(Los Angeles) Fort of the planetary cardboard of barbie where he played Ken, actor Ryan Gosling took advantage of the premiere of his new film to shine the spotlight on Hollywood’s shadowy heroes, the stuntmen.
The Fall Guy shows the Canadian actor as a seasoned stuntman who must recover from a serious injury contracted during filming in order to save a former conquest (British Emily Blunt) from a mysterious, but very real, threat.
While the film – more or less based on an 80s TV series (The man who falls at the right time) – is released in American theaters on Friday, the idea of wider recognition of these understudies is gaining ground in Hollywood, notably through the creation of a category at the Oscars rewarding their work.
On the red carpet Tuesday, Gosling pointed to one of his understudies. “Eight times he was set on fire in my place. How do you thank someone for that? »
In The Fall Guythe character played by the Canadian forty-year-old must use his entire range of talents and professional know-how, between high-speed chases and fights with improvised weapons, to save the day and win back his ex.
Skills highlighted during the premiere in Los Angeles where we saw stuntmen ride down the red carpet on motorbikes, jump from a high platform or go through a window while fighting.
“We just broke a little glass to make the show nice,” joked Justin Eaton, a stuntman.
The director of The Fall GuyDavid Leitch, is a former stuntman who got beaten up for Matt Damon in The Bourne Ultimatum and Brad Pitt in Fight Clubamong others.
“Classic”
PHOTO UNIVERSAL PICTURES VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in The Fall Guy
Mr. Leitch made his directorial debut in 2014 John Wick and signed box office hits like Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2 Or Bullet Train but this is the first film that he devotes specifically to his former profession.
In a niche, action films, where computer-generated visual special effects are increasingly used, Mr. Leitch has taken great pleasure in staging old-fashioned stunts that are rarely used anymore. Today.
“It was really important, we wanted to rely on concrete stunts because this film is a tribute to this craft,” he explained to AFP. “So we did classic, and we did it for real.”
Several stuntmen were needed to overtake Ryan Gosling, including Logan Holladay, steering wheel expert, who achieved the feat of doing eight and a half rolls from a high-speed launch, a record for this type of stunt, says cannon rolls.
The type of feat that could have been worth The Fall Guy an Oscar next year if the Academy had a “best stunt” category, for example the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Calls for the creation of a new statuette are increasing, its defenders arguing that the role of stuntmen is no less important on a film than that of sound engineers, make-up artists or special effects creators, already rewarded.
“You can win an Oscar for best screenplay by spending a year writing in a cabin,” notes Drew Pearce, the film’s screenwriter. “Whereas a stuntman risks his life every day on set, and that’s not a metaphor.”
At the last Oscars, Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, each nominated for another film, praised the work of the stuntmen, who have been “a determining part of the cinema community since the beginning” according to the Canadian actor.
“We work in the shadows, we accept it and we signed up for it,” slips stuntman Justin Eaton. “But it’s important to have public recognition.”