USA TODAY International Edition
‘ Ford v Ferrari’ was hair- raising ride for Damon
Actor was more interested in connecting with his character to understand him on a deeper level
The Texas accent was easy, but playing racing legend Carroll Shelby required a perm.
LOS ANGELES – Matt Damon was willing to do whatever it took to play fearless racing legend Carroll Shelby in “Ford v Ferrari.”
If that meant having to undergo the first perm of his life to re- create Shelby’s naturally curly hair, Damon was going to do it. Even if it led to his first perm emergency.
“They just fry your hair. And then my hair kind of went a shade of red,” Damon says at the Four Seasons Hotel, his hair restored to its supreme straightness. “So I had a little perm emergency. That’s where the hair dye came in.”
A pit crew on the set brought his locks back to Shelby’s darker color, though the look isn’t a perfect match. That’s OK with Damon: The 5- foot- 10 star knew he was never going to physically resemble the 6- foot- 3 Shelby in the movie ( in theaters Friday).
He could, however, capture the spirit of the man who teamed with driver and engineer Ken Miles ( Christian Bale) to design the ultimate race car for Ford Motor, a machine that could beat even Ferrari in the unforgiving 24hour Le Mans race.
“I cannot grow for the part. There are limits to what I could do,” Damon says. “I don’t look anything like him, and I’m very different from him personalitywise.”
It’s one heck of a ride watching Damon and Bale team up in the real- life underdog story – with enough heart in the tank to win over movie fans who don’t know the difference between Le Mans and Lamaze ( the method of childbirth).
“I wanted to show the private side of Carroll Shelby. That’s where I really connected to him, somebody who wanted to collaborate with other people that he loved and respected to build something bigger than him,” Damon says. “For Carroll Shelby, that was cars; for me, it’s movies. So in that deep level, I really understood him.”
Director James Mangold says he was intrigued to see Damon’s chemistry with Bale in the first film pairing of two major Hollywood luminaries. He knew
“I cannot grow for the part. There are limits to what I could do.”
Matt Damon