Michael Mann took his Ferrari cast to "racecar driving 101"

Playing any role takes significant preparation for an actor, but there is an added responsibility that comes with playing a character who was once a living, breathing person. At the New York Film Festival this afternoon, Michael Mann and Ferrari cast members Adam Driver, Penelope Cruz, and Gabriel Leone spoke about some of the work they did before the cameras started. And, of course, for a film called Ferrari, that included learning how to drive 1950s-era racecars.

“I wanted everybody to have an experience of driving these cars on a racetrack,” Mann shared. While he noted that someone like Patrick Dempsey, who appears in Ferrari as Piero Taruffi and has had a few podium finishes as a racer, could opt out, “Everybody had racecar driving 101.”

For Cruz, who portrays Enzo Ferrari’s partner and wife Laura, it was less about driving lessons and more about talking to the people who knew the real couple. “I was very lucky to be introduced to the doctor that she and Enzo shared,” the actor said. “He got very close to them, he was one of their best friends. I think Enzo was a big hypochondriac and he would need to see the doctor at least twice a week… This doctor gave me very crucial information and shared with me some love letters—he had copies of those love letters, even from the times when everything was broken [between Enzo and Laura].”

(As an aside, every time Cruz answered any question, people clapped. They didn’t do this for anyone else—people just love Penelope Cruz.)

“Michael is very big into internal life,” Driver, who stars as Enzo Ferrari, explained. The actor subjected himself to “information overload” in learning as much about Ferrari’s life as possible—all for a movie that spans about three months. “I know from playing real people before, you take that help and open up impulses and you disregard things that don’t.”