The one thing Ryan Gosling has always hated about being an actor: “It’s hard”
It’s a good job Ryan Gosling seems to be a pretty affable kind of chap, for two reasons. Firstly, because he has recently moved to our fair country and so you might bump into him going into the supermarket or something. And secondly, he’s about to be even more famous than he is already, which is very.
That’s because he has some films in the works that are likely to be enormous on a global scale, both of them sci-fi movies, which he has some considerable pedigree in, thanks to the likes of Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 and the excellent Neil Armstrong biopic First Man from 2018.
First up will be Project Hail Mary, the Andy Weir adaptation that follows The Martian, which was also turned into a hit film with Matt Damon, and which promises to be a similar mix of wit, action and mind-boggling effects. Due to arrive in cinemas at the end of March, PHM will tell the story of a science teacher, played by Gosling, who wakes up in space with no memory of how he got there, only to find out it’s down to him to save the earth.
Anticipation is fairly feverish for the film, which is directed by the men behind 22 Jump Street and the Lego Movie, especially online, where Weir’s work is perfectly placed between those holy internet pillars of very geeky and very funny. And if that weren’t enough, an even bigger movie starring Gosling is also on the way in the form of Star Wars: Starfighter, due out in 2027.
Unfortunately for Gosling, that means more finished films for him to have to sit through, which it seems will be harder than you might think, as, in rather opposite fashion to fellow leading hunk Glen Powell, who can’t watch films he’s made before they’re finished, it’s once movies are done and dusted that Gosling struggles.
He told Interview about how he finds it tough to have any project he’s worked on come to an end, saying: “As an actor, you have no control over the final product. It’s hard because you’re so involved in the pre-production process and the filming process, but as soon as that’s over, you’re not really a part of it anymore.”
Adding, “The thing gets cut up, music gets put on, and you’re not involved… I hate it. There’s no way that a film can capture in two hours the experience of making it, so it’s always disappointing in some way.”
Presumably, the paycheck of several million dollars landing in your bank account softens the blow somewhat, but Gosling still has to check himself and issue a little mental note that not everyone is in the same boat.
He continued: “The thing that’s so exciting when you’re making a film is that it can be anything and there are no limitations on it. So I do have to remind myself that most people watching the film weren’t involved in making it, so they don’t really know what’s missing.”
Meanwhile, just to show that it isn’t solely films about galavanting around space that he can do, Gosling will also be seen at some point in the near future in the comedy Tough Guys, alongside Will Ferrell, which, fingers crossed, will be pretty similar to 2010’s The Other Guys, also starring Ferrell. Or 2024’s Fall Guy starring Gosling. Or 2012’s The Nice Guys, also starring Gosling. Basically, anything that has the word ‘guy’ in the title.
