For over a decade and a half, the mystery of Ryan Gosling's dismissal from a major Hollywood production has remained a curious tale. In 2010, the actor himself revealed that he was terminated after he gained 60 pounds for a role without the director's approval. Now, The Lord of the Rings director, Peter Jackson, has offered his perspective on what transpired.
Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival after receiving an Honorary Palme d'Or, Jackson addressed the recasting decision that saw Mark Wahlberg replace Gosling in The Lovely Bones, his 2009 adaptation of Alice Sebold's novel. Gosling had been cast as Jack Salmon, the father of Saoirse Ronan's lead character.
While declining to delve into Gosling's specific case in detail, Jackson spoke broadly about the responsibility filmmakers bear when such decisions become necessary. "Anytime we recast an actor, it's actually our fault because we didn't get the casting right and we cast the wrong person for a role. It's not because they did anything wrong," he said (via Entertainment Weekly).
Acknowledging Gosling's abilities, Jackson explained the unpredictable nature of assembling a cast. "Ryan is a fantastic actor, as we know," he continued. "Films are a chemistry both on camera and behind the camera."
The filmmaker added, "It's just a complicated sort of amalgam of communication of how somebody gels into a group of people, into a story, into a character. It's complicated and usually you try very hard when you're planning the film, casting it, trying to get that gel kind of right, but occasionally we make our own mistakes."
Ryan Gosling first detailed the firing incident in a 2010 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. He explained that his vision for the character differed fundamentally from Jackson's. "We had a different idea of how the character should look," he said.
The actor continued, "I really believed he should be 210 pounds. We didn't talk very much during the preproduction process, which was the problem." He further quipped, "I just showed up on set, and I had gotten it wrong. Then I was fat and unemployed."
