#105, Stuntman Robert Nagle talks Ford v Ferrari, long career

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Robert Nagle is a Hollywood star. But he’s unheralded except for industry insiders who know his stuntman and engineering talents. Name a movie with the hard-to-fathom automotive scenes and Nagle problem was part of it.

Nagle’s current project is the soon-to-be-released movie Ford v Ferrari, and he’s our guest on Episode #105 of The Weekly Driver Podcast.

In 2015, Nagle was awarded an Academy Technical Achievement Award (with Allan Padelford). The honor was presented for the self-propelled, high-performance, drivable camera and vehicle platform dubbed “The Biscuit Jr.”).

The platform was named after a similar giant rig put on mechanical horses on to film the actors up close in the movie Sea Biscuit. The vehicle was also used in the movie Aviator.

Tragedy struck when the platform was lost in a fire. Biscuit Jr., was made a few years later. And it’s an integral part of Ford v Ferrari.

The movie, which premiered at the recent Toronto Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival, is scheduled for nationwide release November 15.

 

The movis stars Christian Bale as British-born driving icon Ken Miles and Matt Damon as Carroll Shelby, the visionary car builder. They’re dispatched by Henry Ford II and Lee Iacocca, then an executive with Ford, with the mission of building the Ford GT40, a new car with the potential to finally defeat the perennially dominant Ferrari.

Shelby and Miles battle corporate interference, the laws of physics and their individual demons to build a revolutionary race car for Ford and challenge Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966.

During our podcast, Nagle discusses working with Damon and Bale and training the actors to a skill level above what they’ll need to for the movie.

Nagle also discusses his long tenure in filmmaking and gives us behind-the-scenes insight into working with famous actors, the art of his craft and revisits his long career.

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