<em>F1: The Movie</em>: Why Kerry Condon Is the Real Star
Before I tell you about actress Kerry Condon in F1: The Movie, I must bring up a forgotten film from 20 years ago that foreshadowed the Oscar nominee's brilliance. In 2005, around the same time that Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith eclipsed the box office, a little movie called Unleashed opened in theaters.
An action-crime drama, Unleashed starred Jet Li as Danny, a feral bodyguard to a Glasgow gangster (Bob Hoskins). Raised in captivity by Hoskins's phlegmy villain, Danny possesses a killer instinct with the mental capacity of a scared child. The movie's title refers to Danny's undignified collar, which Hoskins takes off when he needs his human attack dog to take care of business. It's a tragic existence, until Danny meets a kind blind man (Morgan Freeman) and his stepdaughter, Victoria, played by then-unknown Irish actress Kerry Condon. They're a family held together by music, with Victoria an up-and-coming concert pianist. In a movie devoid of color and even sunlight, Victoria is a ray of hope, joy, and, most of all, escape.
Condon's performance conjures the aura of an excited middle schooler; she conveys warm curiosity with expressive ocean-blue eyes and laughs with the corners of her mouth. She exists as a haven for Danny, whose soul is so tortured you can almost hear him scream even in his silence. At the end of the movie, Victoria takes the stage at Carnegie Hall and tells the audience her next piece is dedicated to someone "whose life was saved by music." Man, it gets me every time.
That's all to say: When I saw F1: The Movie (in theaters nationwide today)—in which the 42-year-old Condon stars as its female lead, Kate—I wasn't surprised when I left the theater fully convinced she was the best damn thing about the film.
Never mind that her destiny is to ultimately be Brad Pitt's love interest. By virtue of her position—to antagonize the male leads into shaping up so they can level up into good drivers and even better teammates—Condon drives the movie's forward motion. But her Royal Shakespeare background brings her arc to the finish line, allowing her to feel like a real human being in a film inundated with caricatures of arrogant masculinity.
Condon's scene with Pitt's Sonny in a rural bar, where they share all of two sips of an amber ale before she tells him off, is the exact moment when I believed a three-star-at-best movie might wind up sublime. Later on, when Kate cleverly convinces Pitt and Damson Idris's characters to settle their differences over poker, she outshines both her costars through sheer force of will. It's always entertaining to watch good actors at work, but when great actors make the most of whatever cards they're dealt, it's nothing short of astonishing.
If you're looking for more Condon after your ears stop ringing from F1, she was Octavia in Rome, HBO's precursor to Game of Thrones. Her turn as Clara on The Walking Dead is haunting, delivering a chilling portrait of how badly the apocalypse can ravage one's soul. That's not even mentioning TV shows like Better Call Saul and Ray Donovan and movies such as Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin, the latter of which nabbed her an Oscar nomination and a BAFTA.
Kerry Condon stars in F1 as its female lead costar, opposite Brad Pitt. She's the movie's secret weapon.
For years, Condon has been the definition of a working actress, with an uncanny knack for outright stealing scenes in whatever she's in. Even when it's a thankless part—she voiced Iron Man's second AI assistant in the billion-dollar Marvel franchise—Condon makes the most of her screen time. She's the kind of performer who can make a soulless chatbot feel alive.
Of course, Condon's Kate is a different sort of performance from her youthful Victoria in Unleashed. But like all great character actors, Condon can disappear and convey a universe of feelings through the specificities of her varying shells. Recognition for her talents is far overdue. As F1 roars into oversize IMAX theaters banking on the star power of its men, it's quite the left turn that the movie's under-promoted female lead is the real hero.
esquire
