Adam Driver has had enough of journalists asking him why he’s played two Italian roles in quick succession on the press tour for Ferrari.
The actor made an appearance on the SmartLess podcast with Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes on Monday (January 1), where the subject of him playing two Italian men in two recent movies came up. Driver played Maurizio Gucci in 2021’s House Of Gucci and Enzo Ferrari in Michael Mann’s biopic Ferrari.
Speaking about how he hasn’t been very strategic in his acting career so far, Driver joked that the decision to play the two roles in quick succession was a “good example of not being strategic in a way that I probably should”.
“So many people have been like, ‘How many Italians…?’ I’m like, it’s just kind of worked out that way,” Driver said, noting that someone on his PR team should have warned him it would “come up a lot” on the Ferrari press tour.
“But I’m like, you know, it’s Ridley [Scott] and it’s Michael [Mann] and they’re in my mind some of the best filmmakers,” he said. “Who gives a shit that it was two Italians back to back?”
Driver added: “I’m surprised how much it comes up. It’s like, ‘You have a thing,’ and I’m like, ‘It’s two! It’s two Italians! It’s just two.’ That seems like a hard idea. Like, ‘What is it with Italy?’ I mean, it’s less to do with Italy, although I like it. It’s more about Ridley Scott and Michael Mann and the projects themselves. Italy is not the first thing on my mind.”
Between House Of Gucci and Ferrari, Driver has starred in Noah Baumbach’s comedy-drama White Noise and 2022 sci-fi film 65. He next stars in Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, alongside Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel and Jon Voight.
Elsewhere on the Ferrari press tour, Driver recently said “fuck you” to an audience member who questioned him about the film’s “cheesy” crash scenes.