Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz talk new film 'Ferrari' and their roles as the Italian couple
Adam Driver and Penélope Cruz have opened up about their roles as the famous Italian couple who were the founders of the legendary sports car brand in "Ferrari."
During a sit-down interview with "Good Morning America" that aired on Thursday, Driver, who portrays Enzo Ferrari in the film, discussed playing the embattled, grief-stricken character of the Italian entrepreneur.
He said the main key to successfully playing the role is to understand who Enzo Ferrari was.
"He was a racer first," Driver, 40, explained. "Someone who's very calm on the surface, but has this constant engine going."
The two-time Academy Awards nominee also described Enzo Ferrari as someone who "kind of famously seemed cold-blooded."
"His business is on the verge of bankruptcy because he's more interested in racing cars than he is being a salesman," Driver said. "The racing world itself is changing. The death of drivers is 50%. So it's a very tumultuous time."
The new movie is based on the 1991 biography "Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races, the Machine" by motorsport journalist Brock Yates.
"Ferrari" chronicles the personal and professional endeavors of the founder of the car manufacturer during the summer of 1957 when he and his wife Laura Ferrari were still reeling from the loss of their son, Dino who died in 1956 at the age of 24. 1957 was also the year when Enzo Ferrari bet it all on his racing team entering 1,000-mile race across Italy known as the Mille Miglia.
Portraying Laura Ferrari in the film, Cruz, 49, dove deep into the private life of the co-founder of the sports car company as she dealt with her husband who was having an affair with another woman. As a result of his relationship with the mistress, Enzo Ferrari also had a child that he hid away from the public.
Discussing the character she plays, Cruz said, "You could really feel the deep depression that she was having for so many years of her life."
"She had a difficult personality," Cruz continued. "She's broken and that's what people didn't want to see. And that's why I took it as something personal, you know? The need of giving her a voice because she represents so many other women in the world that also don't have one."
In the film, Cruz explained one particular scene that was filled with devastation and rage where Laura Ferrari was blaming her husband for the death of their son.
"They are broken like so many couples that never recover from the loss of a child," she said.
"Hopefully, that scene in the movie, you get the sense that this is the first time that they're saying these things out loud," Driver chimed in. "We wanted all the accents to be subtle, the idea that they're speaking to each other in their own language so they're not making mistakes as if they're Italians speaking English."
Directed by Michael Mann, "Ferrari" which also stars Shailene Woodley, Patrick Dempsey and Gabriel Leone, offers the audience plenty of action and spectacle for sports car fans.
Driver also told "GMA" about his experience being on a racing track while shooting the film.
"We raced some contemporary Ferraris in Modena," he recalled. "And then I drove one of the chassis of one of the cars and you are immediately aware of how dangerous they are."
Meanwhile, Cruz shared that she also sat in one of the cars with Driver in the garage of Piero Ferrari.
"And I said, 'Don't start it,'" she laughed. "I appreciate it from there. Like without motion."
Added Driver of his take on the experience, "It is kind of heroic in the way that those drivers were, you know, following an ideology that was more important to them than personal safety which I think is very romantic."
"Ferrari" is now available in theaters nationwide.
