Ryan Gosling's 'The Fall Guy' is a love letter to stunt performers
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 [April 23, 2024]
By Hanna Rantala
LONDON (Reuters) - After serving "Kenergy" with "Barbie", actor Ryan
Gosling turns the spotlight on the movie-makers whose job is to shine on
screen while remaining invisible in "The Fall Guy".
The film is inspired by the popular 1980s TV series of the same name and
stars Gosling as Colt Seavers, a top Hollywood stuntman down on his luck
after an on-set accident.
An ambitious film producer (Hannah Waddingham) manages to pull Colt out
of his self-imposed post-injury isolation in order to rescue the
directorial debut of the love of his life, Jody (Emily Blunt), following
the disappearance of the film's leading man, Tom Ryder (Aaron
Taylor-Johnson).
Life starts imitating his art as Colt tries to track down the vanished
superstar and lands in the middle of a criminal plot. The stuntman has
to put on his best performance both on and off the screen to save Jody's
movie - and himself.
"I've benefited from the work of stunt people my whole career. They come
in and they take the hits for you and then get none of the credit. That
ends here. Hopefully the whole conversation is different after this
film," Gosling said as he attended the movie's premiere in London on
Monday.
"It's completely a love letter to stunt performers and the magic of what
they create in movies. It's a love letter to crews and making films,"
added Blunt.
"The Fall Guy", which was shot in Sydney, Australia, is directed by
David Leitch, a former stunt double to stars including Brad Pitt and
Matt Damon, and director of "Bullet Train", "Deadpool 2" and "Atomic
Blonde".
Many of its daring action scenes were shot with real in-camera stunts
and during filming Gosling's stunt double Logan Holladay set a Guinness
World Record for the most cannon rolls in a car. The classic stunt sees
an apparatus fitted beneath a car that propels it into a series of rolls
at a designated speed. Holladay's 8.5 rolls broke Adam Kirley's 2006
record of 7 in "Casino Royale."
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Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt present during the Oscars show at the
96th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.,
March 10, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo
 "It was a mandate to do some
old-school classic stunts and blow them out as big as possible,”
said Leitch. "The record was written in the script. We wrote it in
the script to throw down the gauntlet and challenge the stunt team
to come with it, and I think they did," said Leitch, 48.
Stunt coordinator Chris O'Hara was given a "stunt designer" credit
on the project in what the creators said was an industry first and
an acknowledgement of the multifaceted nature of his job.
"Hopefully it sheds light to the Academy, that maybe someday we
might be able to be up for an Academy Award, just like all of our
other department heads in the business," said O'Hara.
"This industry's backbone is the action movie. It's the movie that
travels the most internationally. It's time that they're celebrated
for what they contribute," added actor Winston Duke.
"The Fall Guy"'s global cinematic rollout begins on April 24.
(Reporting by Hanna Rantala; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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