Gran Turismo Star David Harbour Wanted To "Make Fun Of Myself" With Film's Gamer Insults

24.08.2023 - 21:43 / gamespot.com / David Harbour

«I know a lot about sitting in a video gaming chair playing video games,» Harbour joked.

By Phil Owen on

The Gran Turismo movie is both a video game adaptation and a sports movie--a combination that would work regardless of the real-life angle since Gran Turismo is a sports game as it is. Having a true story at the heart of this thing only makes it more fun--Gran Turismo is the low-key, late-summer banger you didn't see coming.

The focus of the film is on Jann Mardenborough, an obsessive Gran Turismo player who earned a spot in the third GT Academy class--a competition that intended to turn gamers into real race-car drivers. It worked. Mardenborough has been a name in professional racing around the world for over a decade.

In the film, Jann is played by Archie Madekwe. David Harbour also stars as Jack Salter, the guy who has to teach these gamers how to drive an actual car even though he doesn't think any of them have any shot at succeeding in the racing world.

Jack's extreme skepticism about the whole concept is the source of a lot of laughs in the early parts of the movie--he's the old, mean coach from a sports movie who has to whip these arrogant kids into shape--but all of his insults are tailored specifically for gamers. He yells things like «If you get in a wreck out here, you can't hit reset,» which sounds great coming out of Harbour's mouth. He even manages an utterly convincing «u mad bro» at one point.

Way back before SAG-AFTRA began its strike that precludes its members from promoting films, I sat down with Harbour and Madekwe to talk about Gran Turismo and their personal mentor-mentee dynamic both on screen and to some degree in real life as well. But first, I had to start by asking about Harbour's many awesome one-liners, and in particular whether any of them were improvised.

"'You get in a wreck out here you can't hit reset,' that was scripted. I think 'u mad bro' was maybe an extra, maybe it was scripted. I certainly know at one point I talked about Hot Pockets, that was not in the script," Harbor said, chuckling. «I know a lot about sitting in a video gaming chair playing video games, so anything I would want to make fun of myself, I was able to incorporate into Jack's improvs. So yeah, there were a lot of times when we played around, but the script was also pretty tight about making fun of these gamers.»

Madekwe was also in an extremely unusual position on Gran Turismo, with the real Jann Mardenborough serving as his stunt double throughout. Meaning, well, the real Jann Mardenborough was also watching his performance as Jann Mardenborough most of the time. But according to Madekwe, it wasn't awkward at all.

«It was great. What a luxury. You're playing somebody, and they're there on set every