Peter Jackson is finally weighing in on Ryan Gosling’s infamous recasting in “The Lovely Bones,” the director’s 2009 adaptation of Alice Sebold’s novel. Gosling was originally cast as the father of Saoirse Ronan’s lead character, but revealed to THR in 2010 that he was fired from the movie after he gained 60 pounds for the role without Jackson’s consent.
During a conversation in Cannes (via Entertainment Weekly) after receiving an Honorary Palme d’Or, Jackson was asked about Gosling’s revelation and spoke candidly about the decision to drop him from the movie. Mark Wahlberg was then cast in the role.
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“I won’t talk about any particular examples of actors because it’s a personal, private thing and it’s not their fault,” Jackson 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.”
Speaking to THR in 2010, Gosling said, “We had a different idea of how the character should look. I really believed he should be 210 pounds. We didn’t talk very much during the preproduction process, which was the problem.”
“It was a huge movie, and there’s so many things to deal with, and he couldn’t deal with the actors individually. I just showed up on set, and I had gotten it wrong. Then I was fat and unemployed,” Gosling also quipped.
Saoirse Ronan appeared on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast in 2024 and remembered the dramatic casting switch. While Jackson never started filming “The Lovely Bones” with Gosling, Ronan revealed the cast had already “done some prep” by the time Gosling got fired. Ronan had bonded with Gosling and was sad to see him go.
“I think I just loved Ryan and his dog, George, and I was just sad that, you know, he wasn’t gonna be around,” Ronan said. “But I think the reasons why they parted were totally valid, and I’ve spoken to both [Gosling and Jackson] 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.”
“Mark was able to step in, and he was a father,” Ronan added. “He was a father to, like, I don’t know, three kids? He probably had an experience of that that Ryan felt he didn’t. Ryan was like 27. He was young.”
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