As evidenced in our glowing review we at THN love RUSH. To celebrate the forthcoming release this Friday we have been treating all you lovely readers to interviews with cast and crew of the film. If you’re only just joining us now, where have you been? On Monday we gave you Olivia Wilde’s views on her character Suzy Miller as well as her love of the seventies as a decade. We followed this yesterday with Alexandra Maria Lara recounting how she managed to get her role via a Skype conversation with Ron Howard. Today we bring you Daniel Brühl, the last of our cast interviews ahead of tomorrows in-depth chat with the film’s director, Ron Howard.
Much like his co-star Alexandra Maria Lara, Daniel Brühl is better known for his work within the German film industry. After starring in GOODBYE LENIN Brühl started to branch out into more high-profile international sensations with parts in THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM and INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS. In RUSH he stars opposite Chris Hemsworth playing James Hunt’s rival Niki Lauda.
Niki Lauda is one of the most iconic and well-respected Formula One champions in the history of the sport. Whilst winning the World Championship three times during his career it is the events that occurred during the 1976 season that he is most famous for. During the German Grand Prix Lauda suffered a horrific crash in which he sustained severe facial burns that have seen him scarred for life.
Daniel Brühl was lucky enough to spend a great deal of time with Niki Lauda and gained an exclusive insight into the man behind the legend. When we caught up with Daniel he shared a great deal of this information in addition to his thoughts on his experiences making the film.
How did you get involved in the film?
I was sent a copy of the script which I loved but I thought how am I going to play that guy (Niki Lauda) because he’s so different [to me]. I was quite restrained but then I read the script and was blown away. I think Peter Morgan is the best scriptwriter when it comes to stories based on real characters, and then I knew that Ron Howard was directing it so I thought okay lets go to the audition and let’s try it. I was quite relaxed, maybe that was the good thing because I thought they wouldn’t offer it to me anyways. Normally they let you wait two or three weeks and then they call you and they say it was awesome but somebody else is playing it. Three days later I was on a motorway in Spain overtaking trucks and my girlfriend was screaming at me ‘you’re not a rally driver! You’re not a good driver!’ and that’s the time when the phone rang and they offered me the part.
What did you say to her?
I am a good driver. It’s not that bad. I remember the first thing I did was to do a Formula Three course in Spain, right after I got the offer, to get an experience in a race car, and I like to drive fast. As you know in Germany we don’t have limits so with my Audi on the autobahn I like to drive fast, but that’s easy. It’s so different to drive a racecar even though it was just a Formula Three car and not a Formula One car. Still it’s quite fast, and the sense of speed is so much higher; it’s loud and the cars vibrating and you feel the vibration going through your body. It smells of gasoline and I felt the passion and addiction for it after one lap. I could understand why young men want to become race drivers.
Did you spend much time with Niki Lauda to prepare for the role?
Yes I did. That was a crucial thing to me, the most important part in the preparation because I had so many questions. I was waiting for his call, he always wakes up very early, and then one day there was a +43 in my phone so I knew so okay it’s him. I clearly remember the first conversation because he’s so undiplomatic, he said (Brühl speaks all his Niki Lauda quotes using his own Niki Lauda accent) ‘Yes, I guess we have to meet now’. I said, ‘well that would be good’. So (Niki said), ‘okay come to Vienna, just bring hand luggage in case we don’t like each other you can piss off’. Fortunately I had to buy some extra luggage in Vienna because I stayed there longer than expected. It was brilliant, he even took me in his own jet and he flew it to Sao Palo to the grand prix; he introduced me to drivers, to Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg. I could watch the race in the Mercedes pit and also get to know former drivers Jackie Stewart and Nelson Piquet. That was an incredible experience that I wouldn’t have got if not for Niki because with him, you know, doors open and I could have this great experience. But also all these long conversations that we would have were great because he was very open and he would answer anything I would like to know, even delicate questions talking about the accident death and fear and overcoming fear. All of these questions that I had he explains things very well, but still there were some aspects that you cant fully understand if you haven’t gone through something similar. So then you have to find your own approach to get into his mind or whatever. But it was very helpful to study his body language and his accent and the way he is. Partly I envied him, his directness and straight forwardness, so often I thought if I would be able to solve a conflict like this, you know, be so blunt. Because he doesn’t lose any time he’s so efficient. When we were shooting and I was upset with something, I didn’t like the catering or food for example, I always kept the Niki character, which was helpful, ‘the food is shit’, (laughs) it’s not bad.
Chris Hemsworth didn’t have the similar luxury that you had of being able to meet the character he was portraying so did you ever share anything that Niki Lauda told you about death and overcoming that fear and stuff like that with Chris?
‘I kept it for me’, ‘rivals’, no it was very different preparation. I don’t know, you would have to ask Chris how he did it, but no we just talked about specific scenes and our relationship. The good thing was Chris is so different to me as well in real life, I mean we’re completely different actors, we come from a different cinema, from a different culture. He’s an Australian relaxed surfer guy, I’m German, Spanish [too], but mainly German and so it was nice to see the difference, and there was always mutual curiosity in each other and also respect. Like in the movie but we didn’t really talk a lot about what Niki had told me, not that I can remember no.
How challenging was it to recreate some of the key scenes, especially the crash?
Yeah that was weird because we really were at the actual Bergwerk corner at the Nürburging, so it was it was a strange moment to be actually on the exact place where it happened. I did some of the stuff with the flames, but they were a bit further away, so I was happy, but a stunt guy then did the other bits. It was an intense moment, and Niki visited us twice, but not on that day, he came to another racetrack. He came twice in Germany, to Cologne, and it was also strange to have him around on set because I was there with my prosthetic makeup and I had the real guy in front of me. I was always happy when he left because it was weird to act in front of him. It felt strange, other than that it was so helpful to have him [around] because he would always call me back whenever I had a question. Sometimes it would be easy questions ‘do I put on the gloves first and then the helmet? Or the helmet and then the gloves?’ and stuff like that, or I wasn’t happy with one insult and I said to Peter Morgan, that’s not what Niki would say, this curse doesn’t seem right. So I called Niki and [he] gave me a list of beautiful insults (laughs), so I said what about that?
Have you heard his reaction to your performance?
Yes, because I wanted to have his feedback while we were shooting because [I wanted] to be reassured that I was on the right path. So after one week we [had] already shot a tricky scene, which is the scene of the press conference; its quite late in the movie and we had to anticipate the journey of our characters. It was already after the accident and he had seen the rushes. He called me, again very early in the morning, and said, ‘Good, Good’ and I said ‘yeah?’ ‘but the ring is bullshit (Niki said). ‘The wedding ring, don’t wear it again, tell the costume department to get rid of the ring, I never wore it’. You see he’s obsessed with details and I said ‘okay the ring, but other than that was it okay’… ‘oh no good, good’ (Niki said). So I knew was, because he’s not a man who makes compliments, so I thought okay good, good is okay, so I continued doing my thing. He saw the film when it was finished, he saw it before me and he was very moved. He was very happy with it and that was a big relief for me obviously. And then there was another screening which meant a lot to Niki because it was in the Formula One world, at the Nurbürgring actually, with Bernie Ecclestone, and with various drivers and Ron was there. I couldn’t make it because I was shooting another thing but Ron was very nervous because you know it was the first time he showed the movie to the real people and there were standing ovations. Ron called me right after, super-moved and happy. It’s a good thing for us to know that the real Formula One world likes the movie, and also the action parts that they are so accurately done, and shot with so much patience and so precise and that’s thanks to Ron. Thanks [also] to Anthony Dod Mantle who did a fantastic job as a DOP, and costume, and everything else, and also the makeup department, because it was really shocking, it was so real. It took six to seven hours which made me angry sometimes because I woke up at 3 o clock in the morning, and I was sitting there, and I looked at the call sheet and it says Chris, James Hunt, is picked up at ten o’clock in the morning. And then James Hunt is making love on a plane, James Hunt is kissing a nurse, Niki Lauda is checking his tires. (Laughs) But it was worth it because it was so real, it was so well done that even sometimes extras, sometimes there were many, many extras and they didn’t know it was fake, and they were shocked when they saw me. So that helped me of course understand how it must have been for Niki. Even if the camera was so close, you couldn’t tell that it was fake makeup.
Where the cars based on the originals or were they actually the original cars?
Both. I mean they built Formula Three cars with a chassis that would look like an original one, and then we had the original ones. They got panicked when we came close to these cars and I think they were more concerned about the cars then of us. Because they’re extremely expensive, owned by I don’t know, multi millionaires, they’re extremely expensive, but they really race them still.
When you were racing were you racing against Chris, and who’s the better driver out of the two of you?
(Laughs) We did some testing but we were not so competitive. We were allowed to drive more than we expected, but still the dangerous stuff, the actual racing stuff was done by precision drivers. We did individually [shots of] racing along and then driving in and out of pits and stuff like that, but they were too concerned about us really actually racing each other. Which was probably a good idea.
The character Niki Lauda, he’s not the most likeable person in the world, but then again you managed to provoke a lot of sympathy for him from the audience. Was that quite a challenge for you to take a character that is quite pragmatic, done the line but make him quite empathetic as well?
Yeah I talked to Peter Morgan about it a lot because he knows him quite well. It’s thanks to that relationship I think [that] the quality of the script is so good. You could tell I was so happy with my dialogue because it’s exactly the way he speaks, staccato sentences. What he says and how he says it was very well captured. But still after one week I thought I was always giving Chris a hard time and being so cocky, and I said to Peter ‘Will people like me? Will they like the character?’ Peter said ‘No, no trust me, do it like that, it will be funny’, and then its true. Also talking to Niki, although he seems to be rude sometimes and too undiplomatic, there’s a sense of humour about it because we’re not used to dealing with people who are like that. So if we find someone like him, it’s funny too. Although it’s hard, it’s charming at the same time I think. And the nice thing about the script is that you have this nice journey of both characters really, so I think I had empathy with both of them when I watched it. I loved the scene by the plane at the end because you understand both of the guy’s philosophy. They’re very different, but underneath all that rivalry there’s respect and they like each other. So even Niki I hope, will like Niki in the end.
They are two opposing cultures as you say and attitudes to life, discipline versus dare-devilry. Where do you sit between those bookends?
In-between. I’m neither the flamboyant rock star like James Hunt, and I’m not that precise and focused [like Niki Lauda]. I mean I’m German I could understand, and I could understand how Niki is although he is Austrian and there are big big differences between us really, so it was difficult to understand the Austrian or Viennese mentality because they’re very very different. In some aspects I think they’re closer to the English when it comes to sense of humour. They’re much funnier than us which is not that difficult as you know, but it’s hard for a German to understand that, but on the other hand all that precision and focus on things, and efficiency and all that that’s also a pretty German thing. I think he was a very modern driver he was a pioneer because nowadays most of the drivers are a bit like Niki.
There is a really intense scene in the hospital where Niki has to have his lungs vacuumed, how was this to film because on screen it’s really uncomfortable to view.
Yeah, it was a bit ugly and I had to choke. I really had to choke and we had to find a trick so that this tube comes in, so I had to eat a little piece of bread so that he could really push…(laughs)
It’s sounding even worse now…
…So there’s this piece of bread at the back of your mouth, and it was a bit ugly, and it wasn’t pleasant. But it was good, I mean it helped me to, because it is a terrible moment. The make up for these scenes was even worse. It was this blown-up version and Alexandra told me she didn’t need to act [as] there was no acting required when she came in that room. She didn’t want to see it before that, she just wanted to see it when we shot the first take, and I could tell, you know, from her reaction, how bad it looked, and it was painful. And this was something that I asked Niki, but the thing is, out of a self-defense system, he doesn’t remember – he doesn’t recall anything of that. He doesn’t remember the accident at all. When he watched that footage shot by that boy, which was the only material that you would have, he said [it was] as if it wasn’t him. He just didn’t remember anything. He remembers parts of the things that happened in the hospital; also with the priest, which was terrible, giving him the last rites, but not a lot. It doesn’t seem human, it seems like a miracle. I can’t understand how a person after forty days in hospital could possibly get back into the car and go on driving.
What did he have to say about that?
He said ‘Yeah, no I had fear, I had fear’. He tested a car in Monza earlier that day and he was blocked at a certain moment, he had a panic attack, he was paralyzed. He could only do it in the second gear, and his hands were trembling and then he said he silently looked around to see if anyone had seen him in that state. Then he left, and he went into his room, closed the curtains and laid down on the bed and analysed his fear for an hour and then he was fine (laughs). And that’s something somebody tells you but you can’t fully understand it. Fascinating.
Tomorrow in our final instalment we discuss RUSH and the climate of the film industry at the moment with director Ron Howard.
Source: THN
