Getting ready for a role in a blockbuster film always has its challenges, but for Damson Idris, there was one thing he couldn’t prepare for.

“How do I look cute when the wind is hitting me at 180mph?”

The actor stars alongside Brad Pitt in F1: The Movie and had to spend months learning how to drive the racing cars before shooting.

“We were really following the Grand Prix as it was happening,” he tells 1Xtra’s Nadia Jae.

Damson says driving on iconic tracks like Silverstone and Rockingham is an intense experience.

“You need to remember when you’re driving those cars sometimes you’re hitting 180mph. I was moving, it was fire,” he says.

“Then on top of that, you got to act within a movie, you’ve still got to try and look cute.”

Damson had some help from current F1 driver Sir Lewis Hamilton, one of the film’s producers, who also has a cameo.

“When it comes to driving he really encouraged me,” Damson says.

“He brought that energy on set that just reminded us of how authentic this movie is and that was always our goal – to make the most authentic racing movie of all time.

“And Lewis is my brother as well so to see him getting his acting bag was so amazing to me.”

The film was released in the UK on Wednesday to generally positive reviews and marks a new era for Damson.

The 33-year-old, who grew up in Peckham, south London, had his breakout role in 2017 US crime drama Snowfall, which he says was overlooked by “mainstream awards”.

But he was recognised by organisations such as BET, NWACP and Mobo, which celebrate black artists in the entertainment industry.

“It’s funny that every single award that the culture could give me, I won,” he says.

“We cleaned up there.”

Transitioning to a major Hollywood role has been a long road for Damson but he says he never lost hope thanks to his mum.

“The conversations she used to have with me my during my periods of rejection, she’d come in and give me these words and really educate me,” he says.

“That knowledge of manifestation and acceptance makes you prepared for when it actually is a reality.”

One thing he wasn’t prepared for though – spitting on his co-star Brad Pitt on set.

He says the confession, which he made during an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, has been following him around ever since.

“I never should have said it,” he says.

“People are like: ‘Bro you phlegmed on Brad Pitt?’ I’m like: ‘I never phlegmed’.”

He insists it was an accident.

“It was a little speck,” says Damson. “But it was a speck too much, I mean it’s Brad Pitt.”

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