Richard Cambridge leads from pole position as part of the team that helps a young gamer-turned-racer try to achieve greatness on the track in the new true-life sports drama GRAN TURISMO, which also stars David Harbour and Orlando Bloom.
Film And TV Now spoke with the actor about his career and experience on the film.
Tell us about your role in GRAN TURISMO.
GRAN TURISMO is about a gamer who became a real racing driver for Nissan GT. It’s a true story, and I play Felix, one of the mechanics in team Nissan.
As David Harbour says in the trailer, “The pit crew are gonna hate you” You’ll have to catch the movie in the cinema to find out how much!
You trained under real circumstances with professional GT mechanic Szilard Racz at the Formula 1 circuit Nürburgring in Germany and learnt to change tires in minutes! What is your fastest time to date?
Oh, if you break down at the side of the road, just give me a call I’m pretty quick. With GT cars only two people have to change all the tires FAST so it’s a pretty tough job.
Even though it’s a few seconds per tire you have to carry them all round and do a lot of choreography. I didn’t appreciate how much effort it actually is. I’m pleased to say during filming, I was allowed to do it for real, at the Nurburgring, and other F1 circuits across Europe. Hopefully I didn’t embarrass myself.
The film is based on the true story of Jann Mardenborough, a teenage Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills won a series of Nissan competitions to become an actual professional racecar driver. How does the film stay faithful to the original story?
I’ve seen the finished film and it is a real heartwarming story. As you can see from the trailer they race in GT cars and they also go to Le Mans and race LMP cars so yeah it’s pretty faithful.
That all happened. The real Jann was actually on set. He became a stunt driver for himself in the film and he has been involved with the promotion too so I think everyone involved is really pleased that it’s a faithful representation but it’s also a great story and a thrilling ride.
Most of us see Formula 1 from a distance on television and playing a video game of racing is not the same as it is on the track, the message that clearly comes across in the film trailer. What were the key things you discovered and learned about your experience working on GRAN TURISMO that have enlightened you as well as given you context and reflection?
During my six or so weeks filming on this all around the world, I really had some insight into the world of motor racing and it was quite enlightening.
It’s not all glamorous but some of the locations on the tracks are in beautiful locations. For instance we went to the Red Bull Ring in Austria, and that is a fantastic site laid out like a huge gladiatorial arena in front of you.
In the (of course being Red Bull) beautiful corporate hospitality suites, as you look out you can see the pit lane and the circuit unfolding across beautiful countryside. When we were there, it began to snow in a beautiful fairytale way so some of these locations are absolutely magical, and I had to pinch myself.
At the heart of real motor racing, is always teams of people working very very hard trying to achieve excellence, and I think that is one of the most inspiring things. Everybody is fighting for milliseconds and trying to be their best, with a common goal.
These people who race cars are very skilled people, and as a driver to be able to transfer those skills from a racing game onto the real track is testament to how good these PlayStation games really have become.
Gran Turismo actually calls itself a ‘simulator’ not a game. The amount of different things you can change really do put the nuances and permutations off of the different tracks, the tires the wing angles, the engine set-up, the cars etc into perspective.
It’s like real life, and the skill of driving is only part of it. We actually had people on set that were making sure that it was faithful to reality as much as possible.
I think I underestimated the amount of work that goes into a racing team. These cars are precision machines, rocket ships, and every one of the cars on screen racing is a real car. When filming each team had their own mechanics, making sure they performed at 200mph on track, and so the number of people involved is absolutely huge.
When those teams move from location to location there are buses and trucks and vehicles and the people to be transferred, and fed all around the world from one place to the other so it’s a it’s a big machine. It’s not all about just the racing driver.
It’s about the whole team and it’s a real team effort – a bit like filmmaking.
You were in HOLLYOAKS as fan favourite Peter Webster. How does working on a show like that differ from working on a film in terms of discipline for an actor like you?
Neill Blomkamp is probably one of the best directors in the world so what a privilege to be on a set with him, let alone being cast by him and playing a role (Thanks Neil).
In a big film like Gran Turismo there’s a lot going on, there has to be, It’s not just about two talking heads it’s about hundreds of moving parts – cars going on the track – safety – crowds – multiple cameras shooting from multiple angles – drones – things can go wrong.
It’s a very different animal but I think one of the key things is, it’s still about telling a story and that’s what this film does really well. The film has a real heart, please go and see it.
It’s a truly lovely story which is about cars, yes, but it’s also about Jann the young man and his journey and his achievement. When it comes down to it as an actor, what you’re trying to do is find the truth in the role and move a story along.
In Gran Turismo I only play a small part in helping that happen, but hopefully that’s what we’ve done collectively here.
What was the spark that got you into acting?
I love filmmaking I love crafting a story. I love the technical aspects of making a film and I also love being someone else and finding out what makes the other person tick.
What got me into acting was a series of improvisation evening classes that I did in school. We used to go to drama group on an evening, and it was an escape for me.
I remember vividly one particular session. We were leading up over a course of a term or maybe more, learning about improvisation and how that worked, how to give to the other actors, how to move a story along, how to create drama. One whole session having done a lot of prep, we did a long group improvisation.
Lots of things were going on and lots of stories were happening and I remember it very clearly. It was a concentration camp. There were multiple stories. It felt very real.
I remember thinking something very special happened there and wouldn’t have been fantastic if we captured that, or wouldn’t it be fantastic if other people could experience what we experienced that evening.
Following this and looking back, I always remembered that magical feeling of being completely in the drama, in the character and it’s something I strive for on camera. It’s probably happened on camera only a few times in my life ever. I remember every time and I am forever chasing it again.
I love the technical aspects of putting together a production and the obstacles that need to be overcome. I love being on set and it is a very magical experience, so it’s something that I got into a young age and it’s really stuck with me and I’m very privileged to be able to do it as a job now and hopefully I’m able to do that forever going forward.
You were also part of the cast of THE IT CROWD. Tell us about your experience working on that show?
Yeah I was in THE IT CROWD.
It’s actually still very popular and keeps getting bought all over the world. If I meet someone new sometimes they recognise me still from that.
There is one very famous scene which people remember. I didn’t actually work with Chris O’Dowd directly, but I have a mutual friend with his wife. We we were at an event in the Beverly Hilton Hotel in LA years ago, and I was talking with Chris, and after a while speaking, I mentioned working on the IT crowd, he proceeded to bring everyone nearby around and recount the famous sketch and talk about how wonderful it was. He was very generous in the way he did that. It was a great experience to work on.
What sort of roles are you keen to play in the future?
Sign me up for James Bond please. Can you get Barbara Broccoli on the line for an audition please? The projects I have produced have often had a bit of a 007 influence accidentally.
I do love a bit of action and some cheese, but I think actors quite often want to play gritty roles, and I’m also one of those people. To be trusted to hold a narrative across a whole 100+ minutes and engage the audience (whilst filming out of order), is a privilege and a real skill. To make an audience care is the aim.
I’d love to play a broken person who was able to overcome adversity or has a strange ability that they need to find to maybe help others to overcome adversity that that will be exciting battle. Something that needs to be overcome, would be great. Or a fight for the truth. I like a social message, and I think film and TV has the ability to inform as well as entertain.
Having said that I would be very open to a romantic comedy or something of that nature but ideally with some darker undertone. It’s always really nice to play characters where there’s something else going on.
It’s not just saying the lines for the process of the story to move it along, it’s always good as an actor to have other things that are happening. The unsaid thing, the thing that you really want to say but don’t say.
People in real life don’t cry – they try not to cry. We try as actors to put over the authentic message, but sometimes that means doing the opposite of what you’re betraying outwardly – and it’s quite difficult.
I thought actually acting was very easy when I first started and now I think it’s harder and harder to do well. We’ll see what comes up. I’m writing something at the moment, which is slightly political about the way we are manipulated by others and society and how technology is being abused and how sometimes the truth isn’t what it seems.
I’m really pleased with how it’s going so far, but hopefully that might turn into something people want to watch.
Would you like to do more stage work?
I did lots of stage work when I was younger including in the West End in London. I love Film, I love everything about Film. I love the technicalities of Film. I’ve mentioned it a few times in this interview.
I love the screen and don’t see myself being offered any roles on stage, but I certainly would do it. You find the magic in a play, which is important, but I do get itchy feet.
I need my feet to be moving all the time so I think I need to be moving on something different and after a while I might struggle to do that same thing night after night tonight so yes I would love to do something but I think it will be a shorter run.
Who and what are your key cinematic influences?
I suppose it’s changed over the years. I do love what’s happening at the moment with Korean cinema, but it hilarious that Barbie is the number one cinema film in the world right now haha.
The cool thing to say here would be to say I love Wes Anderson and Nolan…. But the truth is, I like people talking and a good story.
Emotionally: I find it hard to watch but I get very engaged with a story about an individual’s struggle and bad decisions. It’s so interesting to feel what someone else does. I’m probably too empathetic, sometimes it’s very uncomfortable… at home I often will take a break! (You can’t do that in the cinema!)
Visually: I do love the dark shadows and shooting into those shadows and finding out about a person or a character. I love a good grade. I love back lighting. Rob a director friend of mine will laugh when I say that – so something like an orange and black grade and the way that colour can be manipulated to tell a story is really nice and the way that the camera moves can inform the story.
We are seeing a lot more camera movement in shooting now, partly because of the ability to have drones and lighter cameras and tracking shots becoming much cheaper.
It’s wonderful when we don’t even notice the camera moves and it becomes part of the story. The camera work in Gran Turismo is phenomenal. The drone shots were really sooting cars doing 200mph with actors inside. Its intense.
I really love some of the visual stuff in films like Pan’s Labyrinth, where the movement and the swooping of the camera really tries to sell the magical element. When you watch stuff now in 2023, a lot of stuff now is shot for smaller screens, or they have that in mind so it’s just progressive – they tell the story with the words, but I think visual storytelling is very magical when it’s done properly and that’s what the cinema does so well.
I also love the big commercial stuff like what Sam Mendes did with his Bonds, the big vistas and set pieces that very few directors have the budgets and time to be able to shoot. Skyfall was really great and when Sam Mendes did Road to Perdition it was like the rain was with me… in the dark, the colours, the pain. I just remember that as very striking.
What I choose to watch tends to be about characters with people conversing and stories unfolding to find out the truth. The story and what is not being said is what’s really interesting to me.
Do you have ambitions to write, produce and direct in the future?
The more I see directors direct, the harder I think it is to do well! I don’t have any ambitions to be a director, but I do produce and I’m writing, and I’d like to find good Directors to work with on my future projects.
AI is causing concern in Hollywood at present with the SAG strike. Where do you feel this new technology can benefit actors like yourself in the future?
Yes, the Actor strike is very concerning at the moment and it is hurting me as an individual, partly because of the promotion and release date being put back for Gran Turismo, partly because I’ve got a business for actors auditioning (Called WeAudition.com) and a lot of my friends are actors and we’re not able to work on studio projects, so that is very troubling for us financially.
The rise of AI in the future is something that all workers are concerned about. I’m a big fan of a universal income and feel that will be something to consider in coming years. Experiments in Finland have been well received.
Yes artificial intelligence can benefit us, and hopefully it will – but I don’t want to be in a world where people are fighting for lower paid minimum wage work, and AI is writing the poetry, making the artwork and starring in films. NO thanks.
I hope that the creative human consciousness can be part of an artistic led society going forward. I hope that films are made by humans and AI helps that, not takes over.
I’ve been experimenting with digital models of me and my likeness. Hopefully models of actors and their likeness will always be owned by the individual. I think this is important.
We are also going to see the rise in non human stars, and IP that can be solely owned by corporations. We are already seeing AI influencers and have had non human characters leading shows in animation for over 50 years.
There is a good place to be had for AI in Stuntwork and action. I can see safety being improved by AI replacing people in areas that it’s quite dangerous to be a real human being.
I can see more visuals for sets being created by AI and we’re seeing a real transition into virtual filmmaking, whereby the background is a digital representation rather than a set. This will naturally lead to more sci-fi and fantasy with imaginary worlds. I love a set though as eluded to earlier.
I think it’s one of the most magical things. You asked about theatre before, and one of the wonderful things I like about theatre is a good set. However in modern filmmaking it’s likely that sets going forward will be massive screens with digital representations and those will be probably be generated in part by AI so that is a benefit for cost saving.
It’s also a benefit in that anything can be designed with less restriction on physical building cost budget. There are advantages to hard and I hope there’s a shared by everyone and not just taken advantage off by the major studios.
I hope all humanity can benefit from the advantage of AI, rather than just a few.
Finally, what are you most proud of about your career?
I’m super proud to have never given up. To still being in the game as an actor.
Growing up, one of my very early ambitions was to be in a film screening in Leicester Square at the Odeon. I was very lucky when I was about 20. I had a Short Film play there with me as the lead.
I had my face up on that screen was a very magical experience, and I thought this is very special. Gran Turismo will actually be the next time 20 years later when I’ll be on that same screen.
I’m very proud of my work I’ve done. I’m proud that I can balance having a family and a business with still being an actor and I’m proud of, who am I, who I am as a person and what I have to give.
GRAN TURISMO hits cinemas from August 9th, 2023.
