Shiva Joshi, Pune
Lewis Hamilton is a co-producer and an actor in Brad Pitt’s untitled Formula One movie, which is still filming this weekend at the Grand Pix in Hungary despite the Hollywood actors’ strike.
For the first time in 63 years, actors joined screenwriters on US picket lines last week in search of more powerful streaming-era pay and restrictions on the use of artificial intelligence. Despite claims in the media that filming for the Apple production was stopped as a result, co-producer seven-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton insisted that was not the case.
“Fortunately for us, you can see the team is here, the APX is here, and we’re still filming, luckily with the drivers that we have,” the Mercedes driver told reporters at the Hungaroring on Thursday. “So hopefully we can continue to get some important parts of the filming done”, he continued.
The name of the imaginary 11th team in the film is APX GP, and it stars Pitt as an aging driver who comes out of retirement to compete against a promising rookie, played by Damson Idris. Similar to Silverstone two weeks ago, APX has a garage, pit wall location, and times scheduled for the production cars to spend time on the track in between sessions at the Hungaroring.
The Hungaroring would not employ any Screen Actors Guild (SAG) members, according to the http://www.the-race.com website. Pitt’s attendance wasn’t immediately obvious.