What’s fantastic is that film is an emotional medium. It inspires your audience to think about themselves and their country and the world, but we get to wrap this in this wonderful character in this backdrop of NASCAR Nation. Not only do you get your electricity and the smoke show, which everybody loves–the sound and the fury of NASCAR–but it wasn’t about the seven Winston Cups and the dramatic death. It was about Dale, the man, this dynamic, complex, intelligent, crazy, whiskey-in-the-tea kind of guy who just raced through life at his own pace they said generally was 180 miles an hour.
With the NASCAR Nation, he’s theirs.
He’s an American legend.
For me, I think the most intoxicating part was that I was immediately infected with the NASCAR bug as soon as I went to a big race.
In Turns 1 and 2, you’re hanging off the chain-link fence watching these wrecks and you see smoke off these cars and they’re hammering each other at 180 miles an hour. You understand why people are so in love with NASCAR.
I drive way too fast and I’m due for a ticket here.(1) I got pulled over by the sheriff and it was only because he recognized me from “Saving Private Ryan” that he was gracious enough to give me a warning. I have a lead foot, brother.
Both films,(2) there was a mountain of research to be done. But physically, Roger was a powerhouse, so bodybuilding and baseball training were a gut-wrenching few months. You realize right away that gaining 30 pounds and hitting home runs is going to be a painful process.
When I got to Charlotte and started my race school at Lowe’s Motor Speedway, I instantly had a profound respect for the athleticism of these competitive drivers and the shape that they’re in. That was one of the things that I didn’t have an intimate understanding of. I mean, I could barely get out of the car after the third day, I was in so much pain.
I’d never worn prosthetics before, and in that heat in Charlotte, you’d have noses melting off your face and mustaches coming unglued and wigs that wouldn’t fit.
I think the similarities between Earnhardt and Maris is that they were both very simple men. They were both very grassroots. I think Dale had a very different experience with the media than Roger did.
I’ve done every blue-collar job you can imagine. That’s one of the reasons I identified with Dale. I drove forklift at a masonry yard, so I was carrying around these massive, $2,000 sheets of marble that were going to be turned into table tops and counter tops. I remember busting a few one day and wondering if that was going to come out of my paycheck.
My mother and father started building a sailboat in their backyard in 1965 and we launched it in ’70 and then spent the next five years sailing to the South Pacific islands and then we returned home to Canada and built a farm.
It was an interesting way to grow up. It was very minimalist, very eye-opening for three young boys to be exposed to all those different races and religions and languages and lifestyle. That was a wonderful gift that they gave us.
I think that was what ultimately gave me the courage to get involved in this industry because we’re like gypsies.
I feel I have blossomed into an actor that I can actually look in the mirror each morning and say, “You’re not full of it, Pepper. You have an ability and you’re starting to learn how to use it.” I feel much more content with my craft now than I ever have.
1: In Texas, where he is working on a new movie.
2: “3” and “61*,” where he portrayed Roger Maris.
