George Russell has a lot of fans today who feel starstruck upon seeing him. Although, back in the day when he wasn’t as popular, he was just like these fans. Russell shared one such anecdote when he sneakily took a picture of Brad Pitt in 2015. The Briton, who was 17 back then did not wish to bother the Academy Award winner for the picture and thus he devised a master plan to fulfill his objective.
Earlier in June 2023, the Mercedes driver revealed this incident in a quiz with Sky Sports F1. Russell explained as soon as he saw Pitt, he put his quick thinking to work. The 25-year-old stated, “I wanted to take a photo of him, but I thought that’s not very cool. So what I did was I decided to pretend to make a phone call and take a photo.”
It was pretty sneaky and smart of George to get the American star’s photo without making anybody notice. The Briton also showed the pictures he had taken in the Sky Sports quiz video. To this, his peers Lando Norris and Alex Albon were quite stunned to listen to Russell’s story and had their doubts about it.
Both Norris and Albon are often alongside Russell for such challenges that give out such awesome stories. Norris mainly asked the Mercedes prodigy, how he reacts when people try to pull off the same trick on him these days. Russell quipped, “I am like mate, ‘I know what you’re doing'”. Even Albon laughed about it by dropping a one-liner: “That’s a GR move”.
Eight years later, Russell is himself a celebrity and has interacted with Brad Pitt multiple times. One would wonder if the Briton still hesitates to ask the Hollywood veteran for a picture when he visits the Mercedes garage for his F1 movie.
George Russell used to Brad Pitt being around amid Lewis Hamilton’s F1 movie project
George Russell probably doesn’t get starstruck by Brad Pitt, given the number of times the American actor has been in the F1 paddock lately. Pitt who is starring in Lewis Hamilton’s movie on Formula 1 has been shooting several scenes at multiple race weekends in 2023.
The movie (working title: Apex) is a story about a retired veteran driver who returns to the sport beside a young rookie (played by Damson Idris). Pitt is playing the retired veteran named Sonny Hayes driving for Apex GP. Hamilton is serving as the co-producer of the movie under his banner Dawn Apollo Films.
The Academy Award winner has visited the Mercedes garage multiple times since the 2022 US Grand Prix. While Russell may be used to being around Pitt, he may be surprised if he gets a role in the F1 feature film. There have been speculations that even Lewis Hamilton may play some sort of character. As the Apex team is looking to keep things as realistic to the sport as possible.
For the time being, with some shooting done at Silverstone, most of the drivers will feature in passing shots. However, the crew is planning to shoot extensively in the paddock in the 2024 season. The Brad Pitt-starrer is targeting a release date sometime in 2025.
