THE FALL GUY (12A)
As action-packed romance comedy The Fall Guy comes to cinemas, RACHAEL DAVIS sits down with stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt and director David Leitch
★★★☆☆ REVIEWS BY DAMON SMITH
I HAVE fond childhood memories from the early 1980s of the rough-andtumble TV show The Fall Guy starring Lee Majors as a revered film stuntman, who side hustles as a bounty hunter using the daredevil skills he has honed in front of a camera.
Stunt performer turned director David Leitch’s crowd-pleasing action comedy pays tribute to the TV series and the wider community of gifted action artists who take body blows for big-name actors but publicly receive none of the credit for their bonecrunching work.
Ryan Gosling plays veteran stuntman Colt Seavers, who abruptly severs ties with the film industry after breaking his back while performing a fall in place of Hollywood star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-johnson). The nearfatal accident, which Colt insists was his fault, also sounds a death knell for an on-set romance with camera operator Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt).
Out of the blue, film executive Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham), who produces Ryder’s blockbusters, phones Colt and implores him to get on an plane to Australia to double for her arrogant star in sci-fi epic Metalstorm.
The film is dangerously over budget, behind schedule and just so happens to be Jody’s directorial debut. Working alongside good friend and action choreog
rapher Dan Tucker (Winston Duke), Colt turns the film’s fortunes around with his heroic efforts.
“Save Jody’s film and maybe you get the love of your life back,” teasingly suggests Gail.
The Fall Guy is a slave to two demanding masters (adrenalinepumping action and goofy romance) but doesn’t fully satisfy either.
In their limited shared screen time, Gosling and Blunt are fiercely entertaining and anchor some of the film’s wackier moments including a harebrained finale.
Stunts are breathtaking, such as performer Logan Holladay’s world record-breaking 8.5 cannon rolls in a car and a dizzying fight inside a spinning metal skip that is being dragged behind a lorry through the streets of Sydney.
Gosling bravely falls backwards 12 storeys in the bravura opening sequence, shot in a single take to shepherd us through the organised chaos of a movie set.
End credits conceal behind-the-scenes footage and an affectionate nod to the small screen inspiration for this love letter to the stunt community.
■ In cinemas now
BEHIND the majority of mindblowing stunts in all of our favourite action movies is a fearless stunt performer throwing themselves into harm’s way to get the perfect shot – but rarely do they get their moment in the spotlight.
In The Fall Guy, the latest feature from Bullet Train director and former stuntman David Leitch and inspired by Glen A Larson’s 1980s television show of the same name, Barbie’s Ryan Gosling plays battlescarred stunt actor Colt Seavers.
He’s been taking a break from the industry after an almost-careerending accident. One day, he gets a call to work on blockbuster alien romance Metalstorm, a big-budget studio movie directed by Jody Moreno, played by Oppenheimer’s Emily Blunt – his ex-girlfriend who he fell for (literally) when she was a camera operator.
However, ruthless producer Gail, played by Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham, ropes Colt in to find the film’s megastar Tom Ryder, played by Aaron Taylor-johnson, who has gone missing after getting mixed up with some shady guys.
With the future of his heartbroken ex’s debut film on the line, it’s down to Colt to get the production back on track – and maybe win back Jody.
The Fall Guy is a comedyromance complete with hair-raising action sequences, but it’s also a love letter to stunt performers.
“I just think it’s so exciting to finally be open about how much stunt performers contribute,” says Ryan, 43. “Especially for us, because they come in and they put themselves in harm’s way for us, they take hits for us, and then they hide their faces while they do it, and hide in the shadows.
“It’s just been so exciting to really highlight what they do, and have this conversation now around, like, ‘give stunts an Oscar’.
“It’s a fascinating job and art form, and they’re an incredible group of people, so selfless, and it’s fun to see them getting the limelight.”
“The people that make these movies really love making them, and there’s a real sort of brother and sisterhood of the people behind the camera,” adds director Leitch, who was also at the helm for Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw and Deadpool 2, and whose stunt credits include being Brad Pitt’s double in Fight Club.
“And they’re not jaded, even though they work 15-hour days – they love movies as much as the people who go to see movies.
“So it’s really like a love letter to both commercial, fun, popcorn movies and the film crews that give their heart and soul to it.” The popcorn movie David refers to is Metalstorm, the big-budget space flick Jody is directing for her debut. It has aliens, space cowboys, car chases, explosions, the lot – and Colt takes on the lion’s share of the performance in Tom Ryder’s absence with the help of VFX masking his face. Creating a film within a film is no mean feat, so it’s striking to consider
the scale of set that was needed to contain a second, fictional production.
“I think a lot of our crew were in the back of our shot all the time,” laughs Emily, 41.
“It was really just trying to show the chaos of a film set. But the fact that you’ve got, visually, something so extravagant like Metalstorm, with the costumes and the aliens and the world... it was just so magical. And we wanted to show people the reality of making a film.”
While Metalstorm as a concept seems outrageous and extravagant, Emily enjoyed playing into how much that film meant to her character Jody, a woman who’s dreamed of sitting in a director’s chair for her whole career.
“I do think David and Kelly (Mccormick, producer) and Ryan, when they first started thinking about what movie Jody could be working on – before I came on – I think Metalstorm just offered visually something so mad...” she says.
“And the fact that she’s so pasdavid sionate about Metalstorm, it says a lot about her.”
While The Fall Guy is an actionpacked romp, it’s also hilarious and wonderfully romantic.
“I think just having an environment where all of those [genres] could thrive – I mean, that’s really rare, and to have freedom within all of them as well... all bets were off, like, there was no idea (that) seemed too crazy,” she says.
“We were just all willing to see how far we could push a joke, how far we could push a stunt. What could we do that would make this unique? Because I think we were thinking about the audience as well.
“Like, what are people searching for? Are they searching for that full kidnap of a movie that just feels new? And that’s what we pushed for every day, really.”
“What was so fun about working with David Leitch is that he’s as brave as a filmmaker as he is as a stunt performer,” adds Ryan.
“He’s willing to just sort of remove the genres and play in the space between comedy and drama, and create dramedy, and sort of just let the thing be alive, and be whatever it is. Be all the things at once.”
■ The Fall Guy comes to UK cinemas this week