In ‘Motorheads,’ Michael Cimino taps into his inner speedster

From the moment Michael Cimino heard about “Motorheads,” a new coming-of-age drama set in a small town against the backdrop of street racing, he knew he had to be a part of it. The young actor, best known as the lead in Hulu’s “Love, Victor,” had long been looking for something just like it.

“Literally, since I first signed with CAA [Creative Artists Agency],” Cimino shares excitedly over Zoom. “I was like, ‘You guys, I would love to do a project that combines my passion for cars and film and TV.’ Then I came across this script and I was like, ‘This is the one.’ I just knew it. Not in a cocky way. I just knew this is my role. Like, this is for me.”

The series, which premieres on Prime Video on May 20, is set amid junkyards and repair shops, gangs and high school cliques. Set in the fictional town of Ironwood, “Motorheads” is equal parts “Grease” and “Fast & the Furious” (but with a hint of YA shows like “Riverdale”). At its heart are twins Zac and Caitlyn (Cimino and Melissa Collazo), whose return to Ironwood with their mom dredges up their connection to their estranged father, a street-racing legend Zac soon becomes obsessed with emulating.

With his signature bashful looks, tousled black curly hair and just an added dash of playful risk-taking, Cimino’s Zac sits right alongside the actor’s growing repertoire of swoon-worthy guys. That includes not just his breakout role as Victor but also Ethan in “Never Have I Ever” and, most recently, Cole in the romantic fantasy “Girl Haunts Boy.” As the new kid in town, Zac is soon pulled into navigating long-standing high school rivalries — especially once he realizes the girl he’s most interested in is dating the school’s best-known bully, a kid who settles scores with exhilarating street races in his dad’s Corvette and sometimes in his own Porsche.

In conversation, Cimino is giddy with excitement, speaking a mile a minute as if he were on a racetrack hitting the gas — especially when he gets to talking about his long-running interest in car culture.

“I had Hot Wheels growing up,” he recalls. “My dad and I, when I was a kid, used to build little racetracks with them. I always remembered loving it. And as I got older, my dad and I used to play [the video game] ‘Forza’ together. And my uncles used to drag race. So I heard a lot about drag racing and street racing when I was a kid. And my grandfather, who taught me how to work on cars, he used to rebuild engines. I’ve just always been into it.”

More recently, he’s been hoping to show off the auto work he’s been doing to his fans.

“I built a ’02 Miata that’s supercharged,” he shared. “I have a whole little TikTok series that I’ve been editing together, of me building it with my friend, Justin, and my cousin that I’m gonna start posting pretty soon.”

All of that enthusiasm came particularly in handy when he began jockeying for a part on the show. During one Zoom session with executive producers John A. Norris and Jason Seagraves, Cimino remembers trying to make clear just how much Zac and this story felt in line with his own interests.

(Sarahi Apaez / For De Los)

“We got a lot of auditions of people doing car stuff,” Norris says. “A lot of people pretend that they know stuff to get the part. And so when he did it, Jason and I were kind of rolling our eyes at first. Because I’m like, ‘Oh, he’s just pretending.’ Because he said he was hooking up a car and he was going to build it. And I said, ‘Can we see the car?’ And he had his phone, and he went around and he had this car on a trailer behind him that he was bringing back to L.A.”

That’s when Norris and Seagraves realized Cimino was very much enmeshed in the world “Motorheads” depicts.

“Michael is just a joy,” Norris adds. “And that energy is real. Every bit about him is. There’s nothing phony there. He’s just like an 8-year-old, always with a smile on his face.”

Even after all these years, Cimino keeps finding new reasons why this beloved hobby resonates with himself and others all over the world.

“I went to this really big car show called Tokyo Auto Salon, which happens every year,” Cimino shares. “It’s amazing. I wound up connecting with a lot of people out there, kind of seeing the underground scene of how people connect to it. And I just understood for the first time how much bigger it is than just cars and racing and having a good time. It’s such a signifier of self-expression. It can be such a thing of rebellion too.”

That’s precisely what happens with Zac. After befriending Marcel (Nicolas Cantu), an awkward, uncool kid at school who dreams of designing cars, Zac finds a purpose he hadn’t had before.

“I think Zac always felt like an outsider,” Cimino explains. “When he comes to Ironwood and kind of discovers his passion for racing, it’s like a light in his life. Finally, he’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can be good at something. I can amount to something.’”

But he cannot really do it alone. A driver is only as good as his car, and cars in Ironwood are well-crafted machines assembled by a loving crew. For Zac, that team ends up including his sister Caitlyn, of course, but also Marcel and Curtis (Uriah Shelton), another outsider who’s trying to steer clear of the gang life his older brother lives and breathes.

(Sarahi Apaez / For De Los)

Thankfully for Cimino, the car family at the heart of “Motorheads” was as tight-knit offscreen as it looks onscreen.

“Mel and I are both Puerto Rican and Sicilian, weirdly enough,” Cimino adds. “We have the same mix, which is obviously great because she’s playing my twin sister. We just kind of instantly clicked. We understood each other. We understood each other’s culture. And Uriah is super into motorcycles and cars. He understands that world, so we had that bond. And Nicholas is just so talented and just so thoughtful and sweet and kind, man. We’d play ‘Smash Bros.’ together and stuff. We all bonded over different things.”

The irony, of course, is that compared to these newfound friends, and even his uncle Logan (played by Ryan Phillippe), Zac is the least experienced one when it comes to repairing, let alone driving cars. But once he tastes the thrill of a race, Zac becomes intent on being an even better driver than his father ever was.

But don’t think for a moment that it’s Cimino in the driver’s seat in those head-spinning racing sequences that punctuate every episode.

“That was 100% my stunt driver,” Cimino admits, adding that “Amazon was very much focused on making sure everyone was safe.”

The actor, however, has set his sights on a new goal — he recently got his stunt-driving certificate.

“I’m hoping that one day I can pull a Tom Cruise and do some of my own stunts,” he said. “Until that moment arises, I’m preparing for it.”

But to be on set those days and to watch those scenes come to life was the kind of experience he’s not about to take for granted.

“This show is just such a spectacle,” Cimino says. “Even if I wasn’t involved in this project, I would still be a huge fan of it. It’s so well done. The stunts are amazing. It was honestly really freaking cool just witnessing something that I would have loved to watch when I was a kid. Being a part of it is so insane. It really feels like one of the most surreal moments of my life. To be honest, it feels like, ‘Wow, my dreams really did come true.’”