Ryan Gosling, the 45-year-old lead actor and producer of Project Hail Mary, a space adventure film based on the 2021 Andy Weir novel of the same name, is bringing together humor and science fiction in a unique blend that has been a staple in cinema history. With films like Spaceballs, Mars Attacks!, and Everything Everywhere All At Once, it's clear that the two genres can coexist beautifully.
Gosling, who has showcased his comedic skills in movies like Barbie and The Nice Guys, tells the BBC that he's "always struggled as an actor because I would want to bring humor to something," but he's found limited opportunities to be funny in some projects. That's why he wanted to produce this film, creating an environment where humor and science could coexist.
When filming previous roles, "something funny would happen and they would cut and they'd say 'oh that's funny but let's go again as those funny things don't happen in life'," he says. However, Gosling believed this wasn't necessarily true.
Project Hail Mary, named after a last-ditch pass in American football, centers around Gosling's character Ryland Grace, a science teacher who finds himself on a spaceship with no recollection of how he got there, tasked with saving the world from sun-eating bacteria. The film has "dense science" but the overarching humor helps move it along, according to Gosling.
He explains, "[Space] can be hard to understand but it's important to find a way to make it accessible but also feel realistic - funny things happen in dramatic and sad situations."
Gosling is no stranger to space movies, having starred in Neil Armstrong biography First Man in 2018, and is set to appear in the upcoming Star Wars: Starfighter space opera. He says space has always been interesting to him and that he wants to understand it more.
The three-time Oscar nominee surrounded himself with experts on set, including astronauts, lab technicians, molecular biologists, and physicists like Professor Brian Cox. While the scientific elements are somewhat complicated, trust is put in viewers to understand what's going on.
Gosling believes the film, which he created for families to watch together, provides "an opportunity to pivot away from the dystopian narratives that we've been saturated in for the last decade." He repeats his tagline promoting the film: "Believe the future as something to not be feared, just to be figured out."
The production team was assembled by Gosling, including screenwriter Drew Goddard, who adapted another of Weir's novels, The Martian, for the big screen. He also landed directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, behind big commercial hits like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Lego Movie, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
The film has received mostly positive reviews so far, with Empire calling it "witty, wise, and preposterously entertaining," while Deadline says it's "a mission accomplished, an engaging piece of science fiction." Variety criticizes it for being too "generic" and "incredibly derivative of movies like Interstellar," while The Guardian notes there are "moments of dullness and puppyish silliness" but adds that "Gosling is an effortlessly charming screen player" who keeps the film "watchable."
Lord and Miller praise Gosling's performance, noting that he succeeds in creating chemistry with his co-star, a "half CGI, half puppet" alien called Rocky, with whom he works together to try to save the planet. Lord says, "Ryan is the special effect - that's the one thing we couldn't fix in post - Ryan's belief and his relationship with this character." Miller agrees, noting that "the whole movie rests on their relationship."
