David Harbour on 'Kismet' and Hollywood

The actor talks 'Gran Turismo' and his special connect with co-star Archie Madekwe ahead of the movie’s release

By Ambica Sachin

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Published: Sun 6 Aug 2023, 12:26 PM

Last updated: Sun 6 Aug 2023, 12:31 PM

David Harbour has the kind of voice that's perfect for podcasts. That's your first thought when the Stranger Things star saunters into the room with his trademark drawl: "Hi, I'm David Harbour and I am very jet lagged. I am exhausted and may fall asleep in the middle of speaking. Please don't take it personally (laughs out)."

Harbour and Orlando Bloom (Pirates of the Caribbean) were the prime offerings along with Archie Madekwe (Midsommar) at a hush-hush meeting with the cast of Sony's upcoming gaming action thriller Gran Turismo, at Dubai Autodrome in December 2022.

The biographical coming-of-age sports drama (out in UAE on August 10), directed by Neill Blomkamp (District 9), is based on the real-life story of Jann Mardenborough, a teenage Gran Turismo gamer who went on to win a series of Nissan competitions to become a professional race car driver. The Sony-Playstation partnership walks the consoles to the live-action journey of movies like zombie survival game Days Gone and the mythological epic God of War but with a heart-wrenching real-life tag attached to it.

Harbour dons the role of Jann Mardenborough's coach Jack Salter, a former race driver with a dark past. The actor who counts Hoosiers (1986), Miracle (2004), and Warrior (2011) among his favourite underdog movies, says there is something very satisfying about these emotional sports movies centered around a coach who believes in a kid. "Truly Hooters is one of my favourite movies of all time. And a lot of what I do in this movie is based on what (Gene) Hackman does in that movie."

Kismet and acting

Harbour is what is termed a late-bloomer in the entertainment field. Having kicked off his acting career on Broadway, he was a regular in Law & Order and followed it up with movies like Revolutionary Road (2008) and Hellboy (2019). But it was his role as the small-town police chief in Netflix's Stranger Things that truly catapulted him into the spotlight. The Emmy and Golden Globe nominee and Critics Choice awardee is married to Lily Collins who makes an unanswered call in between this junket (“geez, that’s my wife calling”).

"I do think there is a form of kismet to actors and the roles they get to play," he adds by way of explaining how he tends to gravitate towards certain roles. "I have found that the energy you give off and the things that are attracted to you are related."

"I tend to give off a grizzled, beaten down, gladiator-with-a-heart-of-gold, underneath a very crusty-shell vibe and generally people want to hire me to play that thing and if that makes money, they want to do it again. One of the difficulties of being an actor is that as a brand you need to continue to fulfil that because you are a commodity.

"But at the same time if you hold true to the idea that you are an artist, then you are trying to stay ahead of people as opposed to give them the hamburger they want - you want to try and expand their taste and their empathy and open their hearts.”

At the same time he also does not rule out the possibility of starring in a romcom one day. "Who knows, maybe when I'm 60!" he laughs.

“But yeah, I'm happy that I have occupied this space. It is a fun one; there is complexity, but as I grow and age I want to push into other realms and expand this archetype in various ways.”

Creative versus real

Harbour is clear that what you see on screen in GT is a creative collaboration between him and Archie Madekwe rather than just a replica of the real characters’ synergy. It's somewhat dangerous, he ruminates, to associate too closely with the actual person on whom your character is based. He quotes Hamlet by way of example. "Even if you could dig up the Danish prince and put him in the play of his own life of Hamlet, he would suck. Because what you are doing is using this person as a metaphor for a narrative that you want artists to carve out."

And even as we are left nodding along he continues; "A lot of time people don't even know what is interesting about themselves," Then with a laugh, "I would not want to play myself in a movie certainly."

“The job of a creative artist is to extract the most powerful narrative and often real life doesn't tell the truth. It tells reality, but it doesn't tell the truth and I think that what you are striking for as an artist in a narrative is to tell the truth of the situation. And a lot of time even people don't know the truth of the situation; You talk to a real-life person and ask, how's your marriage and they will say, great, and you will know that it isn't.

"So you need to know the truth of the person and often-times the person won't tell you the truth about themselves. You can observe them, you can figure it out in all sorts of ways. Our job is to pay less attention to what people say and more to what is underneath everything."

That’s also probably one reason why he holds his onset rapport with his young co-star close to his heart. "What Archie and I were able to create together was really special. That kid has got a big heart and a lot of vulnerability. What happens in the movie is I mentor him in a certain way, but as is often the case in such relationships, the teacher winds up being the student. The dynamics we created was very special and I think that was 80 percent a result of how special he is and how easy it was to create something beautiful and complex with him and for that I'm grateful. I will always think of the movie as the scenes we did together and the little moments of creativity."

More than just a video game

While Harbour is a self-confessed video game fan, he is not a huge fan of video game movies per se. What chaffs him is that while playing a game you are invested in it, whereas while watching a movie you are forced to just sit back and take it all in.

But what makes GT brilliant according to him is that "the video game itself is a piece of the movie. We are not trying to tell the story of GT because there's no story. There is a narrative within this of a kid playing a video game and that translating into life."

He is also not immune to the conversation to be had about kids and video games. "This kid goes on to do great things in the world from that video game. It's a fun sort of thing to explore - where video games take us, how they take us there, and what they are going to do to kids - all those are ripe questions we should be talking about and this movie delves into all that. So it's a cool investigation and very much a character study of actual characters as opposed to a video game guy."

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