On Set: Rush
Director Ron Howard gives us a peek under the hood of his exhilarating new race car drama.
“Chris Hemsworth plays the race car driver James Hunt, who was more like a rock star than a modern-day athlete. Today there’s too much money at stake; playboy types either get reined in or weeded out early on. Hunt was the last hurrah of the wild-child sports superstar. We will miss the James Hunts of the world.”
Photographs by Jaap Buitendijk
“The scenes we’re shooting here turned out to be the most dangerous of all. The pit is where people in Formula 1 racing get hurt. They can get knocked over or have their foot caught beneath a tire. And there’s just so much noise that it’s hard to step back and evaluate what’s happening. But I really wanted to put the audience into the cars, and the breakthroughs in digital-camera technology in the past five years allowed us to do that.”
Photographs by Jaap Buitendijk
“Our cinematographer, Anthony Dod Mantle [left, with Chris Hemsworth], who won an Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire, tucked cameras in the drivers’ helmets and places even the actors couldn’t see them.”
Photographs by Jaap Buitendijk
“Chris and Olivia Wilde as Hunt and Suzy Miller, an It couple of the British tabloids for a time. ”
Photographs by Jaap Buitendijk
“Their wedding was a major social event. To help us re-create it, Gucci and Ferragamo lent us vintage gowns from their archives.”
Photographs by Jaap Buitendijk
“Here’s Chris as Hunt at a gala for up-and-coming drivers. In the scene, Hunt shows both sides of himself: ambitious pro and party animal. Chris brought his own vibe to a character that felt half–professional surfer, half–Jim Morrison. It was the way he moved, I think.”
Photographs by Jaap Buitendijk
