The Summer of Sarah Niles: ‘F1’ Star on the “Theater” of Racing and Tom Cruise’s Reaction: He Was “on the Edge of His Seat”

It’s the summer of Sarah Niles, it seems.

The English star is talking to The Hollywood Reporter from New York, where she just premiered Heads of State, starring Idris Elba and John Cena. “Everybody was just so pumped for it,” she says of Ilya Naishuller’s imminent action comedy, set to debut on Amazon Prime on July 2.

But this isn’t the project Niles is here to discuss — and it’s not her role in the hotly anticipated Fantastic Four: First Steps, either. The actress, perhaps best known to audiences as Ted Lasso‘s Dr. Sharon Fieldstone, is doing press for the Brad Pitt-led F1 movie, the high-octane, high-budget sport thriller currently dominating the U.S. and global box office.

“I can’t really complain,” she says of her jam-packed calendar. “I’ve had these films coming out and the excitement around them… I’m living the dream.”

In F1 — filmed at real-life Formula One races across the 2024 season — Niles stars as the gentle and wise Bernadette. Mother to Pitt’s co-star Damson Idris, playing Joshua Pearce, her role is a welcome break from the thrilling, nail-biting speed of a movie dedicated to emphasizing the sport’s extremes.

Sonny Hayes (Pitt) joins Javier Bardem’s APXGP, a flailing F1 team whose survival depends on one small feat: winning a race. When driver-turned-businessman Ruben Cervantes (Bardem) calls in a favor to his former teammate, all eyes are on Hayes to deliver.

There are, of course, the hurdles: a “shitbox” car not performing as technical director Kate McKenna (Kerry Condon) would like it to, a promising but immature young driver (Idris) defiantly working against, and not with, his teammate, as well as a board that wants to cut its losses and sell up before APXGP loses any more money. The film hits all the right story beats while delivering on the rip-roaring action sequences.

“I don’t know how they managed to capture F1, but they did,” Niles says of the team-up between director Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick) and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. “I was a bit worried about people going, especially hardcore fans. [I thought], ‘Are they really going to like this?’”

Her fears went unrealized. Below, Niles talks to THR about seeing Pitt and Idris in painstaking rehearsal mode, understanding her character with the help of seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton and sitting behind Tom Cruise at the film’s gargantuan London premiere: “I thought, ‘If Tom Cruise is on the edge of his seat, you know you’ve got a winner here.’”

You must be a busy woman right now.

I am. I can’t really complain. It’s a wonderful place to be in. I’ve had these films coming out and the excitement around them… [I’m] living the dream.

Were you an F1 fan before this movie came into your life?

No, I wasn’t! When I was growing up, it used to be on sometimes on a Saturday and I could hear the cars going. [But] I didn’t know anything about the sport. I didn’t think it was for me. And I love sports, so when I went for the audition, my manager was like, “It’s called F1 and Brad Pitt’s attached.” That was all the information, and possibly there’s a character that may have one scene. I was like, “OK.” When I got the scenes to audition for, I met with [director] Joe Kosinksi and [producer] Jerry [Bruckheimer]. And Jerry said to me, “You need to watch Drive to Survive.”

What was your immediate reaction to DTS?

I was blown away. I love the fast pace of it. You get the snippets of their dedication and what they put their bodies through to be the best they can be. It’s just fascinating. It’s got so much fire in it, drama. And the film, you’re on the edge of your seat.

It’s a thrilling watch. At the same time, you have one of the softest and more gentle characters to balance that out. What was it you liked about Bernadette?

I approached it as it was. I was like, “OK, she’s playing a mum.” I was in a couple of scenes when I first read the script. Then, when I got in the room and met Joe, I loved his work, I think he’s a brilliant director, having seen Top Gun: Maverick, and then Jerry Bruckheimer… I grew up watching so many of his films. We had a conversation about this character. They had a real understanding of what she was like and the relationship she may have had with [Joshua’s] father. There’s all this background information they had. She’s Caribbean, she works in a medical profession. I was thinking maybe she works as a nurse or something to do with emergencies so she would understand about being in those spaces of trauma. She’d understand how to take care of her son. Then, the relationship with her husband, Joshua’s dad, who passed away, she would understand caring for him… [Kosinski] was very specific about making sure this character wasn’t just, “Oh, I’m a mum and really miserable and worried about my son.” She has agency. You can tell she’s not afraid to put Joshua down. She’s not afraid to tease him. She makes a comment about Sonny being a good-looking man. She’s a bit cheeky.

You have to have this mother who roots things because everything’s high-energy, high-octane. The stress levels and excitement — you have to have something that grounds it to understand where this person comes from. Joshua’s character says, “I climbed a mountain to be here.”

Your performance was described by our THR critic as a standout.

[Smiles.] Yeah. When I read Sonny’s character, and I understood the complexities of this man, then I thought, “OK, I need to be in this.” I need to [show] what the complexities are for the families [of drivers]. As much as it is their sons putting their bodies through it, being dedicated and focused, it’s the families that help to drive you as well. They help to push you. They know you at your lowest point.

Did you speak to some of the drivers or their families?

I was lucky enough to speak to Sir Lewis Hamilton. And from the get-go, Joe was like, “I’m gonna get you to have a conversation with Lewis.” And he sat with me, we talked and Joe left us to it.

Lewis was really open about his upbringing. In my opinion, he’s one of the most successful racers. He’s not only the best driver, he’s the best-dressed. He’s got a whole brand. And him talking about his upbringing and his sacrifices that his dad had to make — financially, he was not part of that world. I was like, these are the things that I can bring into this. I’m not part of that world. I come from a working-class background. But that’s not a limitation. How do you occupy those spaces? Having that really solidified it for me, and gave me so much information for how I could create this character. He was saying his dad was Grenadian… I just thought to myself, “This character has to be Bajan.” My parents are from Barbados, and it’s a very small island. I thought Bernadette has to be coming from a place that’s different to what we usually see.

And there is that significance of Lewis being the first Black F1 driver. We see it with Joshua’s character, too. An element of having to work harder to get here.

Yeah, yeah. And what I love about the way Damson portrays Joshua is time has moved on. At the end he is like, “That’s who I am. I’ve occupied this space. I’m not apologizing for anything. I’m stepping into my power.” But he’s moving with it. He understands where he’s come from, and he’s just going forward. It feels very 2025.

[Lewis] has so much more to achieve as well. He’s really changed the game. Even watching him in Drive to Survive, how he talks about the car, how he’s studying it. When they’re having a debrief about a race, it’s not just about being able to drive a car really fast. You have to strategize. You have to know where you went wrong. Kerry’s character talks about the car: “I’m not out there. I need information from you about what it feels like in order to change and improve it.” They have to know all about that.

Had you met or worked with Damson before this film?

I met Damson once, socially, like just by accident. But I never met him [properly]. He’s got a real drive and focus, and it works really well.

Is he quite similar to Joshua, the character?

No, he’s not. He’s from south London, which I am from as well, and he’s got a real kind of: “This is my time. This is my space. I’m going to just work hard for it.” He and Brad were really going through [it] in rehearsals. I got to watch them race and I think the one time I saw Damson make a mistake, he was just like [drops head]. It meant so much to him to get it right.

What was that like, being privy to Damson and Brad’s relationship off-camera and the immense amount of research they were doing for these roles?

It was great. I met Brad at a read-through. His energy, the way he came up to me and said he loved me and Ted Lasso. He wasn’t afraid to tell me how much he loved the show and loved me in it. That’s how he carried himself. He’s very open. And when you got someone like that as your number one, I told him this at the London premiere. I said: “When your number one cast member is open and kind and wants to do well, everybody wants to follow suit, right?” That’s what you need to have. He’s the captain of the ship and he’s steering it. And then Damson, too… I really had to pinch myself.

What’s it like on a Joseph Kosinski set?

It’s amazing. You’ve got the best of the best, really, when you’ve got, Jerry as a producer [too]. He’s an architect. He understands this is the landscape and how it’s going to be understood by those receiving it. He’s very, very clever.

Is it safe to say you’re an F1 fan now?

Oh, yeah, definitely. 100 percent.

It must have been so difficult to film in parts — at the actual races — did you get to go to any?

I was at [Silverstone, the British Grand Prix]. I was watching behind Joe. He was generous enough to let me sit behind him while he was filming. And you could feel, through to the paddock, the spectators, it’s what you’d imagine ancient Greece was like. It’s theater. Everybody there is high-energy. And I remember watching when they did the national anthem, it’s crazy how they did it. You can see Brad and Damson standing there. There was a moment when the two of them just started walking and they were playing “We Will Rock You.” At that point, I think it was the first or second day I’d been on set, and I hadn’t really filmed anything. I just said, “This film, I can tell, is going to be a hit.”

I don’t how they managed to [capture F1] but they did. I was a bit worried about people, especially hardcore fans. [I thought], “Are they really going to like this?” But [the drivers] really have a dedication to wanting to do it well. Seeing how many laps they do, seeing the turning points, there’s so much in it that they’ve managed to capture about Formula One.

There is, it has been said, this fighter pilot level of bravery in the sport.

And that’s where Joe comes into it. Because when you watch Top Gun: Maverick, you understand the pressures of flying those planes. Then you understand Formula One and the pressures of driving something which could ultimately could kill you.

At the London premiere, I sat behind Tom Cruise. And Tom Cruise was on the edge of the seat from the get-go. He was watching it like this: [leans forward]. Luckily, I’d seen it before so I was able to be a bit more relaxed. But even I found new things in the film I hadn’t realized before. And I thought, “If Tom Cruise is on the edge of his seat, you know you’ve got a winner here.” He’s the ultimate entertainer. He was so cool. He said, “Hey, how you doing?” He said hello to my friends and the people in our row. He was just so at ease.

Can you tell us about your role in Fantastic Four?

You need to go and watch it! I work with the Fantastic Four. It’s a great cast. I can’t wait for people to see it. There’s a lot of heart in this one.

So many blockbusters for you.

Matt Shakman, the director of Fantastic Four, he was like, “This is the summer of Sarah.”

The summer of Sarah Niles!

Yeah. [Laughs.] I gotta go with that.