ET sat down with the actors at the 'Ford v Ferrari' press day on Tuesday.
Matt Damon and Christian Bale both have decades of experience when it comes to filming fight scenes, but they've never done anything like their battle in Ford v Ferrari.
ET's Lauren Zima sat down with the co-stars at the film's Los Angeles press day on Tuesday, where they opened up about filming the "silliest fight ever."
"It was actually fun to do a fight for once where you could learn the choreography in 15 minutes," Damon says, recalling the hours and hours of work he's put into previous scenes where he has to "look like we know what we're doing." "[This was] just two completely useless middle-aged guys in a fight where they don't actually want to hurt each other."
In Ford v Ferrari, Damon plays American automotive designer and engineer Carroll Shelby, while Bale stars as Ken Miles, a British World War II veteran and professional race car driver. The movie sees the pair teaming up when tasked by Henry Ford II to build a new race car to defeat Ferrari. At one point in the film, Damon and Bale go at it.
"There's a bond that forms when you do that... fake fight somebody," Damon jokes.
As Bale cracks, "I was actually really trying to hurt you. I'm just that ineffective."
At the heart of the movie is a great narrative, which Bale said feeds his "obsession" for good storytelling. "Regardless of loving it, hating it, if you feel a lot about it, you're going to feel both at some point, but yes, it is nice to obsess," Bale shares. "It gets you up in the morning. Otherwise, I'd never get out of bed."
Bale's kids don't share the same love for his craft, however. "My kids, they only want to go to craft service," he reveals. "The actual quote is, 'Dad, your work is really boring, but the craft service is good.'"
"They'll come to set and dress up and occasionally walk in the background and do that and they enjoy that, but then they also realize how many takes it takes usually and they're like, 'Are you kidding me?'" Bale adds. "My daughter has been there as an extra before and I'm walking past and she's going, 'Dad, get it right! Like, how many more times you got to do this?'"
"Yeah and it's not a great environment for kids," Damon agrees. "The bigger the movie is, everything kind of slows down... there's plenty of time in your life to work, you don't have to do it as a kid."
Ford v Ferrari hits theaters on Nov. 15.
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