ANTRON
BROWN
Limits, in which A-list actor Idris Elba learned
to drive a Super Comp dragster. The 2015 show
aired in 220 countries on Discovery UK before
reaching U.S. audiences the following year during
Discovery’s hugely popular Shark Week.
When BBC decided to launch a new version
of Top Gear America on its American channel,
the network’s casting directors went looking for
hosts for the show. They wanted personalities
with star power, but also an obvious knowledge
of the cars they would be driving and discussing
on the show. As it turned out, Brown is just the
kind of guy they were looking for.
“I got a phone call one day and it was actually
the casting director,” Brown recalls. He said he
had seen Brown’s work in other television ap-
pearances and asked him to send in an audition
tape for the reincarnation of Top Gear America.
“I was like, ‘OK, I’m familiar with Top Gear.’ I
watch it, especially the U.K. version with Jeremy
Clarkson, (Richard) Hammond and the boys. I
August 2017
TOP FUEL TO TOP GEAR
Brown’s playful personality and immense
knowledge of all things automotive made
him a perfect addition to the trio of hosts
of the new Top Gear America. Along with
actor William Fichtner and motoring
journalist Tom “Wookie” Ford, Brown
filmed the eight-episode series earlier this
season on top of his racing schedule.
was a big fan of it.”
Brown was not, however, a big fan—at least
initially—of the idea of joining a show with a
notoriously critical viewer base. “It was kind of
nerve wracking at first because Top Gear has a lot
of critics. You have some people who love it and
some people who hate it. But if you love cars, you
love any car show, and I’m a car lover. I grew up
around cars, old-school hot rods and stuff of that
nature, and race cars, of course—and motorcycles.”
Brown’s audition tape proved he was a natural
fit for the position, but the show’s directors want-
ed to see more. After filming the tape in one take
in his garage, Brown was called back and asked
to fly out to California to work on camera with
the other candidates.
“They said, ‘We like you and you’re going to be
one of the frontrunners, but you have to come
do a cam test.’ I
get to the cam test
and I’m like, ‘I’m
not a frontrunner!
There’s like 30
people here!’ And
they went through
hundreds of peo-
ple already. I did
the cam test and I
wasn’t sure how it
would go. I did a
couple skits with a
couple people and
it was all right. It
was cool, but I
was like, ‘I don’t
know if this is me.’
I’m this easygoing
person and I’m
used to working
on a team, and a lot of these people I was sit-
ting down with, they were all about themselves.
But then I lined up with William Fichtner and
Tom Ford, who we call ‘Wookie.’ We had a mu-
tual respect and we had a love of cars, but we
understood how a team works. We made each
other better.”
Brown, Fichtner and Ford did a segment on an
old Jaguar together, cracking jokes and playing off
each other with the rhythm of three old friends.
Their chemistry was obvious to producers and
the other personalities on set. “The coolest part
was when I saw the other people who were trying
to get on the show, they looked at us and they
got quiet. They saw the way Bill, Wookie and I
interacted on camera and they were like, ‘Damn,
those three are good.’”
Without the team bond that he found in this
new power trio, Brown might not have continued
to pursue the opportunity to be a major player
on the hit international program.
“I told the producers, honestly, I don’t know if
this is for me,” Brown says of his first impression.
“The people that I talked with before I met Bill
and Tom, I was like, ‘Nah, I’m good.’ Because I
can’t do something I don’t believe in. I’m not
going to do it just to do it because it’s TV. I already
have a job. I already have something I do that I
love. But I thought it would be cool because I
could cut up and act like a clown and talk about
cars. That’s an awesome job! After I worked with
Bill and Tom, I was like, this is going to work. This
could be awesome. The producers called me back
two weeks later and told me I got the job. So we
were off to the races.”
The new gig adds a layer of complexity to
Brown’s calendar, which already was packed full
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