Page 114 - The Book For Men Fall/Winter 2023

“It’s not any one person who makes a movie. It’s a collaborative effort. It’s like a sports club.”
period,” he says. Dempsey credits Mann’s meticulous research and knowledge of the period for making this history feel contemporary. “We had all of these incredible vintage cars, many of which had the pedigree of having raced that particular year, with hundreds of extras dressed up in period costumes. It was like stepping back in time.” For Dempsey, bringing that period alive included driving a recreation of Taruffi’s car, down to the period-accurate absence of a roll cage. “You feel the danger. It was real. It was palpable. You appreciated their ability all the more by having that experience.”
Dempsey has his own history with the storied Italian manufacturer, hav- ing raced a Ferrari F430 GT at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2009. “I certainly understood the importance of the brand,” he says, “not only within Italy, but representing them on a track and in an iconic race like Le Mans. As a team owner, I understood the culture and the dynamics within the company — the passion and commitment. So that was all ingrained and was one more layer that went into performing. I respected the tradition. I was humbled by being a part of the history.” As an aficionado as well as a driver, the film was a dream opportunity to delve into the immaculately-kept Ferrari archives, which were opened up to Dempsey by the manufacturer, he feels, in part because of his racing experience. “We had an opportunity to go into their museum and get all of the notes from the engineers, so you could understand better what they were dealing with during the race, what was working, what the mechanical weakness was, and give you perspective.”
That he got the green light to play the Ferrari driver at all, given his longtime partnership with Porsche, is a testament, Dempsey says, to the good sportsmanship of racing. “These are family-owned companies,” he points out. “They’re incredibly competitive on the track, but when the race is over, there’s this fellowship and camaraderie. There’s just so much respect.” That
cross-company gentleman’s agreement, he thinks, comes from the rare knowl- edge of what it takes to engineer a winning car, which transcends the more mundane rivalries of the business. “You want to beat them when you’re on the track, don’t get me wrong,” he laughs, “but when you’re off the track there’s a celebration. You’ve gone into battle together and the stakes are incredibly high. And when you come out, there’s just this deep connection with your fellow competitor and fellow teams.”
Taruffi is a biopic-worthy character in his own right; a statesman for the sport who became a safety advocate following the deadly race depicted in the film. “I don’t think he ever really got the attention he deserved because he survived,” Dempsey says, referencing the accidental death in the race of Taruffi’s Ferrari teammate, the high society playboy Alfonso de Portago, who lost control and crashed when his front tire exploded, killing himself, his navigator, and several spectators. The haunted nature of the event, Dempsey feels, overshadowed Taruffi’s impressively diverse portfolio. “He did a lot of endurance racing. He was with Ferrari very early on, since the twenties. He had won motorcycle championships. He was a polymath. He was an incredible engineer. He understood aerodynamics. He was a teacher, and he was a survivor of an era that was incredibly deadly.”
As for whether it’s a unique challenge to play a historical driver, given the uncanniness of getting into cars from more than sixty years ago, Dempsey demurs that the real obstacle was not getting into Taruffi’s head but his hair. “It was easy because it was just the reality of doing,” Dempsey says of coming to know Taruffi’s driving style. Less easy was getting Taruffi’s silver fox hair styling just right, keeping it safe from the wear and tear of his helmet and making it look believable so that he could, as he puts it, “disappear from the outside in.” “The hardest part was my hair got fried because we had to dye it
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