Actor and pilot Patrick Dempsey’s latest assignment, Hurley, of which he is executive producer, had its premiere at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles last week. and it turns out to be an ideal place for a movie about the mythical driving force of sports car racing Hurley Haywood. The audience was fascinated by the documentary, alternately funny and tragic. Writer-director Derek Dodge, Dempsey and Haywood himself took to the level to talk about the genesis of the film and its importance to each of them personally. Dodge was the first to be encouraged to create the task using archival footage and exclusive interviews to remove the darkness of this iconic figure’s adventure in the world of permanence power races. Dempsey was quick to offer his own to execute the vision.
Known as the luckiest car racing driver in the world, Hurley Haywood has had a career spanning more than 43 years. He has won the 24 Hours of Daytona five times, three-time winner of Le Mans and Trans-Soy champion. Throughout his industry-leading motorsport career, Haywood has been respected as an achievement. His good fortune in the hypermasculine game left no room for his personal life. It wasn’t until February 2018; that Haywood would be homosexual in his autobiography, Hurley: From the Beginning.
Hurley also explores the mentor-like friendship between Hurley and star running back Peter Gregg, nicknamed “Peter Perfect. “Gregg struggled against his own pressures and, like Hurley, didn’t seem to feel he could speak openly about his struggles. Gregg tragically committed suicide in 1980. Although Gregg and Haywood’s stories differ, the common thread is a continuous struggle for their images of perfection. The film encourages the audience to get ahead if they are going through difficulties of any kind.
I spoke with Patrick Dempsey about his interest in helping create Hurley, what he learned from the experience, and what he hopes audiences will get out of it.
Risa Sarachan: When did you first meet Hurley and what did his role in racing mean to you as a driver?
Patrick Dempsey: Oh, I’ve known Hurley for many years. In fact, he is a legend in motorsport through his achievements and skills. When I started running very early, he approached me and gave me good advice. . He’s been wonderful in the paddock. You’d hear the rumors, but no one really talked about them. It was actually “fine, so this is her private life and we’re going to leave her there. “
It wasn’t until 2014 that Derek Dodge, our director, was at Le Mans. I brought him in to film things for my social media crew, and at that point he came up to me and asked, “Do you think Hurley would ever tell me his story?”I say, “I don’t know, it’s up to him, but I can do some introductions and see if there’s anything he’d like to do. “
That’s how it started. Once we started, I looked to be supportive and make sure Derek had the equipment he needed to finish the film and that we had the context within the racing network and all that before we started. So it’s been about four or five years. now. Hurley has been a great friend and mentor to me as a man and also as a driver. In fact, there is an intoxicating elegance and strength in it.
Sarachan: Do you think the world of permanence-power sports car racing fosters a form of poisonous masculinity?Do you think that’s replaced since Hurley ran?
Dempsey: I think you have to take a look at the time and position because you’re in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. Now the global is absolutely different. The global is another from where we started to do this project. There are many positive and negative things we face in the global. But the racing community, the drivers, the teams, Porsche, all have incredibly supported this procedure and, in fact, Hurley as Good.
Sarachan: This film had a sensitivity to Hurley’s exit course, but also to intellectual fitness: the discussion about the suicide of Hurley’s running mate, Peter Gregg. What do you want the audience to walk away from after learning Peter’s story?
Dempsey: yes, I mean it’s almost like two stories unfold simultaneously. There are 3 narrative arcs that we had to balance structurally, which took us a while to tell stories from Hurley’s attitude and also what is the intellectual side of that. I think you know, we’re seeing more intellectual diseases diagnosed in the past now. If it had been another time, I think Peter would have been diagnosed and would have been somewhere else. I think that’s what comes out of it. It’s a time capsule of a moment in time with those two men who had those incredible obstacles that they had to overcome. Through motorsport and through this community, they focused their talents and brought out the most productive in themselves as an organization and as a group. team. That legacy continues.
Sarachan: With Hurley and Peter Gregg, we hear other people say how blessed they have been. They were attractive, wealthy and probably popular with the opposite sex. What do you think it says more deeply about our culture than we take a look at those superficial ones?What do you think we want to do differently?
Dempsey: Yeah, I think going back to why Hurley is such an attractive person, he has a soul. He has deep roots. I believe that with the society, he is considered to be more of a wonderful value. If you have a big space or you have that kind of lifestyle that was promoted with fame and a big mansion, you will be happy. This is not necessarily true. I think the less you have, the more inner riches you have sometimes. I think we understand that having a lot of possessions will make you happy, but it doesn’t, it just makes you feel much more dissatisfied at the end of the day. And then you have to ask yourself, “what is genuine wealth?” I believe that genuine wealth is intellectual stability. This is the message that we really want to convey to our youth on those days. We find that in our society, with a capitalist society that’s going badly, you’re going to have to have constant expansion every quarter and you’re going to have to keep selling and buying. It affects our planet. We no longer have the capacity to absorb this. I think on an intellectual level, you see more and more other people taking medication because they don’t find the answer that way anymore. I think there’s a wonderful line in there when Hurley says “racing is a great sacrifice to your private life. ” There is a sacrifice to be wonderful. It weighs heavily on his family circle and I see that in all the riders in the paddock because they travel as much as they do, it’s their hobby and their job. To do something like that you have to sacrifice and anything has to give. You see this time and time back with relationships in anything that requires so much movement and focus. To him, it was all the more true that he had no right to share those moments of triumph with his mate. They were literally behind a fence. We want fewer fences in the world, to be fair to you.
Sarachan: What did you say about Hurley while working on this film that will stay with you?
Dempsey: Your story is anything you actually kept to yourself. Her private life was her private life, so it was wonderful to see her go out with her husband Stephen and how close they are, how much they love and feed each other. Each other and how well they perceive each other. It was a wonderful thing for me. To me, Hurley has been an extraordinary man. It’s really anything, not just on the track, but also off the track because of the way it is driven. He is very humble and kind. He is very appreciable with his advice. It’s simply a notable user to be close to. He’s a star. He has a glorious presence around him.
I think what I’ve enjoyed about this game is the humanity behind it. Teamwork, effort and companionship. Throughout this process, we have not yet received help from the racing network through archives, brands and other drivers and teams. It’s really cool to see that. I think it’s a genuine lesson that we need to learn from what we want in our society right now, it’s a lot more understanding, generosity and empathy. We want less judgment, less anger from other people who are afraid and act irrationally. That is not what we want.
Hurley will be available on EST/VOD on March 26
This interview has been edited and summarized for clarity.