Kerry Condon on working with Brad Pitt on F1:The Movie

Acting was not a seemingly plausible career path for Tipperary girls when Kerry Condon was growing up. “There were a lot of horses, lovely farming and beautiful countryside, but there weren’t a lot of movies being made,” says the 42-year-old actor, laughing. Her “carefree, innocent” childhood was spent mostly on horseback, surrounded by animals.

Nevertheless, Condon cannot remember a time when she didn’t know she would be an actor. “It was always forever something I wanted to do,” she explains. “I felt sorry for other people who were good at lots of things but didn’t know what they were going to do with their lives. For me, it was advantageous to know very early on, because then I could go about getting there. And I just went after it.”

She was laser-focused. When The Man in the Iron Mask came to Dublin for a charity movie premiere, a 15-year-old Condon had business cards printed up with “dancer, singer, actress” and her mother’s phone number, hoping to introduce herself to a Hollywood fixer. She cheekily pushed her card into the director’s hand as he walked to his limousine after the screening. He didn’t call. But Condon wasn’t disheartened.

Her parents were supportive while also being a bit flummoxed. She was the only one of their four children with a dramatic calling. “They liked that I liked something, but I think they didn’t understand how it was going to work: how I would get from A to B.”

In the end, it was raw talent that got her there – a natural gift that was evident in her 1999 big screen debut, when Alan Parker chose her from public auditions for a part in his powerful film Angela’s Ashes. Condon was just 16. “I didn’t have the money to go to drama school and there was an open casting,” she recalls. “So this was a big chance for me, and I got the part.”

“There have been a lot of moments in my career where I’ve felt, ‘Oh my god, wow, this is incredible!’ ”

KERRY CONDON

That wide-eyed self-belief has been the secret sauce in a stellar career which has taken her from Ireland, to treading the boards as the Royal Shakespeare Company’s youngest ever Ophelia in more than 200 performances of Hamlet, to landing a Hollywood agent – all while still in her teens.

As her career burgeoned, making dreams reality was the result of hard graft and bucketloads of courage. It certainly hasn’t been easy, but Condon’s fire comes from an overriding sense of optimism. You can hear it in her voice. “There have been a lot of moments in my career where I’ve felt, ‘Oh my god, wow, this is incredible!’ ” she enthuses.

“After doing Hamlet, I actually went to Australia and filmed [Ned Kelly] with Heath Ledger [who tragically died at age 28 in 2008]. Even back then, Heath was quite a big star and there I was flying all the way to Australia as an actress, barely 20.”

Condon made good use of her trip, snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, trying her first oyster – “I’m a fan” – all while Ledger became a mate. “I can’t go on about how much of a lovely person he was – so generous. At the time, I knew it, but now, having worked more, I am even more aware. We stayed in touch after the movie, and I would see him all the time at his house [in Los Angeles], which was like an open house. He let anybody stay.

“It’s sad to say, because he’s gone, but he was very special. There are not a lot of people who are that kind at that level in show business.”

Condon’s early theatre projects with Irish writer and director Martin McDonagh led to him writing a film role especially for her. In 2023, her towering performance as Siobhán in McDonagh’s film The Banshees of Inisherin won her the BAFTA for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and Oscar and Golden Globe nominations.

Condon is talking to me on a Zoom call from Los Angeles, her base (alongside London) for more than a decade. She’s dressed in a casual soft grey V-neck jumper, blonde hair cascading over her shoulders. We’re here to discuss her latest project F1: The Movie, a big-budget action movie set in the adrenaline-fuelled world of Formula 1 directed by Top Gun: Maverick’s Joseph Kosinski.

Condon admits she’s still pinching herself. “I grew up watching those massive American movies with the music and the special effects. So the idea of being a female lead in one of those movies would have been like a massive dream back when I was a kid in Tipperary – and still is.”

Condon plays Kate, the super-smart director of a struggling racing team on the verge of collapse. The only hope is to coax former star driver Sonny Hayes, played by Brad Pitt – “the greatest that never was” – out of retirement.

Condon had never worked with Pitt but she’d met him socially. When I ask if that means they met at a bar or a Hollywood party, Condon starts to chuckle. “It happened when, after 25 years in the business, I finally got some recognition and was at the Golden Globes – and there I met Brad,” she says with a grin. “I don’t think one meets Brad Pitt at a bar in Hollywood, no. I don’t think he goes to bars any more!”

The opportunity to act opposite Pitt was a major drawcard for Condon, and even though she knew “not a thing” about Formula 1, she was all in. “Brad’s like a movie star, and movie stars aren’t made any more. It’s a different time now. So just to get to work with him was one of those things that I would like to tick off in my career – an achievement.”

In the flesh Pitt was everything she hoped he would be – “relaxed, fun, in the moment”. Without giving too much away, she reveals there’s on-screen romance – and to prove it, the trailer teases with a steamy kiss between the pair. “It’s a real feel-good movie,” says Condon. “I think people will love it.”

On set, Condon met up-and-coming British actor Callie Cook and became a mentor to the 31-year-old. “She really reminded me of me and I felt this major need to be available and generous and kind; to tell her how good she is and that she could call me if she ever wanted to. Because nobody did that for me, and I would have appreciated that.”

Not that Condon’s complaining. “It’s cool that they didn’t … learning the hard way has made me who I am. But I didn’t want Callie feeling uncomfortable. She’s such a lovely girl.”

At 42, Condon is fully ensconced in Hollywood, but it’s not home. “I’ve never felt anywhere is home to me. I’ve always felt like a woman of the world. I don’t want to keep fluttering, but I don’t know if I’ll stay in LA or anywhere forever.”

Condon’s happy place is a little farm she has bought in Washington state. Here she indulges her other passion, horses. “I like being around animals and it was important to me when I moved to LA to have that. My life doesn’t really follow a regular structure, but I try to go to the farm once a month for five days at a stretch.”

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She has four horses and is horrified when I ask her to pick a favourite. “You’re crazy – that’s like asking a mother who’s her favourite kid. I couldn’t possibly,” she gasps.

On her farm she can kick back and connect with her roots. “I do feel far away from Tipperary, but Washington is quite similar and reminds me of Ireland. I don’t really hang out with anyone except my horses. I like to be alone if I’m not working. I like being quiet and in nature.”

F1: The Movie opens in cinemas June 26.

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