The Venice Film Festival is now underway, albeit without a lot of actors on the Lido thanks to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. But Variety reports that “Ferrari” star Adam Driver is at the festival to support Michael Mann‘s latest film (as it’s not part of the AMPTP), and he didn’t hold back about certain companies refusing to meet guild demands.
“I’m very happy to be here to support this movie, and the truncated schedule that we had to shoot it and the efforts of all the incredible actors working on it and the crew,” Driver said at the press conference for “Ferrari.” But also, I’m very proud to be here to be a visual representation of a movie that’s not part of the AMPTP and to promote the SAG leadership directive which is an effective tactic which is the interim agreement.”
“The other objective is obviously to say, why is it that a smaller distribution company like Neon and STX International can meet the dream demands of what SAG is asking for — this is pre-negotiations — the dream version of SAG’s wishlist, but a big company like Netflix and Amazon can’t?” Driver continued. “And every time people from SAG go and support a movie that has met the terms of the interim agreement, it just makes it more obvious that these people are willing to support the people that they collaborate with, and the others are not.”
It’s interesting that Driver calls out companies behind lots of streaming content in his comments as opposed to major studios like Warner Bros. or Paramount. Maybe that’s because of Driver’s history with Netflix: he starred in Noah Baumbach‘s “Marriage Story” with Scarlett Johansson for the streamer in 2019, earning a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his performance. Neither Netflix nor Amazon responded to Variety after the outlet followed up for comments.
Driver is on the Lido for “Ferrari” thanks to it not being an AMPTP film. In Mann’s latest, the director’s first film since 2015’s “Blackhat,” Driver plays Enzo Ferrari during an essential professional and personal year in the Italian auto tycoon’s life. Penélope Cruz also stars, with Shailene Woodley, Sarah Gadon, Gabriel Leone. Jack O’Connell and Patrick Dempsey round out the main cast.
Mann echoed Driver’s sentiment about the reluctance of big studios to work with artists at the Venice press conference. “”Ferrari” got made because the people who worked on “Ferrari” made it by forgoing large sectors of salaries, in the case of Adam and myself,” Mann said. “It was not made by a big studio — no big studio wrote us a check. And that’s why we’re here, standing in solidarity.”
“Ferrari” hits US theaters on December 25, courtesy of NEON. Will the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes be over by then? Take a look at a trailer for “Ferrari” below.
