Ryan Gosling feels grateful to have had a chance to work with Russell Crowe in The Nice Guys. The suave actor shared details about how he was called a schmuck on the sets and his bonding with on-screen daughter
The girl playing your daughter (Angourie Rice) looks very impressive. Can you tell us a little about working with herIJ
She is incredible. She’s just about 15 and I think it’s her second film, and you would think it is her 50th, you know. She has such a strong point of view on her character and what she would and wouldn’t do for it. And it makes it really fun because she is a kid in all these other ways but a the same time she is not annoying. She is more of like a hyper adult and feels strongly about her character which makes it really fun to act out scenes with her because she cannot suffer fools lightly. She can get in and hit back just as well as anyone else.
Do you ever use other movies to, when you’re working on something, I'll sit down and watch this and remind me of something I lovedIJ
Shane (Shane Black, director) gave me some movies to watch. What does Night Moves have to do with thisIJ All the movies he gave have nothing to do with this. Total waste of time. This is a spoiler alert, but there is a scene with a giant talking bumblebee, cigarette smoking bumble bee in this movie. We have a whole scene with him. That ain’t in Night Moves, and that requires a whole other conversation in tone that we never had, so we’re trying to find that tone.
How’s Shane as an audienceIJ It seems as a writer, he is so entertaining on the page. Does he let you know when he’s really entertained by something you guys are doing or is he reticentIJ
Buster Keaton. I always hear that Shane is laughing by the monitor. People are always saying that and then I go back and he’s like, ‘It’s a serviceable take.’ You’re not ever in danger of getting high-fived to death.
You have your pick of projects, and we are sure you’re offered a lot. What was it about this project that made you say yesIJ The script, the director or bothIJ
I think these movies exist, and there has to be something between those two characters, since they’re two-handers. If it wasn’t Russell, I don’t think I would have done it. Just, when I read the script, I knew that Shane was on a plane trying to convince Russell to do it, so I read it with Russell in mind. I just never, I just could completely picture him in the role and I have never seen him do anything quite like this and the movie just immediately became so funny.
Did you have a nickname on the sets of the filmIJ
I play Holland March in the film and on sets I heard the word schmuck more on this movie than I’ve ever heard it. They stopped saying cut at a certain point. I’d just hear Joel behind the monitor going: ‘What a schmuck!’ (laughs)
You have received rave reviews on the your comic timing in the film. What do you have to sayIJ
I just think it’s part of life to find humour, even in the dark stuff of tragedy. In movies, it gets sort of surgically removed and I never quite understood it. It also feels that, if you’re looking for the truth of something, you have to acknowledge the humour of it as well. So it is something that I always look out for and try to incorporate into the films that I am doing. It is not always welcome and often it gets cut out, you know. But I’m always confused by that because it seems counter-productive to me. Because, a lot of the time, it actually helps you feel more deeply about something. It kind of disarms you and you can’t prepare for the emotional punch that’s coming.
You and Russell make a great pair and have certainly hit it off very well. How does it feelIJ
It’s been so surprising to me how he has been so wildly supportive. And I really am grateful for that. I am used to meeting a certain amount of resistance when I am trying to take something in a comedic direction. To want to go as broad as I wanted to go with this, and to have Russell be such a champion of that, well … I am very grateful. I just realised that I’m lucky just to be an actor. It’s an honour. I grew up dreaming about doing this. It sounds cliched. But I get to do it. Not only that, but I get to have choice and to work with people that I admire.