He hit out at Netflix and Amazon
Adam Driver was overcome with emotion as his film Ferrari received a seven and a half minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival.
The 39-year-old takes on the role of race car icon, Enzo Ferrari – the Italian founder of one the most iconic sports cars in the world – in the Michael Mann biopic, that’s due for a Boxing Day release in the UK.
After a very subdued red carpet premiere due to the SAG-AFTRA strikes, Driver and Mann couldn’t have hoped for a better reception for their movie on Thursday.
Driver reportedly choked back tears as the audience continued to applaud for several minutes, and was later brought to his feet by director, Mann.
Earlier in the day the Hollywood star showed his support for striking actors as he called out streaming services Netflix and Amazon for not being “willing to support” people in the industry.
Ferrari has been boycotted by many stars during the strikes, but the film’s actors and writers can attend without breaking the strikes because the film has been given an exemption as it was made by an independent, Neon, not a studio.
Driver praised Neon for their role in negotiating with SAG-AFTRA as he hit out at the larger production companies.
“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 continued: “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?
The Oscar-nominated actor has worked with Netflix in the past, in 2019’s Marriage Story and 2022’s White Noise.
Ferrari examines three months in the life of Enzo Ferrari while he is having money troubles, is grieving his son who died, and while he also has a child with his mistress – which is discovered by his wife.
Mann said at the 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.
“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.”
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