Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman Page #9

The Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais

is going to do something

nobody's done before...

four straight champ car titles.

Will we ever see Paul Newman

or another racing film

like "Winning"

maybe again some day?

I've been looking for a script,

a good script, for 12 years,

and I have not been

able to find one.

I was determined, even though

it was an animated film

with cars as the characters.

But I wanted it to be authentic.

I wanted the racing to be authentic.

I wanted the pit

stops to be authentic.

As they talk about the racing,

I wanted it to be authentic.

I've always been

a big Paul Newman fan,

But also, I was very aware

that he was really

quite a talented race car driver.

And we started thinking,

"I wonder if Paul Newman

would be willing to do

a voice in our film."

If I want him out of my court room,

I want him out of our town.

I mean, this is like

shooting for the moon.

I mean, Paul Newman,

the greatest American actor.

You know, I'm always like,

"well, let's give it a try.

I mean, the worst

is he'll say 'no.'"

And soon after that,

we got the word that, yes,

he would love to do this.

He's really smart,

and what he loved about it

was the history.

And we started talking

about the Hudson 1,

And he started giving me

his knowledge and memory of it,

and how it influenced

modern cars and so on.

One of the great things

about Paul Newman

is his knowledge of racing.

And his knowledge of racing

helped make the character

of Doc Hudson in "Cars"

a much deeper

and much more complex character.

- Look at those trophies!

- You look,

all I see is a bunch

of empty cups.

There's just a quality when he

gets into the joy of racing.

There's words he uses,

phrases he uses.

And if you watch Doc Hudson

in "Cars," it's Paul.

All right, you can drive

as good as you can fix a road.

He's getting excited

with Lightning McQueen

On the track in the final race,

and he just goes, "hot snot!

We're back in business!"

hot snot!

We are back in business.

That was so funny,

and it was pure him.

We had the scene

where he is teaching

Lighting McQueen to drive on dirt,

and as I talked to these

guys who drive on dirt,

there's a term they use,

which we loved,

is that you turn right to go left.

If you're going hard enough left,

You'll find

yourself turning right.

He says, "no, you don't just

turn right to go left.

If you just turn the wheel,

you're gonna go that direction.

You got to break it loose,

and then you start steering

into the turn."

And he really was defining it,

and if you watch the movie,

That's exactly

what Doc Hudson says.

You got to pitch it hard,

break it loose,

and just drive it with the throttle.

And it's great,

'cause Autoweek Magazine

called it the best car movie ever

because of all the details

and how we got it right.

And that is in great part

to Paul Newman, and,

You know, what he gave to us.

And he knew we were striving

to be authentic.

And he was there for us

and shared his

enthusiasm for racing,

his passion for racing,

his knowledge of racing.

And he wanted that in the

movie, and it's there.

You got a lot of stuff, kid.

We got this for Paul Newman.

We wish him very good luck

and many more races.

It's gonna be very hard to quit,

but, at some point,

you lose your endurance.

Boy, in the middle of July,

and it's 130,

140 degrees in that car...

I'll tell you, it takes it

out of you pretty quickly.

He semi-retired, and he bought

one of our Nissan turbo cars.

He was, at that point,

ready to do Tuesdays

at Lime Rock for fun.

Well, he had so much fun

doing that

that he decided

to race it seriously.

I said, "well, Paul,

if you want to race a lot,

why don't you

buy a ex-Trans-Am car?"

It's a Trans-Am tried car,

two-year frame,

a lot of horsepower...

We get around the course

in under a minute.

To know that you've done a lap

where you put everything

together a couple, three,

four times in a row,

that's exciting.

And especially when

you get to be my age,

it's just a privilege

to be able to sit in that car.

His last couple of races were here,

and one of them was in the rain.

And he was just brilliant.

I mean, he was 82.

The car number was his age.

Paul ran against a whole bunch

of Trans-Am quality drivers

and beat them.

That was the last car he raced.

So, Paul ran up until he was 83.

I think the fact that he

made something of himself

when the odds

seemed to be against it

is an outstanding feat.

He was very specific

on what he wanted to do in life,

and this was a big part of it.

He excelled at acting,

very good at racing,

and an all-around decent guy.

I mean, it's that classic

red-blooded American boy

who tried hard and didn't,

you know, always try to have

the spotlight on himself.

But then when he won,

it was "oh, he won this on his own."

Whoo!

He just had

this magnificent quality,

you know, as a human being.

As a human being,

he was a terrific, terrific man.

Paul's legacy

really is all the charities

and all the cancer kids

and the wonderful things

that he supported.

You know, Paul sprinkled

his winnings and success

and profits from his food company

all around the world

to help a lot of deserved people

that wouldn't have

been helped otherwise.

I know that for him, you know,

one of his happiest moments

was when he'd go to the camp

in Connecticut, and he built

himself a little cabin

on the property,

and he could go and hide out.

And the kids had no clue

who he was,

and that's all it was about for him.

I knew he was sick,

but for some reason,

I just never felt that anything

could happen to Paul.

The last race that he came to,

he made an effort to, like,

sit down and just have a chat.

He kept staring at me

in the eyes, you know.

I'll never forget that.

You know, there was

something like a premonition,

like he thought, "this is gonna

be our last conversation."

He made a special trip up here.

He was gonna drive

a few last laps.

The track was closed that day.

But he was too weak for that.

He sat in the back seat

of a station wagon

and was driven around.

He knew that was gonna

be his last trip up here

and it meant a lot him

to come to this place

where everything had started.

He didn't want to have

any visitors at the hospital.

In his last days, you know,

I'd have liked

to have gone and seen him,

but he didn't want that.

I don't think he wanted

anyone to show any pity.

I think he had certain disdain

for that.

I certainly remember my moments,

and they were always precious.

I think about him often.

I spent 15 weekends a year

with the man for 20 years,

so I knew him pretty well.

He was a very special guy,

and I was very privileged

to have known him

and been in his life

a little bit, you know?

Paul was a unique human being.

It was a thrill

to call him a friend.

He was an unbelievably humble guy,

who had a lot of great ability...

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