00:00 I am a huge racing fan.
00:01 - No wonder. - So I've been really
00:02 looking forward to this film and seeing all the action
00:05 and it's done so well, like the action scenes and everything.
00:08 Are you much of a speed demon yourself?
00:11 - No, it's never really been my thing.
00:13 I mean, I do like cars.
00:17 I do love a manual transmission.
00:19 - Me too.
00:20 - I miss stick shift a lot.
00:22 And I had like old cars when I was growing up,
00:26 but it was never really speed that got me.
00:29 I'm too much of a chicken for that.
00:31 - You do not strike me as that at all.
00:33 - No, it's not my thing.
00:35 - I've seen that you've been going to like races though.
00:37 Like I saw you at the F1 Monaco and things like that.
00:40 Do you understand that world a bit better now
00:42 having done this film?
00:44 - Yeah, absolutely.
00:45 I talked to a lot of the chief engineers
00:48 before I did the film and then being on set
00:51 with all these real drivers and real,
00:53 there's some guys who were educators of drivers
00:56 and guys who participate in this GT Academy.
00:59 It's, yeah, it's its own sort of universe
01:04 and I did begin to understand it.
01:06 It's wild.
01:07 - You think they'll be happy with how you've played
01:09 as chief engineer?
01:11 That's always the worry.
01:12 - I don't know about that.
01:12 I don't know about that, maybe.
01:14 I mean, I do the stopwatch.
01:16 I remember that was the first thing a guy told me.
01:19 I was like, what do you guys do?
01:20 Like, what's the one thing you got?
01:21 And they were like, we time everything.
01:24 They're just constantly with the stopwatch,
01:26 just timing everything, like laps and moments and things.
01:29 So I was just constantly on set with the stopwatch
01:31 and I think they'll like that little touch.
01:33 - Yeah, there's a lot of tough love as well
01:35 from your character.
01:36 - Well, yeah, from my character.
01:37 I don't know if those guys,
01:39 you watch those guys in videos or you talk to them
01:42 and there's a bit more of,
01:44 at least the ones I've seen,
01:47 a bit more of a sweeter, dorky, European thing
01:50 that I have a real sort of rugged, tough love,
01:52 American thing going on,
01:54 which I don't know is so true to life.
01:56 It's a very good arc for the story
01:59 in terms of what we're doing,
02:01 but I don't know that they'd totally relate
02:03 to that guy being a part of their world.
02:05 - It's fine, you need to make it good for cinema.
02:07 - Right, exactly. - That's what you did.
02:10 I'm curious, apart from acting,
02:13 is there anything that you are good at
02:16 or were good at that you think
02:18 you could have done professionally?
02:19 Like the way that obviously,
02:21 Jan was a great sim racer
02:23 and managed to make it into something professional.
02:26 - But it's funny that you pose it in that way.
02:28 Like, was there anything else that you're good at?
02:31 - But you're a great actor. - That you could have done?
02:32 No, thank you, thank you very much.
02:33 But I actually don't know that there was.
02:36 I mean, when I was growing up,
02:39 I was really into writing
02:40 and I was a big sort of creative writer,
02:43 write short stories and things like that when I was younger.
02:46 But then I had about three weeks
02:49 where I played the violin,
02:50 where I thought I was gonna be a real master at that
02:53 and I was awful.
02:55 So there's really nothing else that I can do except act.
02:59 - Well, I'm really glad it worked out for you.
03:00 - So, well, yeah, for now, if this goes south, though.
03:04 - It's all right, you're on a good path.
03:04 - Better pick up that violin.
03:06 I'm doing okay, I'm doing okay.
03:06 - Yeah, you're doing all right.
03:08 And you and Orlando in here,
03:10 did you two bond over having pop star boyfriends?
03:13 That's all, I'm sorry, you probably had that a lot.
03:15 - Yeah, no, it's true.
03:16 And Jerry Halibault loves that.
03:18 - And Jerry, a Spice Girl as well.
03:20 - Lovely.
03:21 Yeah, we did talk about it, actually.
03:23 And I met Katie, she came to set.
03:26 And it's a very funny thing,
03:30 'cause I think back to when I was not in this business
03:35 and didn't really understand it
03:36 and I would look at, I don't know,
03:39 I would look at Josh Duhamel and Fergie or something, right?
03:43 You think, how the hell do these people get together?
03:47 And now, me and Orlando, I'm one of them,
03:49 and you're just like, you're just people.
03:52 - You are.
03:53 - And you just meet and you just,
03:55 we're not pop stars or big, famous actors in real life.
03:59 We're just people going to the grocery store
04:01 and living our lives.
04:02 So that's kind of what it becomes,
04:05 is you see us as David Arbor, Lili Anwar,
04:08 Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry,
04:09 and we're just like, hey,
04:11 you wanna play settlers of Catan tonight?
04:14 That's the sort of vibe.
04:15 - That's fair, that's fair.
04:16 But to us, you're big movie stars and big pop stars.
04:20 And I'm curious, has there been a time in your life,
04:24 like for your character and for Jan,
04:27 where you thought that you wanna give up,
04:29 something hasn't gone your way and you've wanted to give up?
04:31 'Cause I know I was there before I kind of got
04:33 to where I am in my career.
04:35 And I'm curious for you, because you have made it,
04:37 but was there a time when you were like,
04:39 this isn't gonna work out for me?
04:40 - Yeah, for sure, for sure.
04:43 I mean, there have been sort of many times.
04:46 So it's hard to put my finger on one that was most,
04:49 but I guess the one that was most profound was,
04:53 I had been a real supporting player for a long time
05:00 in Hollywood, sort of the guy who's running
05:04 after Denzel with a gun.
05:06 And I got real tired of that because the characters
05:09 are very, very two-dimensional and they don't,
05:12 you don't make money and you can't really live
05:15 in a certain way and you just,
05:16 you're not very creatively fulfilled.
05:19 And I was very, yeah, I got to a place where I just wanted
05:22 to go do plays in New York and just leave it all behind,
05:25 all the Hollywood stuff behind.
05:27 And that week, I got the script for "Stranger Things."
05:32 - Oh. - Changed my life.
05:33 - Game changer, game changer.
05:35 I'm really happy to see things working out for you.
05:37 You are one of the good guys.
05:38 - Thank you.
05:39 - You're always, you're lovely to chat to.
05:41 - Thank you very much.
05:42 - Good luck with the film when it comes out, David.
05:44 - Lovely speaking to you.
05:45 - Nice meeting you too.
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