The time Brad Pitt feltlike a 'horse's a**' in front of UK fans and Verstappen, Hamilton and co.

For the shooting of F1: The Movie, Brad Pitt actually mingled with the Formula 1 drivers in 2023 and 2024. Alongside co-star Damson Idris, he appeared in character as Sonny Hayes on the starting grid at the British Grand Prix, with customised Formula 2 cars and all. During the national anthem prior to the race, the actors stood among the drivers on the grid.

Reflecting on that moment in the podcast Beyond The Grid, Pitt admits: “Our first weekend was shooting at Silverstone. I felt a bit like a horse’s ass. Being on [the grid], hearing the national anthem, standing on the line next to the real guys, and you just had to swallow it and go, ‘This is my job, this is what I’ve got to do’. Certainly by the end of it, we felt like we were in our own backyard.”

The film was largely shot during actual Grand Prix weekends, with the production team fully integrated into the F1 world. This, according to Pitt, gave a unique energy to the production.

“It’s nutty. But it brings like an energy to the film itself, that it’s like a race to make sure we get these scenes. We’re going to shoot it on the grid, we’ve embedded ourselves in the race weekend, we have to prove ourselves that we will not cock up the programme, to slow down the race in any way, and we won’t be in anyone’s way," he added.

Sometimes this led to unexpected moments. "Damson and I do the national anthem, we turn around, we find ourselves walking with Carlos [Sainz] – these little accidents that happen – and then we get to the back of the grid, and we get two takes for this scene with Tobias [Menzies] and Javier [Bardem]."

But the most impressive moment came a day earlier, Pitt recalls: "The day before, the very first thing we put on film was [us] going out, taking the cars out on our own, in front of the 100,000 fans on Quali day, and that got my attention!"