Brad Pitt reveals he and Tom Cruise exited Ford v Ferrari after Cruise learned his character wouldn’t be driving much; Pitt still hopes to reunite on racing film.
Brad Pitt recently opened up about an intriguing “what-might-have-been” in his career: a planned collaboration with Tom Cruise on Ford v Ferrari, almost a decade before the celebrated 2019 film hit theaters.
In a new interview with The National, Pitt explained that the two stars were initially on board to play the film’s leads—Cruise as Carroll Shelby and Pitt as the legendary driver Ken Miles—under the direction of Joe Wright.
However, the project unraveled once Cruise discovered that his character would spend relatively little time behind the wheel.
“Tom and I, for a while there, were on Ford v Ferrari with Joe,” Pitt recalled. “This was about 10 years before the guys who actually made it—and made it a great movie.”
When Cruise realized that Shelby’s on-screen driving would be limited, both he and Pitt opted to depart, paving the way for James Mangold’s eventual version starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale.
Beyond reflecting on that missed opportunity, Pitt also signaled his ongoing desire to rev up racing dramas.
He mentioned that, despite his character Sonny Hayes departing Formula One at the end of Before F1: The Movie, he’d relish the chance to “drive again, selfishly speaking.”
Yet, he acknowledged that any F1 sequel would naturally center on the evolving dynamics of Damson Idris’s character, Joshua Pierce, and his team’s championship chase.
“Where does Sonny fit in? I’m not sure,” Pitt said, suggesting that his own role might shift to setting speed records out on the Bonneville Salt Flats or taking on another high-octane challenge if the series continued.
Equally, Pitt voiced enthusiasm for revisiting Cruise’s earlier racing work in Days of Thunder (1990).
Cruise has reportedly explored a sequel to that NASCAR-set blockbuster, and Pitt expressed interest in joining forces again.
“I’d love to work on a follow-up to Cruise’s 1990 racing film,” he noted. As Hollywood’s appetite for authentic, character-driven sports dramas remains strong, one can easily imagine Pitt and Cruise trading the salt flats for speed tracks once more—this time fully committed to the driver’s seat.
