Ryan Gosling has opened up about his most unusual co-star yet.
In an interview with People magazine, the Project Hail Mary star revealed that Rocky, a spider-like alien with five limbs, was far from easy to work with.
He said, “I don’t like to call him a puppet, but they call him a puppet.”
“Well, he’s a diva, let’s face it. Very high maintenance. Has his own glam squad,” characterizes Ryan Rocky.
Unlike many modern films, Rocky wasn’t just a CGI creation. Instead, the character was brought to life through a complex combination of puppetry and animatronics, controlled by a team of five black-clad puppeteers. Voice actor James Ortiz eventually became the final voice of the alien, after initially stepping in to help Ryan Gosling rehearse scenes.
The Barbie actor said, “James Ortiz was only supposed to be the puppeteer and we would discover Rocky’s voice later. But James started writing the lines for me so I had someone to read the lines with, so I wasn’t just imagining this dialogue.”
The puppeteer “understood Rocky so deeply that it got to the point where he knew what Rocky would say, what he wouldn’t say, what he would do.”
“James was Rocky and James is Rocky now and you can’t imagine it any other way,” Ryan added.
Additionally, to add a personal touch to the production, Ryan Gosling also revealed that his daughters helped Rocky during filming, feeding him lines through an earpiece.
