“I'm Ryan Gosling and I hardly did any of my own stunts in this movie.”
“The Fall Guy” star immediately won over the crowd at the Paramount Theater before the movie began with this modest announcement. There was nothing but wild excitement and affection in the room for director David Leitch's adaptation of the '80s TV series, now transformed into a crowd-pleasing tribute to the power of filmmaking and the sweet allure of romance .
On Sunday night, Gosling and Emily Blunt presented a stunt tribute at the Academy Awards, and on Tuesday they arrived at the world premiere of their new movie in the back of a van, with an old-fashioned California license plate that read “ “Fall Guy.” after two motocross bikes had created a procession of wheelies and tire smoke in front of the theater.
In the film, Gosling plays Colt Seavers, a former stuntman who is called back into action when the star he most frequently doubled for (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) disappears during a shoot. The production is directed by Jody Moreno (Blunt), the former camera operator with whom Seavers had a budding relationship before an accident that ended his career.
When Gosling came out to introduce the film – “Don't worry, I'm not going to sing, I promise,” he said, jokingly referencing his spectacular “I'm Just Ken” number at the Oscars – he quickly began giving credit to the team. of film specialists. He watched as Logan Holladay broke a world record for stunts during the filming of “Fall Guy” by doing a “cannon roll” that spun a car 8½ rotations.
“There's a moment in the movie where he buckles me up for a stunt he's about to do,” Gosling said. “And after it happens, I get out of the car and he pats me on the back for a trick he just did. How fucked up is that?
“But what I love about this movie is that in any other movie you would never know it, but in this one you do,” Gosling continued. “It's an opportunity to finally recognize stunt people, the incredible contribution they make to films.”
Director Leitch, himself a stuntman-turned-filmmaker, noted that he premiered his Charlize Theron-starring spy thriller “Atomic Blonde” at SXSW seven years ago. (A clip from that film appears in a montage at the beginning of “The Fall Guy.”)
“This movie is very personal to me, having been a stuntman for 20 years,” Leitch said. “We wanted to celebrate the teams and the magic behind the scenes and the people who make those movies.”
Just before the film began, Gosling said, “Every day we asked, 'What's wrong with the audience? What are you going to want? And so I just want to say that it's a pleasure to finally meet you. It is good to see your faces and that you are the first audience to see the film.”
Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in the movie “The Fall Guy.”
(Eric Laciste/Universal Pictures)
That the film's stunts were suitably spectacular was perhaps no surprise. What caught the audience's attention was the romantic chemistry between Blunt and Gosling. It's a charming and engaging story told around explosions and car chases.
A scene where the two begin discussing what went wrong in their relationship while speaking into megaphones in front of an entire film set is particularly charming and captures the film's off-kilter energy at its finest.
After the film, Leitch and Gosling returned to the set along with Blunt, co-stars Stephanie Hsu, Winston Duke and Hannah Waddingham, writer Drew Pearce, producer Guymon Casady and producer Kelly McCormick.
“Ryan is an incredible actor, as you know, and he can play all these different talents,” Leitch said. “He could be great romantically, he can do comedy, he can do action. And we were starting to see that this movie had it all and that we could take advantage of all those skills that he has.”
As for how accurate the film's depiction of a movie's production is, Blunt said: “Very, very accurate. I feel like there's always a little bit of chaos, like the bigger the movie gets, the more chaotic it seems to get.”
“It seemed like a very meta, 'Tropic Thunder' type of couple of days,” Waddingham added.
Leitch and McCormick are married and Gosling highlighted their relationship: “David and Kelly inspired me a lot. They have such a beautiful love story. They make these movies together and they treat their crew and everyone, their actors, like family, and it's beautiful to see the way they are as a couple and the way they work together. “There was already inherently a love story at the heart of this film between the two of them.”
Leitch was asked about the possibility of an Oscar for his stunts in the near future.
“I feel like it's changing and there's been a group of specialists working within the academy for a number of years who are really going through the process,” Leitch offered. “I think the academy wants it and I think it's going to happen.”
