Why Star Archie Madekwe’s Tall Height Was a Serious Problem Shooting ‘Gran Turismo’

Archie Madekwe (muh-dek-wee), the star of Gran Turismo, is 6’4”- way taller than most race car drivers- which led to some serious problems making the movie. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Direct from Hollywood with Ryan Seacrest, Grand Turismo tells the
incredible true story of a race car driver, Jan Martin Burrough,
played by actor Archie Medecui.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Now, one thing casual racing fans may not know is
that the average height of race car drivers is around
five to nine. The lighter the driver, the faster of
the car. Chan's actually above average at five to ten,
but Archie stands just under six five, which created a
whole world of issues on the set that Archie and
director Neil Blomkamp had to navigate because the cars are
constructed for a much smaller guy. Neil tells a Hollywood reporter,
he's so tall that we had to make custom considerations.

(00:31):
We had to pull seats out of cars and give
him one that made him comfortable so he could fit properly.
We also had issues with cameras. It's so claustrophobic in
the car that we had to cut at the top
of his eye line because the camera couldn't physically tilt
up anymore. It got to the point where I referred
to the car as the Iron Maiden and how much
he hated it. But when he saw the film, he said, okay,
that was worth it. He suffered, but it puts the

(00:51):
audience there with him. Grand Turismo is in theaters.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
That's direct from Hollywood.