Ryan Gosling getting fired from a major Hollywood production has remained a curious question for over 15 years. The actor revealed in 2010 that he was fired after gaining 60 pounds for a role without the director’s approval, and now LOTR’s director Peter Jackson has offered his perspective on what went wrong.
Peter Jackson reacts to Ryan Gosling getting fired from Lovely Bones
Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival after receiving an Honorary Palme d’Or, Jackson addressed the recasting decision that had Mark Wahlberg replace Gosling in The Lovely Bones, Jackson’s 2009 adaptation of Alice Sebold’s novel. Gosling had been cast as Jack Salmon, the father of Saoirse Ronan’s lead character.
LOTR director declined to discuss Gosling’s specific case in detail, calling casting disputes a private matter. He instead spoke broadly about the responsibility filmmakers bear when such decisions become necessary.
“Anytime we recast an actor, it’s actually our fault because we didn’t get the casting right and we cast the wrong person for a role. It’s not because they did anything wrong (via Entertainment Weekly).”
Jackson acknowledged Gosling’s abilities while explaining the unpredictable nature of assembling a cast. “Ryan is a fantastic actor, as we know,” Jackson continued. “Films are a chemistry both on camera and behind the camera.”
The filmmaker added, “It’s just a complicated sort of amalgam of communication of how somebody gels into a group of people, into a story, into a character. It’s complicated and usually you try very hard when you’re planning the film, casting it, trying to get that gel kind of right, but occasionally we make our own mistakes.”
Ryan Gosling first detailed the firing incident in a 2010 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. He explained that his vision for the character differed fundamentally from Jackson’s. “We had a different idea of how the character should look.”
The actor continued, “I really believed he should be 210 pounds. We didn’t talk very much during the preproduction process, which was the problem.” He further quipped, “I just showed up on set, and I had gotten it wrong. Then I was fat and unemployed.”