” Cruz corrects. “Adam and I were at Piero Ferrari’s garage and there were like 20 cars in there and we both got in one and sat in it. And that’s it. That was good enough for me.”