Why Tom Cruise Left Ford V Ferrari, According To Brad Pitt

If it wasn't clear by this point in his career, Tom Cruise has a need, and that's the need for speed, as shown in the "Top Gun" movies, "Days of Thunder," and many high-speed, nail-biting sequences in the "Mission: Impossible" film series. It makes sense, then, that in one of the greatest dad movies in recent memory, "Ford v Ferrari," Cruise chose not to pick up the keys for this true-life story of man and high-speed machine simply because there wouldn't be much driving for him to do.

Long before Matt Damon and Christian Bale starred as car designer Carroll Shelby and driver Ken Miles, respectively, in the James Mangold-directed film, Cruise was eyeing the project with plans to star opposite Brad Pitt. In an interview with The National, the "F1" star explained that while he would consider the idea of his character sharing the road with Cruise's Cole Trickle from "Days of Thunder," they would have to avoid the issues they encountered with "Ford v Ferrari."

"Tom and I, for a while there, were on 'Ford v Ferrari' with Joe [Kosinski, director of 'F1']," explained Pitt. Unfortunately, they couldn't settle on the characters they were eyeing. "What it came down to is that we both wanted to drive, and he wanted to play Shelby, and I wanted to play Ken Miles. And when Tom realized that Carroll Shelby would not be driving much in the movie, it didn't come through." That's not the only issue the project might have encountered, though, as Pitt could have hit a bump in the road as well.

Over the years, Christian Bale's accent and vocal affectations have shifted as many times as Tom Hardy's thanks to the projects he's been a part of. In "Ford v Ferrari," however, the Welsh-born, British actor had no issue bringing Birmingham-based legend Ken Miles to the screen. In Pitt's case, however, that might've been a different story.

Historically, Pitt's handling of accents has been somewhat inconsistent, with some of his most infamous missteps occurring with non-American accents (notably in "The Devil's Own," as well as his use of patois in "Meet Joe Black"). It was only in 2000, with "Snatch," that Pitt played up his bad accent as the Irish bare-knuckle boxer Mickey, making for perhaps the best comedic role in his career.

Keeping this in mind, Pitt trying to adopt an accent that's more in line with the one used by the "Peaky Blinders" cast for Ken Miles might have brought the film down, with the added issue of rarely getting to see Cruise behind the wheel. "This was about 10 years before the guys who actually made it — and made it a great movie," Pitt added during his interview with The National. Perhaps then, it was good that the Cruise/Pitt version of "Ford v Ferrari" never left the showroom after all.