“Christian Bale and Matt Damon were here” isn’t exactly a standard real estate sales pitch, but Ryan Sypek and Tristan Fong of Compass can certainly tout that factoid with their current listing, a charming bungalow in Los Angeles’ Highland Park neighborhood that served as the home of Bale’s expert race car driver/mechanic character Ken Miles in the 2019 drama “Ford v Ferrari.”
Directed by James Mangold, the film, which earned a Best Picture Oscar nod, centers around Miles and fellow racer/automotive designer Carroll Shelby (Damon), who, in a quest to beat Ferrari at the annual 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966, band together to devise an elite GT sports car for the Ford Motor Company. Based upon a true story, the movie required production designer François Audouy (who was also behind the looks of “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” “The Wolverine” and “Logan”) to painstakingly re-create such famed spots as Dearborn, Michigan’s Ford World Headquarters, the original Ferrari factory in Maranello, Italy, Florida’s Daytona International Speedway and the Le Mans racetrack, all largely within the confines of Southern California. (A couple of sites in Georgia were also utilized in the film and one brief scene was shot on location in France.)
But, incredibly, per the Los Angeles Times, “The most complicated physical location was the neighborhood garage where racer Miles tries to make a living between races, fixing other people’s cars. Mangold insisted that the garage be physically right across the street from the little bungalow where Miles lives with his wife and son — so that, literally, Miles can see his house from the shop, and his wife can see him working from her front porch.” The director found precisely what he was looking for on a sleepy triangular block of Highland Park, where a quaint Craftsman home sits perched above the street adjacent to an auto repair shop, a grocery store and a small park.
Located at 6311 Meridian St., the 1909 bungalow hit the market in mid-May at a cool $1.25 million and is currently under contract, having entered escrow just a scant 28 days later! Charming through and through, it is not hard to see why buyers were racing to make an offer on the three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,574-square-foot pad – though the place looked quite a bit different before the “Ford v Ferrari” production team got their hands on it. (Please remember this is a private home. Do not trespass or bother the residents or the property in any way.)
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Image Credit: 20th Century Studios -
Image Credit: Google While the dwelling in its natural state proved architecturally era-appropriate for the 1960s-set film, its curb appeal left much to be desired, as evidenced by the historical Google Street View imagery from 2017 pictured above. Audouy definitely had his work cut out for him when it came to getting the place screen ready and, considering the movie’s whopping $100 million budget, had plenty of funding to do so. As he expressed to Architectural Digest, “This was a nice, big, old-time Hollywood production, the way they used to make them back in the day.”
The designer and his team thoroughly overhauled the property, swapping out the muted brown exterior paint color for a handsome gray, adding a screen to the front door and new framing to the second-story window. Grass was also laid across the front yard and the chain link fencing surrounding the perimeter mercifully removed.
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Image Credit: 20th Century Studios -
Image Credit: Mike Zent The changes seriously escalated the pad’s overall aesthetic, transforming its façade entirely. So it is no surprise the owners chose to leave the alterations intact once filming wrapped. Today, the abode proudly stands looking much as it did onscreen, though now boasting significantly taller hedges.
The residence appeared prominently throughout “Ford v Ferrari,” most notably in a rather hilarious scene in which Shelby and Miles go to fisticuffs in the park across the street while Ken’s amused wife, Mollie (Caitríona Balfe), pulls up a lawn chair to observe the spectacle from her front yard.
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Image Credit: 20th Century Studios -
Image Credit: Redfin Audouy and his team also worked their magic on the home’s interior, painting the walls a neutral shade, swapping out sconces and adding retro furnishings and fixtures. The production designer even went so far as to fully gut the kitchen (shown above in its pre-“Ford v Ferrari” state via a 2016 MLS image) in order to install one that was more period-appropriate for the shoot.
Miles was originally born in Warwickshire, England and, as such, Audouy, who hails from France, also made sure to adorn the dwelling with authentic British elements. He told Architectural Digest, “I put things in his home that I remembered from my own childhood, like a jar of Marmite. The Brits can’t go anywhere without Marmite. There’s also a team scarf from his home soccer club in England, and his jazz-record collection we thought he’d be into. Lots of little nuggets like that.”
None of the interior alterations remain intact, though.
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Image Credit: Mike Zent The property’s current owner, pianist Jason Wool (who has worked with such artists as actor Morgan Freeman and rapper Logic), tastefully reimagined and expanded the house following the “Ford v Ferrari” shoot in 2019. The remodel not only opened the kitchen up to the rest of the lower level but outfitted the interior with modern, high-end features and amenities, thereby rendering it thoroughly unrecognizable from its onscreen self. Whereas the Miles residence was decidedly retro and quaint, the revamped pad is bright, sleek and stylish.
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Image Credit: Mike Zent The bedrooms and bathrooms, all located on the lower level, were also updated during the renovation, though some original elements, including a plethora of handsome built-ins, were incorporated into the redesign.
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Image Credit: Mike Zent Upstairs, the home’s finished attic offers an additional two rooms measuring 275 square feet that can be utilized as office or studio space.
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Image Credit: Mike Zent The attractive lot seems considerably larger than its 0.15 acres, with plenty of spots for entertaining, including an idyllic front porch that spans the width of the house, a sizable rear patio, a grassy expanse and a sitting area situated on a patch of gravel strung with Edison lights. There is also a detached one-car garage on the premises that the listing notes has the potential to be repurposed as an in-law unit, though Ken Miles would surely not approve of that!