Peter Jackson addresses Ryan Gosling’s claim he recast him for “The Lovely Bones” because actor gained 60 pounds

Key Points

• Peter Jackson revealed he “got it wrong” when it came to Ryan Gosling’s initial casting in 2009 thriller The Lovely Bones.

• Gosling, who gained 60 pounds for the role, previously said he and the Lord of the Rings director had “a different idea” of what his character should look like.

• Mark Wahlberg replaced Gosling in the film, which also starred Saoirse Ronan, Stanley Tucci, Rachel Weisz, and Susan Sarandon.

Peter Jackson is finally sharing his version on why Ryan Gosling was replaced by Mark Wahlberg in 2009’sThe Lovely Bones.

When Gosling spoke about being let go from the project with The Hollywood Reporter in 2010, the La La Land actor shared how he and Jackson had a “different idea” of how a grieving father whose daughter had been murdered should look. Gosling said he “got it wrong” by gaining 60 pounds for the role, and Wahlberg ended up in his place.Jackson opened up about the casting change while speaking with journalist Didier Allouch at the Cannes Film Festival in France on Wednesday, admitting that the fault more so lied with him.

“I won’t talk about any particular examples of actors because it’s a personal, private thing and it’s not their fault,” he began. “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. So, I’m not going to talk about individuals, but you just got to realize that what you were imagining isn’t really quite happening, which means that we got it wrong and so we take full responsibility.”

Jackson continued, “Ryan is a fantastic actor, as we know. Films are a chemistry both on camera and behind the camera, They’re chemistry in terms of what the actor conveys to the audience of the film. 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.”

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to Gosling’s team for comment.

The Lovely Bones was based on Alice Sebold’s 2002 novel of the same name. The film centers on 14-year-old Susie Salmon, played by Saoirse Ronan, who is raped and murdered by her neighbor, George Harvey (Stanley Tucci) in 1973. Susie watches her family from heaven as they struggle with their grief and hope for any leads in the investigation of her death. The film also starred Rachel Weisz and Susan Sarandon.

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In his THR interview, Gosling shared that he and Jackson “didn’t talk very much during the preproduction process, which was the problem,” attributing the disconnect to the film being “a huge movie, and there’s so many things to deal with, and he couldn’t deal with the actors individually.”

Ronan also spoke on Gosling being taken off the film during a 2024 interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, saying she spoke with both Gosling and Jackson about the situation at the time and found it “totally valid” and “not personal.”

“I think I just loved Ryan. And his dog, George,” Ronan said. “And I was just sad that, you know, he wasn’t gonna be around. But I think the reasons why they parted were totally valid, and I’ve spoken to both now and it happens. Do you know what I mean? It’s not personal, necessarily. It’s like sometimes you’re just not on the same page.”

Ronan also explained that Wahlberg felt like a more natural choice due to his age. At the time of production, Gosling was in his late 20s whereas Wahlberg was nearly 40.

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