Brad Pitt said that making F1 came down to waiting for the perfect time. For years, he’s wanted to do a racing project, but it didn’t happen until now.

The star of F1 told Trey Mangum, Blavity/Shadow and Act Managing Editor, that creating the film was all about trusting when the moment was right to dive into a project like this.

“I just gotta trust timing, you know,” he said. “I’m so grateful. I mean, for two decades, I’ve been trying to do [a film like this], whether it was on motorcycles or cars…I’ve tried everything and, for whatever reason, it never came to fruition. Then one day, I get this call from Joe [Joseph Kosinski], who’s got this crazy idea. And I’m so glad because we got to do something that’s never been done before.”

Brad Pitt explains how timing and passion aligned to create ‘F1’

He added that they were able to spend “a year and a half with the sport that I love so much.”

Kosinski’s goal, according to Pitt, was to “make the most visceral, experiential kind of racing movie we’ve seen to date.”

“To do that, to put actors in real cars on a real tracks [and] embed us in the season, you really feel the [G] forces that these guys are pulling,” Pitt said.

What to know about Pitt’s role in ‘F1’ and the film’s story

Pitt plays a once-promising Formula 1 racer who finally has one last shot at redemption. The film also stars Damson Idris, Javier Bardem, Kerry Condon, Tobias Menzies and Sarah Niles.

According to the official description:

Dubbed “the greatest that never was,” Sonny Hayes (Pitt) was FORMULA 1’s most promising phenom of the 1990s until an accident on the track nearly ended his career.  Thirty years later, he’s a nomadic racer-for-hire when he’s approached by his former teammate Ruben Cervantes (Bardem), owner of a struggling FORMULA 1 team that is on the verge of collapse.  Ruben convinces Sonny to come back to FORMULA 1 for one last shot at saving the team and being the best in the world.  He’ll drive alongside Joshua Pearce (Idris), the team’s hotshot rookie intent on setting his own pace.  But as the engines roar, Sonny’s past catches up with him and he finds that in FORMULA 1, your teammate is your fiercest competition—and the road to redemption is not something you can travel alone.

F1 is in theaters next week.