In a surprising pit stop for Hollywood casting, Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski has revealed why Brad Pitt snagged the driver’s seat in his upcoming, highly anticipated F1 movie over his daredevil collaborator, Tom Cruise. The deciding factor? It largely boiled down to keeping the production – and potentially the star – in one piece.
While Tom Cruise is renowned for his “need for speed” and performing his own breathtaking stunts, Kosinski admitted that this very quality gave him pause when envisioning the high-stakes world of Formula One racing on film.
“Tom always pushes it to the limit, but at the same time is super capable and very skilled,” Kosinski explained to Variety. “They both have the natural talent for driving. But yeah, I could see Tom maybe scaring us a little bit more.”
This sentiment isn’t just director’s intuition; it’s backed by those responsible for the on-set machinery. Action-vehicle supervisor Graham Kelly, who has worked extensively with Cruise on the Mission: Impossible franchise, bluntly agreed, “We’d have had a crash. Tom pushes it to the limit. I mean really to the limit. That terrifies me… Whereas Brad listens and he knows his abilities, and I think he’d be the first to say, ‘Yeah, I’m not going to do that.'”
Cruise’s legendary commitment to realism is well-documented, from hanging off biplanes in the upcoming Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning to undergoing (and making his co-stars undergo) rigorous real-life flight training for Top Gun: Maverick, where aerial stunts were predominantly practical.
The untitled F1 movie will star Brad Pitt as Sonny Hayes, a former Formula One driver from the 1990s who retired after a devastating crash. Years later, he’s lured back to the track by a team owner and friend (played by Ruben) to mentor a rookie prodigy, Joshua “Noah” Pearce (portrayed by Damson Idris), for the Apex Grand Prix team (APXGP).
While both Pitt and Cruise possess a natural aptitude for driving, it seems Pitt’s more measured approach to on-set action made him the safer bet for the intense, precision-demanding environment of an F1 production. For Kosinski and his team, ensuring the film crossed the finish line without any real-world pile-ups was paramount.
Fans eager to see Brad Pitt tackle the world of Formula One can mark their calendars: the F1 movie is set to race into theaters on June 27.
