ComingSoon Editor-in-Chief Tyler Treese spoke with professional racing driver Jann Mardenborough about Gran Turismo — the movie based on his life and journey. Mardenborough spoke about the process of seeing the film to fruition and being part of it as a driver.
Tyler Treese: How surreal was the whole process of having your story become a feature film and get a wide release and have stars like David Harbour and Orlando Bloom in it? How insane was it to learn your life was going to become this movie and inspire people?
Jann Mardenborough: Well, when I first got notified that there was a chance that maybe there was going to be a film based on my life, I had the opinion of, “Yeah, there’s no way that’s going to happen.” I didn’t believe it. I didn’t believe it because I was presented with the word “maybe.” And in 2017, I was racing in Japan — doing two championships, racing like 25 events a year. Now I’ve got some producer telling me, “Maybe there’s a chance a movie is going to be based on your life.” So I don’t really work with maybes. So I went to the back of my mind and then a couple of months later or a year later, I started to meet people in person. Then it became more real. But I did think as well, “Why me?” Because I just raced my racing car as fast as I can.
That’s all I’ve continued to do. Things have happened that I’d never thought were possible off the back of that. The movie’s one of them. It’s not like I envisioned this to be a thing, so I’m very grateful for that. I was told it’s not something I think about, it’s just … I’m always looking to the next thing for my performance. But I was told that my story was inspirational, which is why it’s in the movie. But it was hard for me to process stuff, the why. But I feel very blessed that I can tell a chapter of my life and how I got into racing and the route that I took and had never given up.
Can you speak to falling in love with the Gran Turismo games? During the PS2 and PS3 eras, they would release these awesome wheels that had force feedback and were more realistic. But I assume you started out with a regular DualShock controller playing the regular games.
Well, I fell in love with it from a young age — ever since I was eight. I had the original GT1 and PlayStation 1, and then had every game in the series since. However, I did fall out of love with it because I was playing with the controller for years up until I was 18 years old. I was playing with the controller and it’s wild when I think about it. But I wanted my own rig. I wanted my wheel and pedals because, as you say, they had these wheels that had force feedback. I had my own car at that point and I wanted to take the experience of racing games to the next level. So I wanted a wheel and pedals, but it’s expensive to buy your own frame, and then the wheel and pedals is another expense.
So I made my own. I designed and made my own frame. So I have a seat from a scrap yard from an Alpha Romeo. The frame itself is made out of wood, which I made in school as well. From my exam results, I had some money that I used to purchase a wheel at the time and pedals, and that’s what I used to qualify for GT Academy. But I’d only had the wheel six months, I think. So I hadn’t been playing long on the wheel and then qualified for the academy with the thing I made with the money I had for my exams. That frame, actually, is in the movie as well. You’d have to really know what my frame looks like, but it’s actually in the movie, because Neil [Blomkamp], the director, I asked him, “Look man, could you please create a replica?” And he did, and it’s in there. So I fell in love with the game more having the wheel and pedals because it’s how a car is meant to be driven, and then used that to qualify.
That’s incredible. In the movie, you actually get to drive the cars. You’re involved doing the stunt work and the racing scenes look so incredible in this. Obviously, they’re not real races, but they come across so great and there are so many great drivers that helped make these racing scenes come to life. How was that experience of doing these races that aren’t real, but feel real and getting to do those scenes? They look so incredible in the film.
Good, I’m glad to hear that. It’s mine and that everybody involved’s ambition to make the racing as visceral and as violent as it is in real life. There’s so many sensations that go on. The stunt coordinator, Steve Kelso, took a chance on me, really, because he could have said no, because I played myself as the main … we call it the Halo Car, whenever the camera focuses on it, it’s the Halo Car. It’s kind of like the most important car. I’ve never done any stunt driving before, any movie work — nothing. I’ve just been racing cars for real. It was basically a big risk for him to invite somebody, whether it be me or somebody else, to drive that car, because they can really mess up the whole film if they can’t do it.
I was aware of that as well. I was aware that this is another industry that I need to prove myself in. It’s not like I can just walk in and go, “Yes, I’m Jann Mardenborough. I’m the guy that the movie’s based off.” And then just expect everything to happen. I was aware that I had to prove myself as a stunt driver as well and really get respect from these titans in the industry. Because there are certainly stunt drivers, men and women involved in Grand Turismo, that have been in any action film you can imagine. It is wild to be on set with these people because they’ve been involved in the industry for like 40 years. So there were racing drivers as well that I’ve raced against in other categories that were involved in Grand Turismo as well.
I’m a racing car movies fan, so I love the responsibility of having some control over how the racing looks. Because I’m the main car, I want it to be as fast as possible. As violent and as visceral and you feel the sensation of speed. I want that to translate because that’s what it’s like. I love my sport because it’s like that, but to make that translate to the camera, there are things you have to do. Neil, the director, was aligned on that as well because the way that he wanted the movie to be shot, it’s nothing static with the camera shot. So in order for the car to look like it’s going fast, you have to be going fast, which is great for me and all the other stunt drivers, because that’s what we left to do.
And it wasn’t scripted, as well. There were certain, they call it bits, where we had to be in a certain order at certain times, but other than that, we could play race. So we are just kind of on the fly doing moves at speed, because we all trust each other. We all know what we’re going to be doing. So it comes across as authentic because it wasn’t really scripted. We were very blessed with the whole setup. We drove so much, as well, all the drivers. Some drivers said, “Look, we’ve never had this much fun on the movie set before because there was so much driving that we did,” which is great to hear, because it was my film.
The thing that really stood out about Neil and how he approached this movie is he seemed to have a real respect for your story and Gran Turismo. There’s a lot of really nice touches. I love that we get to see Kazunori Yamauchi as the sushi chef. The whole production has so much respect for what Gran Turismo means beyond just the game, but also for helping people fall in love with driving. Can you speak to that sense, because it really comes through across the whole film?
Well, I had confidence in everybody before going to set because I loved the script, I loved the actors involved, I love Archie [Madekwe] — who’s playing me — the stunt drivers involved — It had all the right ingredients. And we wanted to represent me and Gran Turismo and racing and give it the respect it deserves because it’s my industry. I want to elevate it. I want to bring it to another audience. I’ve been surprised, which I hadn’t thought about it before the movie was shot. The messages I’ve got from people that they want to start driving or they want to have a car or they’re falling in love with motorsport. They’ve taken an interest. I haven’t expected that, which is great to hear because I love cars.
I think they’re the best and the most incredible invention in the world. The personal automobile is incredible. You can go wherever you want. The freedom it provides, the emotional attachment you have with this thing which can transport you to different locations, and it’s fun. Driving is fun. So to have messages from people all across the world saying that they fell in love, taking a real interest in cars and falling in love with driving, and they want to pass their driving test — young people — I love to hear that. Not only that, also getting involved in motorsports or following their dreams and getting involved and understanding different levels of motorsports, whether that be GT3 and prototype racing and them all. I love that. It’s eyes on my sport, which is fun. It’s the best thing in the world for me, so the more people watching, the better.
I saw a quote from you where you were discussing the crash being in this movie, and you said, “There’s no way to tell my story without including this.” Was there ever any hesitancy about including that? I I thought it was an emotional crux of the movie and it really comes through well, but that’s a really heavy topic to include in this movie that everybody’s going to see. Seeing your recovery from the crash, there’s a a lot to unpack there. Was there any hesitancy in including that?
No. After really thinking about it deeply for a while, it has to be in there because you’d be doing the viewer a disservice if it wasn’t in there because the story will read very sunny. It would read as “man wins competition in his room, wins a PlayStation competition, goes racing, has success. Nothing bad happens, nothing negative happens, and finishes.” That’s not true and it’s not my story. It’s not life, either. It’s part of my story, not only as a a racing driver, but as a human. There’s things that I’ve learned off the back of that accident which I still carry to this day. I have more respect for certain things, which is why it has to be in there. But it has to be technically correct and emotionally correct as well, because of the circumstances involved.
But yeah, I’m very happy with the way it’s portrayed. The scenes afterwards are absolutely beautiful and I think it shows people that there’s no darkness without light and vice versa. There’s always light at the end of the tunnel when you’re in the depths of despair, which is why it’s in there.