The TV series Game of Thrones has attracted record numbers of viewers on HBO and attained an exceptionally broad and active international fan base. It has received widespread acclaim by critics, particularly for its acting, complex characters, story, scope and production values, also becoming the most downloaded TV show of all time. We are lucky enough to sit down with one of the stars from Game of Thrones, Liam Cunningham, who calls himself a Formula 1 geek and has now become a solid ambassador of the sport.
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Liam, you’re almost a regular at Formula 1 races. Tell us more about your fascination with the sport.
It probably started before you were born. I used to watch Nico’s dad racing, it was the times of Keke Rosberg and Alan Jones. I’m not a big fan of ball games. I love the World Cup and the Olympics, but don’t tell me about football and similar stuff – I really don’t have much concern for it. But I respect the idea of a team event, I also admire the technologies and the fact that racing is really interesting in itself.
There was a time when I grew up and matured, I used to have another job then, and kind of dreamed to do two things: either be a racing driver or an actor, which is usually considered a stupid teenage thing to think about. I couldn’t afford to race, acting was much cheaper. So I sort of became an actor because of that, didn’t have the money to raise and I had no rich daddy. But I loved it and then I was very, very fortunate to do a movie which had a royal premiere and I was introduced to none other than Bernie Ecclestone by the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson. She was in the charity with Bernie and she said there’s a man you should meet, a guy called Bernie Ecclestone. I went ‘what?!’, spent a little time with Bernie and he, God bless that man, literally got a napkin, wrote his number down, and said ”any Grand Prix”, because I had never been to such a race. So I was invited to my first Grand Prix by Mr Ecclestone. Yes, I’m a very lucky man.
Eventually, when I started poking my nose into the paddock, I saw an absolutely different, interesting side of racing: the politics, the people, the teams and especially the intrigue. It’s like a modern soap opera in the best possible sense. I met Eddie Jordan, and he became a friend of mine – we’ve been buddies for nearly 20 years now. I’ve just been one of those lucky idiots who fell on their feet and got to be so close to the sport that they cherish.
At a time when Formula 1 is losing its global audience, there are still people like you who are regulars despite that, with full enthusiasm and admiration for the sport. And you’re somebody who has been deeply interested in it and followed it long enough. How would you convince fans worldwide that this is the ultimate drama/entertainment or reinstate their interest in the thrills of it?
The thing is, when you see something like NASCAR, where everybody has the same engines and the same cars, they perform very similarly. At the same time, there’s a bit of agricultural engineering that goes into NASCAR cars, and there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s fantastic entertainment. But that’s not what Formula 1 is about. Formula 1 is at the pinnacle of motorsports for a reason. It is about advantages. It saves lives because there’s stuff in the cars like ABS, traction control, the magnificent suspensions. All of that has come from the research and development of race cars onto the road cars, and we all benefit from it. However, the idea is that the best professionals come up with the best ideas and get those ideas to work in cars. That’s how advantage is gained here. So the problem is when you’ve got somebody like Mercedes for the last couple of years – they have got such a large advantage. It can sometimes take away the entertainment value of it all, and fewer people will watch it, but that’s just human nature – it will pass.
But that hasn’t stopped somebody like you from coming to GPs with equal enthusiasm every time.
Well, I know what it is, I get it. I kind of understand that it is a temporary thing for Mercedes. Even as the season progressed, Ferrari has been catching up. Next year the Mercedes team is surely going to have a tougher time. I feel sorry for McLaren, they just rolled a dice – a truly expensive dice – on a car that just didn’t come together in the end. But it just shows you how far they are pushing technology – it can be magnificent like Mercedes or a temporary disaster like McLaren. Therefore it’s difficult for Bernie, the ringmaster, to find the right balance. I mean they can all have the same engines and paint them with different colours, but then it would just be an open-wheeled NASCAR. And that’s not the way big manufacturers are going to get involved and put huge amounts of money into it. I know exactly what you’re saying – the audience might not see this complex side of the affairs.
The best circuit you have been to so far is…
I used to visit about five a year, but have been busy for the last few years. So I always try to do Monaco. I bet to meet friends out there. I go to the Cannes film festival and then I come down for the Grand Prix. Monaco obviously is the jewel in the crown of the sport – every time I come there and I hear the cars going, it just puts a ridiculous smile on my face. I feel like I’m in a movie, it’s very strange – the hair goes up at the back of my neck every time I walk into the paddock. I get gooseflesh. If I lose that sense of excitement, I will stop coming and I will stop watching as well.
I haven’t visited the circuit in Melbourne, which I’d really like to do. Even old cynics claimed Mexico was just amazing this year, so I would love to go there. However, I have a special place in my heart for Montreal. Canada is one of the best races when you had four days of nothing happening, the tension of is it going to rain and all of that. I had fun because it is a semi-street kind of circuit, and Formula 1 takes over the season.
Your favourite team in terms of hospitality in the paddock…
I have to be very careful about how I answer that, that’s a dangerous question! I have two favourites, there’s Force India, because of Jordan. I have watched them change from Midland to Spykar to Force India. And I’ve watched Andy Stevens go from chief mechanic to sporting director. There’s also Red Bull, who have been very good to me, and I think that I feel sorry for them this year that they had such a beautiful car and not a very good engine. That’s going to change, I’m sure. So I have to say I have been spoiled by Force India and Red Bull, but I can’t make a distinction between the two.
I must mention that you’ve stated in a TV interview that Cannes is usually an excuse for you to attend the Monaco Grand Prix.
Correct. I even go to Cannes when I don’t have a film out – I meet some old friends once a year, filmmakers, people who I have worked with before. But I love Monaco so much that twice, not once but twice, I didn’t trade it for Cannes. Here’s what happened. I was in a movie in 2006 that won the Palme d’Or, the big festival prize. I was having a few drinks in a Monaco bar when I got the call saying we won, it felt like winning an Oscar for me. However, I didn’t go back to Cannes – I was with my Formula 1 friends! Two years later, we won the Camera d’Or – the award for best first-time filmmakers – for a movie called Hunger, and at that particular time, I was in the very same bar in Monaco when I got the news.
You can sort of say Formula 1 is my passion, it’s where my heart is. I love my job – I love acting, but once the film is finished, there’s not really anything to do with me.
One sees a lot of celebrities in Formula 1 for various reasons, there a lot of people with loads of money here, some mark it more like a social event on their calendar in order to be spotted here or at a particular GP. As a sincere fan, how do you make your experience different to enjoy it more?
Yes, some people will come along because of Formula 1’s reputation, with its glamour and all that sort of thing. For around 20 years, I’ve managed to stay an actor and have not raised my head above. From time to time people look at me strangely, some of them are probably thinking “I know that guy from somewhere”. This whole Game of Thrones thing has pulled off my mask in a way. For instance, the mechanics of Force India look at me and say “hey Liam, it’s good to have you back”.
I’m even getting strange looks from people that I’ve known for 20 years! They never thought of me as an actor, they just thought of me as this Formula 1 groupie.
If you had to promote this sport to your Game of Thrones fans, what advice would you give them?
I’d tell them “don’t watch a race”. And I have said it to some people. When you’re into this, it’s just cars going around, in horse racing it’s about horses running in a field, and football is 22 people kicking a piece of leather around and then saying “no, no, it’s much more than that”. I’d say Formula 1 is like that as well at first sight. I tell people that if you’re interested and want to find out more – watch qualifying and don’t watch the race. That’s because qualifying is so technical, commentators will tell you who has what tyre choices, who has what engines, who has the biggest budget – there’s a huge amount of background information that helps you enjoy the sport much more.
You’re still filming season 6 of Game of Thrones, and you’ve made it to Abu Dhabi. Was that a break or is it for the love of the sport and the finale that you came there for?
Well, I was really lucky as there are a lot of races that I can’t go to because they clash with my work schedule, and work comes first, I have to feed my children. But this time I had about a week off, so after the Abu Dhabi weekend I went back to Dublin on Tuesday, a couple of days to prepare, rehearsing on Saturday, started filming on Monday, and I will finish on the 17th of December.
How do you convince your directors that you need to take a Formula 1 break?
Actually, that conversation never happens. I get a piece of paper saying when I have work. Game Of Thrones is incredibly difficult to shoot, the scheduling is insane. Regular TV shows have one unit and one crew, almost all of them. At one point we had four crews shooting, while even Hollywood movies sometimes have only two at a time.
We’ve heard season 6 is really going to be mental…
It is bigger, brasher, bolder and weirder. It’s written by the two biggest fans of the books, so they treat the story with great delicacy, grace and with a tremendous amount of love. So we’re in safe hands. Kind of.
Have you ever managed to convert anyone in the cast or crew into a fan of this sport?
Yes, some of them are into it. There is a possibility that when the next Formula 1 season starts, we might be able to bring some people from the show for 2 or 3 races.
Have you able to convert at least one person into a proper Formula 1 fan?
Unfortunately, no, and I don’t think that’s how it works. I believe Formula 1 has to be discovered on your own. Because it’s not just the top layer of noisy four-wheel motor cars going around on the tarmac, nor is it’s about huge amounts of money. I think for those who could be interested in the sport, it’d be useful to look into why somebody like Honda is here and is struggling, why Renault is struggling, why Mercedes is beating the crap out of everybody. The people in Formula 1 are here for a reason.
My fellow actors on the show are extremely jealous of this passion. They may not watch the races regularly, but they know the reputation of Formula 1, they have an idea about the glamour. So when they hear I’m going to Monaco, usually quite a few of them say “oh, you’re lucky”. I think they would really love to go, even for the entertaining event if not for the sport.
I simply must ask who is your favourite driver.
I have loads of favourites, it’s like asking who is your favourite actor – I have favourite performances of actors, some you would have heard of and some you wouldn’t. For example, a guy like Tom Cruise does a lot of crowd-pleasing films, but occasionally he throws a performance where you’ll go “wow, that’s really good”.
I loved the way Nigel Mansell drove with Nelson Piquet, he was a real fighter in the Ferrari, he would just never give up. They called him the British Lion. When you look at Lewis this year, he had a similar instinct as well. Nico had the same equipment and he’s beautifully smooth and great to watch driving a car. But Lewis is a killer, he was a shark this year, and you could see that when Nico got really annoyed towards the end.
Obviously, Michael Schumacher is another favourite, he was simply the king, a phenomenon, a force of nature and an extraordinary individual. I’m still heartbroken over what happened to him and even Jules for that matter. It’s terrible, but they’re always has to be an element of danger to the sport, and the drivers know that.
At the moment, Kimi is probably my favourite. He’s old style, old school, the real deal. He still feels like one of us, not a corporate man, I really like that.
And look at young Max (Verstappen)! I have a hunch that it’s not going to be long before he’s in Red Bull, that is if Ferrari won’t pay a huge amount of money to grab him first. Michael was over 40 when he stopped, so that gives Max at least 20 years of driving a Formula 1 car. He’s so hungry, he’s like a rabid dog on the track. That’s absolutely fantastic. I’d bet that he’s going to get a World Championship at least once.
As for Kimi, we all keep discussing whether he still has it in him or not.
Statistically, on paper, Vettel looks like the superior driver. But the gaps between them are tiny, they are probably smaller than the gaps between Lewis and Nico. It’s that little thing that you can’t buy that matters, it’s the thing that Lewis has this year: it’s confidence when you know you’re in the best car, you know you can push it a tiny bit more, and you know that this is what gives you the edge when you’re looking for half a tenth with some very expensive equipment.
There has been Formula 1 in Ireland in the years of Grand Prix racing (Phoenix Park 1929, 1930, 1931). It was called the Irish International Grand Prix. As an Irish motorsport fan shooting the most popular show in the world in Ireland, do you think Formula 1 should return to your home country?
Bernie had a team that used to race in Phoenix Park, but it wasn’t called Formula 1 back then. I don’t know, it’s so expensive, and I don’t think a smaller country can afford a big Formula 1 race. It’s quite funny with the sudden drop in European races – I’m not sure Europe is a priority any more for Bernie. Let me put it this way – I wouldn’t hold my breath for an Irish GP, but I would love it if they’d let me drive the safety car.
What’s your take on Irish drivers in Formula 1 so far?
Derek Daly, Eddie Irvine and who else have we got… Martin Donnelly. I mean Eddie was a serious driver, he was fantastic, Donnelly too, until his awful accident. He was lucky to survive it, and I remember seeing the photographs at that time, thinking “how can anybody survive something like that?” I suppose the most accomplished one was Eddie, and he gave Michael a good run for his money in the Ferrari. An Irish man in a Ferrari, I like the sound of that.
Game of Thrones off-season or Formula 1 off-season – which one gets you more restless?
There are so much travelling and publicity to do in the off-season when I’m not filming, it all just takes up a lot of precious time. The Formula 1 off-season is so short now, with 2016 being 21-races-long, which I’m sure the teams are happy about. I’m interested in what developments they are going to be making on the car, what upgrades they have for next year. Obviously, I’m not satisfied with the sound of the cars. It’s a shame that they have to do something cosmetic to tweak the sound of the car. It’s pure heaven to listen to the GP2 cars when they go by. The sound was one of the main attractions when I first came to a race. The first time I heard a Formula 1 car, I said “you have got to be kidding me”, that just put a huge smile on my face. They sounded like wild animals before and now they sound too tame. Technology has turned a lion into a pussy cat.
The ending of season 5 of Game of Thrones has led to a lot of speculation, there was a certain cliffhanger to the show and even the books. Do you find it odd when people try to squeeze a line or two on that from you at a Formula 1 event?
When I attended Silverstone and Monaco, the season was already airing, but the big stuff hadn’t happened. Now I’m grabbed immediately and people are quizzing me. Each one of them goes “look, I have one question – the Jon Snow question”. Even Barack Obama said that to the directors of the show. And if they are not going to tell the President of the United States of America, I’m not going to tell anyone either (laughs).
After that impressive ending in season 5, playing it low-key must be difficult, especially today, when anything and everything goes viral. How do you manage it?
I wish it was low-key… When I entered the Abu Dhabi circuit, I kept my phone on silent. But in five minutes Twitter was like “Davos Seaworth is in Force India” – they don’t even call me by my real name… Somebody even put up “Westeros has come to Abu Dhabi” and then the Jon Snow questions were all over the place. I’ve read all the scripts of the show and I know exactly what’s going to happen. Some people ask about it, others don’t like to know. It was actually very funny and interesting to witness all these reactions.
It would be awful and stupid of me to spoil anything. Thankfully, not even large, very large sums of money, not even Bernie’s wallet could get it out of me.
