How Senna star Gabriel Leone's role in Ferrari prepared him for series
Iconic Brazilian racing driver Ayrton Senna is the focus of a brand new Netflix series.
How did the role of De Portago shape how he approached playing another F1 driver in Senna? Leone spoke with RadioTimes.com about his role and how taking on the two F1 projects so close together focused his mindset for Senna.
"I think the experience of feeling as close as possible to a racing driver was really interesting, and a year later I was playing one of the greatest of all time.
"So, to be close to all the atmosphere and the universe of a racing driver and to be able to feel the adrenaline and to experiment with pushing my limits was really useful, not only for Ferrari but also for Senna."
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While Leone played two Formula 1 drivers in the projects, the style of drivers and state of the cars couldn’t be more different.
While he did much of his own driving in Ferrari, this wasn’t the case for Senna.
"Ferrari was set in 1957, so the cars used to be way smaller, and they rebuilt the cars, the Ferraris, with the Caterham chassis, the ones we were practising with. There are bits of the movie, I'm really driving the cars.
"Thinking about Senna’s era, the '80s, they were more the F1 cars we know today. They were way bigger with those big wings. So it was way more dangerous for us to drive those. So I unfortunately didn't drive any Formula 1 cars."
Senna also employed LED Studios, which was a first for Leone, and something he particularly enjoyed.
"It was another experience for me as an actor to play all of the races in an LED studio," he said.
"It's an interesting use of technology. It was fun because it was the first time I was in an LED studio to watch the series and the way they edited all the sequences, with the use of CGI."
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Senna will stream on Netflix from Friday 29th November – sign up from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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