• last year
Speaking to Melissa Nathoo ahead of the SAG-AFTRA strike, David Harbour reveals how he and Orlando Bloom discussed being married to popstar, Katy Perry and Lily Allen, on the set of Gran Turismo. Report by Nathoom. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Transcript
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.