Matt Damon has revealed that no CGI trickery was used in ‘Le Mans 66’.
The 49-year-old actor plays American automotive designer Carroll Shelby alongside Christian Bale as driver Ken Miles in the biographical racing film, which tells the true story of the battle between Ford and Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 1966.
Damon insists all the scenes on the track were shot for real by director James Mangold without the reliance on any green screen technology to capture the genuine adrenaline-inducing excitement of the sport.
Speaking to BBC Radio 2, he said: "There was no green screen, we did everything practically. We had these, like, rockets that basically attached to the car so you can get a professional driver basically driving with the 700 power rocket ship that’s attached to your car. And then you can safely put the crew inside the car and the cameras, and so you disconnect the steering wheel so the actors really going a 100 plus miles an hour and spinning around and really making those turns but the car is being driven by a professional driver."
The crew decided to use professional drivers to give the audience a true experience but Damon admits that Bale, 45, did go to driving school so he could shoot some of his own stunts.
He explained: "We did some of that stuff on the ‘Jason Bourne’ films too and it’s a really wonderful way to work because it’s not green screen. You’re getting all that interactive live, you’re getting the speed, the actors having that experience so without having to manage the car you can perform the scenes. So Christian had gone to racing school and he had gone very in depth, but there’s only so much we can do when we get ready, you know, at the end of the day it’s a film so we’re playing dress up but it’s a lot easier and really convincing when you’re sort of going through the experience."
Meanwhile, Damon has revealed it was never his goal to appear in a film franchise, despite ultimately playing spy Jason Bourne in four films, beginning with 2002’s ‘The Bourne Identity’, and having a main role in ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ and its two sequels.
The ‘Good Will Hunting’ star said: "You know, when I did the Bourne series … I specifically never signed up for more than one at a time on any of them because I didn’t want to get locked into a franchise. If the franchise took a turn and started going into an area that I didn’t think was good, I didn’t think anybody was served by me showing up and not being really excited to be there.
"So, we just did them all as a one off and that worked really well because we all just kind of moved forward in good faith and kind of look at each other at the end of one and go like, ‘Yeah, let’s do another one’ and it worked really well but now franchise thinking is so much more prevalent.
"Franchises, now, are what everybody seems to be looking for. The studios are tripping over themselves trying to find things they can into a franchise and that was never really my thinking."
Matt Damon didn’t rely on CGI in Le Mans ’66
