ENGThe Michael Mann interview: on Ferrari, Adam Driver, and Ukrainian heritage
Why Michael Mann wanted to make the Ferrari film for 25 years. An interview with a visionary director behind Heat and Ali
How best to introduce Michael Mann? In 1995 he made the perfect film, with Heat, starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Ali (2001), Miami Vice (2006), and The Last of the Mohicans (1992) followed. His characters, even when fictional, are always real. Hannibal Lecter and Vincent Hanna; Muhammad Ali, John Dillinger, and now, Enzo Ferrari, founder of the Ferrari dynasty and the subject of Mann’s new film. The film was released in Ukraine on 28 December, after nearly quarter of a century in the making.
The Village Ukraine Editor-in-Chief Yaroslav Druziuk has watched the film and has recorded a brief interview with Mann himself, revealing why Mann waited 25 years to make Ferrari, why Adam Driver is one of the best actors of his generation, and Mann’s unexpected Ukrainian origin story.
Cover and photos: Kinomania
– First off, let me ask – how does it feel to have your dream come true and finally release this film after so many years in the making?
– It’s a brilliant piece of writing by Troy Kennedy Martin that takes us behind the inscrutable facade of this icon into an absolutely tumultuous, operatic set of conflicts in the private life, a deep dive in the private life. And it resonated with me, always, as something powerfully human, the way people are and behave, and the decisions they make in unique ways in reality, as opposed to the kinds of conflicts that we’re used to in movies. The contradictions that we all have don’t typically resolve the way they do in movies. We take our contradictions to the grave with us, okay? [he laughs]
That quality of the story was exciting to me in 1995. At various times I considered abandoning it, but then I got the script, got to page two or three, and I was into it, all over again. It’s the brilliant quality of the writing and the drama that kept me in it.
But the first day of shooting, the first real day of production, is day one. It’s not a 25-year-old [project], it feels like the first day. Because everything else prior to that, when you’re developing it, it’s all a theory of how it would be to make this film. It’s the making of the film that is really exciting.
– You’ve touched on the genesis of this project, but was there anything personal for you in this script? It’s almost a cliche to compare a director’s job with any other job that involves managing a lot of people, but I couldn’t help but feel that there were a lot of similarities between what Enzo Ferrari’s and a film director’s job entails. Do you see yourself in some parts of Enzo’s story?
– I think I’m interested in the ferocious impulse to do something, to build something. To pursue something outside of yourself. In Ferrari’s case it’s that addictive quality of racing. He started out as a race car driver, now he’s building his own race cars. He calls it “my terrible joy”, “a dangerous passion”.
In that sense, there’s a commonality between Adam Driver trying to act to a degree of excellence and transform himself not only into an Italian in 1957, but someone from a Modena culture. For me it’s trying to make this film, trying to be a film director. It’s always a challenging adventure on some sort of a frontier. And Enzo, when asked what car is his favorite, his answer was always the same: “The next one”. So in that sense there’s a commonality. But that’s what gives an access into the character.
– You mentioned Adam Driver, what a terrific job he does with this part. I was actually reminded by your quote about Will Smith in Ali: “He made a decision to be [Muhammad] Ali”. It seems that Adam also made a decision to be Enzo Ferrari, not just play this part. Is there a comparison with what Adam and Will did when they played these parts? Or was that a different process?
– I think, yeah, there is. Both [parts] are very challenging and very difficult, you better get it right. [he laughs] It’s an audacious task, it’s not for the faint of heart, it’s not for actors who are a little bit insecure. You have to be really secure as an actor and really trusting in the director, I guess, that we’re going to get all the way there. Because it’s really a long way, it’s a big leap, to think right, move right, feel right, to understand that culture, to be able to be spontaneous in reacting to things that come from the politics, culture and system of 1957 in Modena in Italy.
And for Will, the jeopardy was even stronger, in a way, because he’s African American, and within American culture, if you presume you’re going to take on Muhammad Ali, you really better get it right. And Will’s attitude was that at that age, at 33, he was either going to play Ali or not… And Ali had approval over the director, me, and also over Will, he was actively involved in pre-production and when we were shooting.
– What would you say makes Adam stand out? Why is he one of the brightest actors of his generation?
– First of all, he’s lived life…
– His marine background comes in, I guess.
– Yeah, he was in the military, he doesn’t come from this Hollywood environment, he’s not someone’s son or nephew or something. And he has a ferocious ambition to get it right. What does it mean to be an actor? It means to bring yourself into the life of Enzo, to move, breathe, and see like Enzo saw, have the same reactions that Enzo did, which were very unique.
“Everybody has to come to Modena, I don’t go anywhere else”, [Enzo Ferrari used to say]. When Enzo decided to stop going to races, he’d sit there with [his team] and they’d roast a chicken over an open fire and listen to [the race] on the radio. The idiosyncratic characteristics of this man… Where did he sleep? He slept in a single bed in a front room by the window, so he could look out and see if anybody was coming. Why? Because he was very defensive all the time.
All of these traits that make something as complex as a human being, you have them, I have them. To do a deep dive into the character – that was Adam’s strong ambition. And he was brutal on himself, in terms of doing everything powerfully. His work ethic is powerful, he has high expectations that he imposes on himself. And those are some of the qualities that make him great.
– I would like to pose the last question to you as a film scholar, not a film director. Ukraine has such a rich cinematic history, are you in any way acquainted with Ukrainian cinema? Do you have any connection with it?
– Yeah, I have a connection to Ukraine. One is, the struggle that Ukraine is undergoing right now, I saw Sean Penn’s documentary, which I think is extraordinary…
And secondly, my whole family comes from Ovruch, which is a little town in Ukraine. When my grandfather left [Ukraine], his two sisters went to Argentina with the director Hector Babenko’s grandparents, who were also from the same little town [in Ukraine]. I didn’t discover this until I met him, some time after he shot Pixote. So there’s something cinematic in the waters of Ukraine, I can’t explain it. [he laughs]
– You’re very much welcome to visit Ukraine, when the opportunity arises.
– Yeah-yeah! Are you in Kyiv now?
– Yes, I am. Mr Mann, thanks again, it was a privilege of a lifetime.
– Thank you. Good luck and stay safe!