FALL GUY RISES TO THE TOP
Coming nearly straight from the Oscars, Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt rolled into the South By Southwest Film and TV Festival to première The Fall Guy, an affectionate, action-fuelled ode to stunt work and those who do it.
The Fall Guy, directed by stuntman-turned-filmmaker David Leitch, was perhaps the most anticipated world premiere to hit this year's edition of SXSW. Given that Blunt and London, Ont.-born Gosling were both coming off Sunday's Oscars where they were each nominated — and where Gosling 's I'm Just Ken brought the house down — the buzz was even stronger Tuesday night.
“Don't worry, I'm not going to sing. I promise,” Gosling said before the film, prompting the crowd to boo. But that was the only sound of disappointment that emanated from the raucous Austin, Texas, audience.
The action movie, loosely based on the 1980s TV series, opens in theatres May 3. Gosling stars as Colt Seavers, stunt double for a movie star named Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) who, after a back-breaking fall, is coaxed into returning to work on the scifi directorial debut of his lost love (Blunt). The Fall Guy is packed with action set pieces, both staged in the movie-within-the-movie and in off-set adventures.
“We really wanted to celebrate crews and the magic behind the scenes,” said Leitch, who was Brad Pitt's stunt double, among others, before making his first feature, 2014's John Wick. His last film, Bullet Train, also starred Pitt.
But that clever bit of casting had nothing on the playful role reversals of The Fall Guy. It features an A-lister playing a stuntman whose face is treated like a liability for movie, acting alongside many of the stunt workers who actually worked on The Fall Guy. That includes Logan Holladay, who performed Gosling's stunts, like a record-breaking car crash with eight-and-a-half rolls.
“There's a moment in the film where he buckles me in for a stunt he's about to do. And after it happens, I come out of the car and he pats me on the back for a stunt he just did,” Gosling said. “What I love about this movie is that in any other film you would not know that, but in this film, you do.”
The SXSW première of The Fall Guy came with some of its own stunts. A pair of motorcycles sped through the crowds milling outside the Paramount Theater before Blunt and Gosling arrived in the back of a pickup.
Sentiment plays a role in The Fall Guy too. Though Leitch said it was initially less prominent in the film, Gosling urged him to expand the love story component. The Fall Guy may exalt anonymous film workers, but it's lifted by the charisma and chemistry of its leads.
“Emily could create chemistry with a trash can,” Gosling said of Blunt, who was nominated for her supporting performance in Oppenheimer.
Still, the greatest romance in The Fall Guy is for the movies. Among those that get name-checked are Rocky and The Last of the Mohicans. In those films and others, the bruising toil of stunt workers is designed to be invisible. The Fall Guy flips the script.
“I have to say,” Gosling said, “I'm Ryan Gosling and I did almost none of my own stunts in this movie.”