Ryan Gosling

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0:43Bundling. Just another way to save with the personal price plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. The first sheets I ever had were Star Wars. Right. And I had them in my trailer. when I made the movie. Same sheets? Don't make that weird. I didn't know, that was involuntary. I can't control my face sometimes. But why did you think it was weird, even for a second? Are they the same childhood sheets, or you went on eBay, you're like, let me find those? So I still have the childhood sheets.

1:14My mom kept them, I didn't keep them. I didn't say anything. When I told my mom I was doing the movie, she was like, I still have the sheets. So I had them for inspiration. Okay. Now that you've made it weird. No, I didn't make it weird. It's a sweet story. No, no, no, no. That's fine. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins.

1:39Hey, guys, it's Josh. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Today on the podcast, hey, girl, it's Ryan Gosling. That's right, Ryan Gosling on the podcast for the very first time, talking all things Project Hail Mary and so much more. Thank you, guys, as always, for checking out the podcast on YouTube, on Spotify, listening wherever you are. I appreciate you guys. If you're new to the podcast, if you were enticed with the promise of Ryan Gosling, welcome aboard. Check out our archives, 700 plus episodes, 12 years of happy, sad, confused. We keep on going. And you know why we keep on going?

2:13For new, exciting experiences like this, first time guest, Ryan Gosling. We are really diving into Project Hail Mary in a big way on the podcast because I love this movie. I got a chance to moderate their very first Comic-Con panel last July in San Diego. And that was a special one, seeing just 20 minutes of footage. If you don't know, this is based on Andy Weir's remarkable best-selling book, also a best-selling audiobook. It is a sci-fi story, an adventure story, a comedy, a thriller. It's a lot of things. Most importantly, it is a huge cinematic experience that you really should bring out your friends and family and go see this in a theater because it demands it.

2:57So we are diving in in a big way on the podcast. We have not only Ryan today coming up very soon on the podcast. We have screenwriter Drew Goddard. Very excited about that one. Drew has an amazing, amazing resume diving into all things. Yeah, his entire career. Just look it up. You'll see. We also have Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the directors of Project Hail Mary. These guys are great. That's coming up next week. You know him. You love him from the Jump Street movies, from the Spider-Verse movies. That's a fun one, too. But the main event today is Mr. Gosling. So a little context here, a little history here, a history lesson for you Josh Horowitz, Ryan Gosling heads, or maybe you're new to our interactions, which is totally fine.

3:40I don't expect you to know our oeuvre together. But suffice it to say, I've been talking to Ryan for a long, long time, many, many years, my days at MTV. and we always, we had some very memorable conversations over the years. Primarily, you know, I referenced Hey Girl. Hey Girl was the famous kind of meme way back when. I believe it was around the Crazy Stupid Love Time when I interviewed Ryan about that one. And no, I did not originate the Hey Girl meme, but my interview with him, I was asked him to recreate some and respond to some, became a huge thing. So that's just one tiny part of the Ryan Gosling, Josh Charterwood story, but there's so much more because he has been great to me over the years, and we've had some really fun conversations.

4:23My interview with him and Emily Blunt for Fall Guy is an all-timer. I'm talking to him for Barbie. I don't know. I've talked to him for everything. And look, I don't need to sell you on Ryan Gosling being a charming gentleman. You know. You know. And here's the thing, though. Ryan doesn't do podcasts. Look it up. He just doesn't. He doesn't do long-form podcasts. This is a very, very exciting rare treat. He taped one other podcast right after mine today. I believe it's going up right before mine. So not quite the exclusive first podcast interview with Ryan Gosling. But I know in my heart, I know in my mind, it was recorded first.

5:06So kind of the exclusive first Ryan Gosling podcast. but yeah I was really thrilled and honored that he chose to come on the pod and said some really nice things to me and yeah he's a gem he's a gem what can you say Ryan Gosling he's a gem so I want to get right to it before we get to the conversation just a quick reminder as always hit up our Patreon if you like what I do we put up all our episodes early we give you merch autograph merch exclusive access to live events we've got a May 5th event to New York City with Stanley Tucci coming up, a live taping of Happy Say Confused. I'm going to be in Chicago for C2E2.

5:46I'm going to be in Miami for the Miami Film Festival. I'll try to remember to put all that information in the show notes. Lots of exciting live events coming up. And like I said, a lot more Project Hail Mary. So patreon.com slash happy say confused. That's where you can find all the info. Support us over there. Helps us make more over here. Okay, you ready? Strap on in. This is a special day, guys, for me, for you, maybe for Ryan Gosling. I don't know. Here is Ryan Gosling's kind of, sort of podcast debut. Enjoy. Ryan. Josh. We're doing this. We're doing it. My personal. And doing it well? Well, we'll see.

6:25We'll judge at the end. My personal Hail Mary has been to get you on this podcast for years. You're doing it. We made it happen. That was a weird high five. Was it? It turned into a shake. We're going to hug it out at the end, too, to really make it super awkward. I take responsibility for it, though. No, no, no. Here's the thing. Okay. In my copious research, you know I'm the world's biggest Ryan Gosling aficionado. Copious research. Not a podcast guy. You have not done the podcast thing virtually at all. Why have you been denying the world? We want to know more about you. Only you. Just, I've been waiting for this.

7:00You ready? No. There are going to be tears. I haven't done it. If you were to start a podcast, what would your expertise be? What would be the Ryan Gosling podcast? I don't know. I was just thinking about that earlier, actually. It seems like a fun thing to do. No complaints. I enjoy it. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah, because you're just doing what you would do anyway. This is the kind of stuff I would talk about anyway. Just talking to people about stuff. You could talk about, like, Rocky films, like 80s and Stallone films. You could do... Right. How many episodes we get out of that? I do feel like the sequence in the film of you describing, was it Rocky IV?

7:32to Rocky. Yeah, I made him watch all the Rockies and the Creeds. That feels like something that, was that in the script or is that something that you just do? It's not in the script, no, but the film is MGM and I was like, well, we do have access to them, right? Well, then we have to watch all of them. Yeah. His name is Rocky. It's perfect. He has to see all of them. Okay, so let's talk Project Hail Mary, by the way, is the film. Official congratulations. I've given you congratulations off camera, but that is meaningless to the world. Doesn't matter unless it's on camera. Nothing. This is such a great movie.

8:09It felt meaningful, but it wasn't. No, no. You know I'm obsessed with this movie. I've seen it twice already. And the response couldn't be better. Are you exhaling? This has been a passion project for five, six years. Are you ready to relax and say, oh, it worked?

8:30Yes. Does that sense to be like a company yes? Well, I've been holding on for so long, right? It was such a crazy process because people are describing it as the best book they've ever read. And you would have to get the best of the best in order to pull it off. And then on top of it, just the love for it and the love for Rocky. And then how do you realize this alien that everyone has kind of conjured in their own mind and loved so much? How do we do this? This was just that hard. Is it the Rocky part of it? I mean, so much of it relies on that relationship and buying that and emotionally connecting with that.

9:10It sounds cheesy, but the film has mirrored, like the making of this film has mirrored the story itself in so many ways. You know, it feels like a Hail Mary just to try and make it. And everything has just been basically a leap of faith. because getting Rocky right and making the choice to do it practically and not do it CGI was just such a commitment because Rocky a lot of times didn't work it was a bit like Jaws Shark it was like a lot of work my point in saying that is that so is this story about this everything is hard in the story and so when it did work It was magic. There were times I felt like I have an alien best friend.

9:57We're just hanging out in a spaceship, talking. James is so, Ortiz the puppeteer is so deeply connected to Rocky that he can go in any different direction and we can improvise and we start to have a real relationship. So what we're capturing is actually a real relationship developing, which you never could have gotten any other way. So I didn't know going into it that it would work out, but it felt like we were doing the things we needed to do in order to have the magic happen if it was going to happen. So I do feel a sigh of relief because enough of the book fans, I think, have seen it and love it.

10:40And so that feels good. It feels like we did justice to the book and to Rocky. Well, as you well know, it is about assembling the team and then hoping that it all comes together. With the best of intentions, as you know, nine times out of ten films, they're doubles if that. And when it all clicks, it's like you have to be grateful that something magical happened along the way. And it happened here. We'll be right back with more Happy, Sad, Confused.

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14:33Talk to me a little bit about, okay, so science films. This is going to immediately go into science film Mount Rushmore. This goes with, let's put Oppenheimer up there, Martian obviously. I'm going to put Real Genius on there. Huge inspiration. I heard you mention this. We love Real Genius, right? We love Real Genius. That is one of the movies, most quotable movies. It's ingrained in my brain. Also just like his, that t-shirts were his love language. Yes, that's right. How cool he made science, just, you know. Chris here is one of the 10 finest minds in the country. Val Kilmer we're talking about.

15:04Someday I hope to be two of them. There's so many gems. It's still there. It's still there. You grew up, but you were a little young for Real Genius. I was doing the math. You were, I'm a little older than you, you were five when Real Genius came out. You caught up to it? I mean, I caught it on... An HBO free weekend or something? You know, like at Blockbuster or something. Yeah. Was Val generally an inspiration? Totally. Right? I mean, just what an inspiration and what a loss. I had an opportunity to watch him work once, and I just think he was truly one of the greats. So you've vacillated, I feel like, in your career, where it's like, you can play stoic hero, amazing.

15:47You can also play out of his depth idiot really well. Even better. No, I didn't say that. That you really nail. No, but like, are they both? Like, really nail it. Like, weirdly, you're really good. So good at being out of your depth. Are both equally rewarding in their own unique ways to kind of play the fish out of water, the guy that's just in over his head, and also play like the classic drive, you know, hero that will be the man with no name, the man that doesn't say much. Mm-hmm. Well, it was, it's been helpful to have played a lot of those characters because now I think I can, you're sort of hemmed in in a way with those, right?

16:29There's just so many things you can't try, so many things you can't do if you're like a creative person and you can think of like all the different ways a scene could go or all the things that the people you're working with that you want to incorporate, you would just kind of end up like thousand yards staring through the process and you let all these gifts just fall away. Right. The only way, so many ways to smolder quietly on the screen. Yeah, and you just let it all go. And that's the worst is when you get onto a film set and you have cameras and you have people, you know, that you are inspired by.

17:03You want to capture it. Yeah. And you're limited when you're doing those kind of roles because you just you can't, you know. But so, you know, having done films like that, getting to do this, I think a big part of the inspiration for me to do this was like, OK, this one, I'm not going to let anything go by. You know, we're going to capture it all. And I knew that I needed Chris and Phil to do that because that's the kind of filmmakers they are. I mean, it used to be like when I made independent films, I was doing a lot of dramas. Something funny would happen and then everyone would laugh and then they would cut.

17:38And they'd be like, okay, that was funny, but let's get serious. As though funny things don't happen in life. And as though the funny helps with the sad. And it helps, you know, that's how you can rope a dope, right? You can sort of like... So there's a funnier cut of The Believer, is what you're saying. There's like a real... Well, that director was, he thought it was hilarious. I mean, that was what was also so interesting. But... Well, it's also time. Like, you don't have time on those independent, those smaller films. But you do. I mean, you can like let... You can keep rolling. You don't have to cut.

18:13So I really, you know, producing this film was a big part of it for me, was like also capturing the nature of the book, which there's a lot of humor in the book, and then getting filmmakers that not only allow for it, but like, you know, try and create it and look for it. Who's running lines with you as Rocky? Is Eva doing that? Or is the, like, who actually? What, at home? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, my family helped me so much, you know. So my girls were so helpful. One time they came to set, and they were doing Rocky for me on them. They got on the mic and I was acting with them. So many ideas, just so many, the glasses, you know, like my daughter, I was trying on looks and she was like, you do look smarter in glasses.

19:03These are for show. And I was like, it's a great point. I'll wear it. But again, being open to ideas and whether it's from a family member or a crew member, you'll take what you, I mean, anything you can bounce off of, I would imagine makes it better, right? Like it's, yeah, I always feel like every day is a bit like an escape room. You know, I've never actually done an escape room, so maybe I shouldn't use this analogy. But from what I understand, it feels like that because you can make all the plans you want. Yeah. But every day is different, right? You show up and it's like you're supposed to shoot a scene outside, but it's raining, right?

19:44Right. So do you build the tenting and then but then you have to loop it because you can hear the rain on the thing And then the whole thing's gonna be looped But it's a big dialogue scene and you're like should this whole thing be looped should we be chasing this old idea? Yeah, or should we just? Let's do it in the car. We'll shoot it from outside. We won't hear anything They're saying and we'll just see them talking and maybe that's the thing I give you're working with the right people that are willing to throw out the idea for a And it's always those scenes where people see a film and then they say, I love that scene in the car where you don't hear what they're talking about and you're just watching them talk.

20:16And you're like, well. It's Sandra singing in this film. It's Sandra singing in the film. Which turns out to be one of the best scenes in the film. Every time we screened it, people were like, that's their favorite scene. Yeah. Not supposed to be there. Yeah. But you have to have the right people that are willing to do it. You know, Sandra is down to sing. Out of nowhere, she picks Sign of the Times. the directors create space for it we spend a whole day shooting that when we weren't supposed to and you know I don't know those things are they're gifts they're all around you just have to be working with people that recognize them as that and I think filmmaking can be so regimented where you think well that's not part of the plan and there's this whole idea of like shoot we romanticize I think the idea of like sticking to the vision.

21:05Yeah, make your day, get the shots that were assigned. Yes. As opposed to being open to like the things that are happening around you and finding a way to feather them in to the story. How are you at crying on demand in a film? You have to cry a bit in this film. I did, yeah. What's your secret? Are you going to like real places? Are you thinking of specific things? Are you poking it in your eye? What's the Ryan Gosling technique? I'm not above any any of that. Whatever it takes to get the job done. On this film, it was emotional, because I spent so many days alone on camera, because we shot in order, that by the time Rocky shows up, I genuinely need a friend.

21:55I need a scene partner. They're so brilliantly bringing him to life that there are times where I feel like we are friends and when I see him sick or in trouble or suddenly like he's you know I won't give too much away but you see these moments where he's in distress it's like it's kind of not hard at that point you know because you've really been on the journey and the book is incredible so I know the story and the story makes me feel just as it makes everyone who reads it feel so much Yeah, the sound of distress of Rocky. It reminded me, like, as a kid, and I know E.T. comes up, but, like, I can still hear that sound of E.T.

22:41Yes. When E.T. is dying. Yes. Or sad or upset. Yes. I'm going to start crying now, Ryan. That's it, right? It's like... He's all, like, pale. You'll never unsee it. I know. These are kind of core memories. Yeah. That's what we were hoping to create here, was, like, a kind of... These kind... That kind of a film. Yeah. You know, Back to the Future. No, the perennials, that's... Those things that are core memory films that I don't think my kids have very many of those. Yeah. All right, so we have the luxury of a little time. Some random, we could go all over the place for a little bit. What's the deep cut that someone references to you that brings a smile to your face?

23:25If you see somebody on the street and they quote something, they say something. Of my work? Yeah, of your work.

23:34Oh, I don't know. What is the deep cut thing that someone mentions? Young Hercules? Love that. Love hearing Young Hercules. Which episode should I start with? I've never watched it. I apologize. Do you recommend me going to the beginning? Like start with the pilot and then go? I don't know that you need to necessarily go on the whole journey.

24:00What is a good... There's one episode that I did with Vern Troyer. Oh, wait, great Vern Troyer. Yeah. I got to know him on that, and that was really... He was, yeah, he was such an interesting... Yeah, he was a character, right? Really interesting guy. Had he already done Austin Powers? No, he was going to do Austin Powers, and he was trying to explain to me what he was going to do. Yeah. and I didn't totally get it obviously until I saw it right but yeah he played he did a lot of suit work and he played a dinosaur and yeah there were times where I was like in the episode I have to squeeze him and then this like goo comes out and catches stuff on fire sure and it was so strange because he and I would be talking about life and all of that and then someone would say okay, it's time to shoot.