So it turns out Ryan Gosling wasn’t too young to play Saoirse Ronan’s grieving father in Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones. He was too fat. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter during an actors’ roundtable, the Blue Valentine star said that Jackson wasn’t pleased when his star showed up to set at 210 pounds, 60 pounds heavier than when the director had hired him. “We had a different idea of how the character should look. I really believed [he should be 210 pounds],” Gosling said. “I’d gotten it wrong. Clearly. And then I was fat and unemployed.”
After a few weeks of rehearsal failed to reassure the filmmakers, Gosling, who was then 26, was replaced by Mark Wahlberg, who’s 11 years older. Gosling’s relative youth was mentioned as the main reason for recasting the role. Last year, Jackson told EW, “We take responsibility for that because we kept saying to Ryan, ‘No, no, it’ll be fine,’ when he said he was too young.”
I find it all a little amusing — though not as amusing as Mark Ruffalo did apparently. Ryan Gosling, The Guy From The Notebook, was canned for being overweight. Gosling talked about the danger of “secretly sabotaging” a film when an actor is not on board with the director’s vision, and I wonder if gaining 60 pounds in the first place represented some reservations about The Lovely Bones. When released, the finished film was a mild disappointment, so perhaps Gosling’s stomach was cooperating with his brain to steer him in a different direction.
Read more:
‘Lovely Bones’: Gosling Out, Wahlberg In
I have no idea what to make of this article. But it’s interesting to think about, on all sides. Enough to type a little comment about it, at the very least.
lol! Me either. What’s up with the reference to Mark Ruffalo?
He’s in the video.
Lucky for him..It was a terrible movie!
Though, if the role had been for a woman and this had happened, all hell would have broken loose (and probably rightfully so)
I think, if it was really unintentional (he didn’t secretly WANT to get fired) he probably would’ve been more in contact with the director about his weight gain. 60 LBS is a HUGE amount of weight to gain when you’re not absolutely contractually sure you’re on the same page.
I think Peter Jackson was trying to be nice to say it was an age thing. I can’t imagine gaining 60 pounds without checking with the director to see if he/she thought that would work. That’s a good reality check for him I guess. Before drastically changing myself for a role, check in on a regular basis with the director. Could be why the movie as a whole didn’t work. Or it could be because the main character is a dead girl. The book was good and worked, but I would never go to a movie with that subject matter.
Oh wow. That’s a whole lotta hotness in one room.
I agree! I watched the whole interview (and some clips of the interview with the actresses) and its really interesting seeing all of them in the same room. But the guys interview was so much more awkward.
I saw this movie on DVD recently. It wasn’t terrible, but it was definitely a disappointment. I actually think it needed to be talkier than it was. Saiorse Ronan was pretty great, though. Stanley Tucci was almost unrecognizably creepy as the serial killer.
@Catiti: Why “rightfully so”?
How is 210 Ibs fat?! For a guy who’s over 6 foot tall that’s a perfectly healthy weight!
That’s a BMI of 27.7, which is considered overweight.
Oh, BMI, BMI, BMI. I wish people would stop putting so much stock in that thing.
Insert eye roll here.
seriously. What is up with the Mark Ruffalo comment in the article?
He’s sitting right next to Gosling in the video, laughing at the anecdote.
Mark Ruffalo was sitting next to Gosling at the roundtable and could be seen cracking up in the video.
He gained more pounds than the number of people who actually watched The Lovely Bones in theaters.
Haha, that is too funny BP!
I watched it at a dollar theater and wanted my money back.
I read the book and I loved the movie! I think Mark did a great job portraying a grieving father and while I like Ryan he’s much too youthful to portray a father to a teenage kid.
No way Mark Wahlberg was believable as an accountant.
Ryan Gosing is this generation’s Sean Penn. I will see him in any movie because he is such a great actor. I think he meant that since he envisioned the character a certain physical way that he would probably butt heads with Jackson over other aspects of the character and didn’t want to pursue the project.