After a long four-year absence, Ryan Gosling returns to the big screen as a Black Ops assassin in The Gray Man, reportedly Netflix’s most expensive movie to date. His latest is an action-packed thriller from the minds of Joe and Anthony Russo, the Marvel directors who brought the world the last two Captain America films, as well as Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
“The Gray Man is different from anything I’ve done before. I finally got to be an action hero for the first time, which is something I’ve been wanting to do,” Gosling said at the film’s premiere, which took place at the famed TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on Wednesday. “I always wanted to make an action movie because I loved watching them growing up. They made me fall in love with the movies.”
What are some of his favorites? Gosling name-checked 1988’s Action Jackson with Carl Weathers, the 1993 Arnold Schwarzenegger film Last Action Hero, and even the 2003 live-action-and-animated comedy Looney Tunes: Back in Action. “Everything with action in it, even in the title,” Gosling joked.
The film, debuting in theaters July 15 and streaming on Netflix July 22, stars Gosling as Sierra Six—a.k.a. the Gray Man—the CIA’s most skilled mercenary. Bridgerton’s breakout star Regé-Jean Page plays an evil CIA chief who hires maniacal hitman Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans, sporting a ’70s-style mustache) to kill Sierra Six. The film, adapted from the Mark Greaney spy-novel series, also features Ana de Armas, Alfre Woodard, Julia Butters, and Billy Bob Thornton.
“Making an action film was definitely on one of my to-do lists, but I wanted it to be good. I was so happy that I waited for this opportunity, because this was like the films I grew up with,” Gosling said on the arrivals carpet. “It’s like those ’80s and ’90s movies. They were fun. The characters had a sense of humor about themselves. Everything was heightened, and there was an escape. When I read this, I thought, This could be like that.”
The Russo brothers have paired intense action sequences with clever dialogue, especially for Gosling and Evans. “Ryan has the best comedic timing. He’s so dry and has the quirkiest sense of humor of anyone we’ve ever worked with—and that includes the cast of Arrested Development and the cast from Community,” said Joe, who also wrote The Gray Man script. “A lot of the funniest lines in the film that come out of Ryan’s mouth were improvs from Ryan.” When asked about his natural ability to spit out playful punch lines, Gosling immediately quipped, “I get my sense of humor from Sears. It was on sale.”
The directors were impressed by Gosling’s wit, but Gosling admires his costar’s quick memory for fight choreography. “Chris ran mustache-first into his role. He had a lot of fun playing it, and I had a lot of fun playing against it,” Gosling said. “The night before we shot our fight scene, I stayed late after work to work on the choreography, and I remember thinking about it all night as I was trying to sleep. In the morning, Chris walked in, and he memorized it after seeing it once. And I was like, He’s going to slug me out.”
Evans was given the opportunity to let loose in his role as a psychopathic killer, sporting a slicked-back hairdo and mustache that have gone viral on social media. The look was his idea. “I really liked the mustache,” Evans said. “As soon as I had the mustache, all of a sudden there he was. It just made sense for a character who harnesses so much confidence.”
With a budget of $200 million, The Gray Man is reportedly Netflix’s most expensive film to date. The money allowed the Russo brothers to shoot a whopping nine action sequences on location around the world, including in Prague and Chantilly, France. Gosling found creating the movie’s action-heavy sequences to be “overwhelming and insane,” especially the scene where he runs on top of a moving bus in Prague. “It did make me feel a little nervous that they saved it for the last thing we were shooting,” he said. “It was scheduled very carefully, just in case that was the last thing I ever filmed in my life. Everything in this movie was extreme.”
Next up for Gosling is the Barbie movie, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie as the iconic toy doll. Gosling plays Barbie’s boyfriend, Ken, and said that he’s been eager to bleach his hair and cover his body with a spray tan. “I’ve waited my whole life to look like this,” he teased. “I hope this starts a Ken-ergy movement. The Ken-ergy is going to be alive and well.”