Adam Driver is steering clear of journalists asking why he played back-to-back Italian icons.
The actor, who previously starred as Maurizio Gucci in Ridley Scott’s “House of Gucci” and recently led Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” as Enzo Ferrari, said during the “Smartless” podcast (via The Wrap) that while playing two Italian characters consecutively wasn’t “strategic,” that’s how it “worked out.”
“So many people have been like, ‘How many Italians?’ I’m like, it’s just kind of worked out that way,” Driver said, noting that perhaps someone on his PR team should have warned him it would “come up a lot” on the press tour for “Ferrari,” but “press isn’t a place where you have a nuanced conversation.”
Driver added that his casting was a “good example of not being strategic in a way that I probably should,” but working with director Mann was impossible to pass up. (Driver is rumored to be leading Mann’s “Heat 2” adaptation next.)
“But I’m like, you know, it’s Ridley, and it’s Michael, and they’re in my mind some of the best filmmakers. Who gives a shit that it was two Italians back to back?” Driver said.
The “Star Wars” alum continued, “I’m surprised how much it comes up. It’s like, ‘You have a thing,’ and I’m like, ‘It’s two! It’s two Italians! It’s just two.’ That seems like a hard idea. Like, ‘What is it with Italy?’ I mean, it’s less to do with Italy, although I like it. It’s more about Ridley Scott and Michael Mann and the projects themselves. Italy is not the first thing on my mind.”
Driver previously said during a post “Ferrari” screening Q&A at the Camerimage Film Festival when asked about the “cheesy” racing scenes, “Fuck you, I don’t know. Next question.”
The Oscar-nominated star additionally confirmed that he does watch his own films now, after infamously saying he refused to watch his onscreen performances. “In the last couple of years, I started watching everything. I just decided to do it because I don’t want to get stuck in a right way or a set way of doing anything,” Driver said during “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” while adding, “I realized that you also have to defend your performance a little bit even when it’s coming together. At least the people that I’ve worked with have given me a lot of license to have an opinion about, you know, moments that I want to be in the movie.”
