If you’re 40, still glued to gaming and getting it in the ear from the missus, just tell her about our good friend Jann Mardenborough. Jann turned his computer craze into reality, as in, he actually got out onto the track for real. The former remote fantasy racer racked up over 8,000 hours of PlayStation practice that forged a racing career so fucking incredible it got Orlando Bloom out of bed in the morning.
Hollywood doesn’t come easy. I mean, Jann had a proper fucking hardcore penchant for Gran Turismo, and why not? It’s the best selling video game franchise under the PlayStation brand of all time. Since its release in 1997, over 90 million units have been sold worldwide. Yep; decent.
As a working class gamer, Jann spent an average of two hours a day for eleven years on the virtual track, winning the Nissan Playstation GT Academy competition that earned him a drive in the Dubai 24 Hour. This unveiled his astonishing ability to be able to transfer the skills he put to use in the bedroom onto the real-life racetrack almost effortlessly. Jann was so good, Sony Pictures made a movie about him. But how the fuck did he actually do it? Had to ask and all that…
“The PlayStation certainly helped prep me for success, although I am blessed with great eyesight and hand-eye coordination,” says Jann. I can tell he’s still feeling fresh from Netflix stardom after topping the charts with Gran Turismo. For those who’ve not seen it, Orlando Bloom starred in the biopic that detailed Jann’s transition from joystick junkie to someone who actually made it on the outside.
“I inherently love speed and dangerous things,” he says. “The PlayStation helped to refine those gifts into skills that can be transferred into a racing car. Not only that, gaming taught me repetition.” Yeah, you’re not kidding mate. I’m off my head thinking what I could get done in 8,000 hours, before I realise his accomplishment probably warrants the time spent twiddling his thumbs. Jann is vanilla in an extreme way. He’s focused, razor sharp and unwavering when it comes down to details.
“I had five months of training and racing in the UK with my mentors to prepare for the Dubai 24 Hour, he says. “It was a jam-packed time, but I managed to squeeze in the New York Marathon too.”
Jann finished third in class on debut and in 2013, he competed at Le Mans for the very first time, scoring a third in the LMP2 class at the end of the 24-hour race with Lucas Ordonez and Michael Krumm. Mardenborough also competed in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship.
“F3 was unexpected,” he says. “In October 2012, I received news that Darren Cox would like me to sample an F3 in testing. My sponsor at the time wasn’t involved in Formula cars, so I was confused as to why I was going down this route. I sucked at it initially, but F3 increased my learning curve dramatically. It was the most difficult part of my career, but I’m grateful I went through it as it defined me. Physically, it was the most demanding car I’ve ever raced. The weight of the wheel forced me to up my game significantly.
“As it happens, the B-Max racing team Formula 3 car from Japanese F3 in 2016 was my favorite car to drive. F3 clicked for me at that period. I had a great year, and the car is like a butterfly, very light, dynamic and agile.”
“When I first got the call from Hollywood telling me they wanted to make a move about my life, I didn’t believe it,” he says. “I feel very blessed to have been given the chance to tell my story to a worldwide audience. Working with Orlando Bloom and so many other incredibly talented actors was an unforgettable experience. It fascinated me to see how they all operate before they perform. Just like drivers, they all prepare in their own unique ways. They’re massively talented human beings.
“The other stunt drivers in the movie are all active or ex-racing drivers, so everything we did they’d already experienced in real life- apart from crashing intentionally into each other or walls! We did practice our moves as a group using tiny matchbox cars though.”
Reckon you’ve got what it takes to beat Jann on the PlayStation? Let us know and we’ll get him out to play!
@jannthaman https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/ZSAHu2rjDL
