Kerry Condon calls working with Brad Pitt on F1 “a dream come true”

Kerry Condon has said that working with Brad Pitt on new action film F1 was “a dream come true,” and she aims to become “one of his top ten co-stars.”

F1 will be released on June 25. The Tipperary-born actress, who has previously appeared in projects like Banshees of Insherin and Better Call Saul, plays Kate McKenna in the upcoming race car drama. McKenna is the race director of the fictional APXGP team, working alongside Pitt as veteran driver Sonny Hayes and Damson Idris as the rookie, Joshua Pearce.

"Working with Brad was like a dream come true,” Condon said during a press event at UK race track Goodwood. “He's been in the business so long and he’s worked with some amazing people, I just wanted to be in his top ten co-stars. That was my aim."

"Working with Damson Idris was fun,” she added. “He’s like a child, he has so much energy."

The movie was filmed at real Grand Prix races around the world over the last two years. The plot follows Hayes as he’s forced to retire from Formula One after a crash, but is asked by team owner Ruben, played by Javier Bardem, to mentor Pearce.

"The stuff we shot at the grand prix was so timed to a tee," said Condon. "We had to shoot pitstop stuff during the actual Grand Prix races so I felt very much like I was part of a team at the Grand Prix - I was nervous, excited, I didn’t know what was going to happen. It was amazing, really amazing."

The actress received help preparing for her role from Irish Formula One strategy analyst for Sky Sports and F1TV, Bernie Collins. The analyst is also a former F1 strategy engineer for the Aston Martin F1 team.

"She’s an Irish girl so there a lot of similarities," Condon said. "But basically, I knew she was a girl who excels at physics and maths and who did engineering in school and I had some friends who did that so for the role in F1, I just imagined that I was good at physics."

See the trailer for F1 below: