Known for his trilogy Lord of the Ringsthen the one around the HobbitPeter Jackson was not content to summarize his career with the work of Tolkien. On the contrary, the filmmaker also staged other stories, starting with Lovely Bones in 2009. A fantastic film adapted from the eponymous novel by Alice Sebold in which we followed a young teenager helping those close to her to discover her murderer, but who had experienced a little chaos behind the scenes.
Ryan Gosling fired from movie just before filming
And for good reason, where Mark Wahlberg (The infiltrators) appeared on screen in the role of Susie’s father, played by Saoirse Ronan, you should know that this casting was not the one initially envisaged by the director. In reality, it was Ryan Gosling (recently seen in Barbie) who was chosen for this role. However, shortly before the start of filming, Peter Jackson finally decided to fire him due to different creatives. An upheaval which caused a lot of talk at the time, and which has just been returned to Saoirse Ronan.
During an interview with Happy Sad Confused, James Bond’s possible new adversary in the cinema was asked to react to this unexpected departure of Ryan Gosling. A departure which had deeply saddened her, even though they had already shared numerous rehearsals together before filming. “I really liked Ryan. And his dog, George. And I was sad to know that he wasn’t going to be there anymore“, confided the actress, aged 14 during production.
Saoirse Ronan understands this choice
Despite everything, Ronan – who could have previously been found in Harry Potterbelieves that the reasons linked to this departure “were totally valid“. And then to clarify his thoughts: “I have since spoken to both [Gosling et Jackson] and it happens. It’s not necessarily personal. Simply, sometimes, you are not on the same wavelength“.
Above all, with hindsight, it seems obvious that Wahlberg was more credible in this role than Gosling. “Mark was able to easily integrate into the project, because he was already a father. He had three children I thinkrecalled the actress. He probably had experience that Ryan didn’t have. He was only 27 years old. He was young“.
A reality which makes sense today, but which must not have been easy to digest at the time for the main person concerned. After all, in order to slip into the skin of this character, Ryan Gosling had undertaken an impressive physical transformation which had seen him gain nearly 30 kilos.
However, it would be precisely this weight gain that would not have pleased Peter Jackson, who did not visualize the father like that. A late misunderstanding, which could be explained by the fact that the duo did not communicate much before filming, the fault of intensive pre-production on the director’s side.
For the record, Ryan Gosling and Saoirse Ronan finally found each other in 2014 in the film Lost Riverwritten and directed… by Gosling.
