Ford v Ferrari is filled with heart-pounding races, all leading up to the
historic showdown between the U.S. and Italy at the 1966 24 Hours of Le
Mans in France. And while the nearly 40-minute sequence was a daunt-
ing challenge, the biggest issue wasn’t the blazing fast speed or director
James Mangold’s aversion to CGI, but something much more fundamental.
“Le Mans doesn’t exist in the form it did in the ’60s,” says Mangold (Logan) of
one of the world’s oldest active racetracks. “It’s been modernized to the point where
you wouldn’t recognize the beautiful homespun qualities of the track in those
days.” So the production team found alternatives: Various locations in the state of
F
DIRECTED BY James Mangold
STARRING Christian Bale, Matt Damon,
Caitriona Balfe IN THEATERS Nov. 15Georgia would serve as the majority of
the track, while an airport in Agua
Dulce, Calif., stood in for the start and
finish lines.
“You watch a car race through six
different locations on two different
coasts, [ but] it has to look like one con-
tinuous lap,” explains Mangold. “It was
a continuity and organizational bear,
because the level of dirt on the car, the
light quality, the rain direction, and the
moonlight all have to be the same.”
And then there was the actual driv-
ing. Mangold says that Oscar winner
Christian Bale, who stars as wild-card
Ford racer Ken Miles, was a “really
capable” driver, but that wasn’t always
enough. “You can’t have an actor driv-
ing 150 miles per hour and acting at the
same time,” shares Mangold. “It would
be the equivalent of someone driving at
150 miles per hour and texting—it’s just
not safe.” So, while Bale did some driv-
ing, a stunt driver in an apparatus
attached to the vehicle handled some
of the more difficult feats.
Still, Mangold knew it could all be for
naught. “This technical effort was to
make the race as powerful and first-
person as you could experience it, but it
was all in service to the performances,
which had to hold it together. [Other-
wise] it’s just a lot of hot shots,” he says.
“You’re going to care about what hap-
pens in this race if you care about the
people in the car.” —Derek LawrenceFORD V FERRARI
Working
Vroom↑ Christian Bale was very happy to be
behind the wheel, even if he wasn’t always
the one in control of it