It’s no wonder the fantastic sci fi Amazon MGM movie, “Project Hail Mary” made $140.9 million at the box office on its opening weekend, the charismatic Ryan Gosling (“La La Land,” “Barbie”) takes viewers on a touching, delightful journey, lighting up every scene he is in.
Ryan Gosling stars as Ryland Grace in PROJECT HAIL MARY, from Amazon MGM Studios.
Photo credit: Jonathan Olley
© 2026 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Without giving too many surprises away, Gosling plays Ryland Grace, a middle school science teacher who reluctantly becomes an astronaut, to help save the world from catastrophe. The film is based on the novel by sci fi author Andy Weir (“The Martian,” “Artemis”), who asked Gosling to both star and produce the project.
“It was clear that Andy had captured lightning in a bottle on this and had written something very special,” Gosling told journalists at a recent press event. “When I got it (the script), it was a time when the movie theaters and film productions were shutting down. And then here was this incredibly moving, optimistic opportunity to look at the future as something not to fear, but to be figured out.”
Gosling, a three-time Academy Award nominee, was attracted to the film’s unique approach.
“I think we all have films that we remember where we were when we saw them, what they meant about the time that we were in, when we saw them. And this had all the potential to be that. I just needed to not mess it up!” he quipped.
“It’s an adventure of a lifetime, but at the same time, it’s not escapist, I don’t think. It’s this reminder of what we’re capable of as human beings. For my own family, we struggle to find things that we can go and see as a family. And you kinda look for those core memory moments at the theater that we all had as kids. I really wanted to try and make one of those.”
During the film, Ryland meets up with an adorable alien he names Rocky, and the two end up collaborating on saving their planets. How the unlikely duo find a nuanced way to communicate together is one of the film’s most endearing qualities.
“It certainly would’ve been easier to do this just in visual effects,” acknowledged Gosling. “But the relationship is difficult in the film between these characters. Everything is hard. Being in the same room is hard. Communicating is hard…part of the magic that’s in the movie is that we were kind of experiencing what the characters were, in that we were just trying to find a way to connect and to communicate and to make this work.”
Project Hail Mary author Andy Weir on the set of PROJECT HAIL MARY, from Amazon MGM Studios.
Photo credit: Jonathan Olley
© 2026 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Gosling praised how Rocky’s puppeteer got the role, despite the competitive audition process.
“The really beautiful thing was that, in the story, as Rocky’s trying to find his voice, we have this brilliant puppeteer named James Ortiz, who first of all, came into the audition different than anyone else. We had the best puppeteers in the world. Everyone was amazing…James came in at the very end. He pushed the Rocky puppet aside and put his hand on the table. And he started making these little neurotic ticking sounds and talking with his fingers. And we were like, ‘oh, yeah, that’s him!’”
Ortiz started to say the lines to Gosling while in character, so that he had someone to say the lines with.
“Oftentimes, I’m up in a harness for a long time with a helmet,” said Gosling. “It’s very isolated. And I have a earpiece in my ear and I’m able to talk to James. And James has such a deep connection to this character, that he’s able to talk to me as Rocky off script, and we end up doing, 20-minute, 30-minute, hour-long takes.”
As a result of Ortiz’s participation, Rocky found his “voice” on camera. “And that connection was real because I formed this amazing connection with James–this movie owes him a lot because he, like Rocky, just kinda came out of nowhere and became the key ingredient to the special magic of the film.”
Weir loved seeing their synergy, and acknowledged Gosling’s acting prowess.
“People often think that actors just read the lines and put the appropriate emotion, and a lot of people don’t realize how much of the creative process ends up being done by the actors. And so, having Ryan and James being able to play off of each other in real time, it really made the movie so much better than it would’ve been if it was rigidly defined in advance.”
Weir added: “Just having a practical puppet for Rocky and a puppeteer who could have Rocky do other things, whatever he wanted, gave Ryan someone to play off of, and the two of them could riff. And it just made one of those things where the synergy, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”