By Gavin Boyle
Being a father gives Ryan Gosling a different perspective on sacrifice than his character in the new movie PROJECT HAIL MARY.
“…Once you have kids, it’s like, [sacrifices] are easy. It’s an easy call to make. You know, I think it’s different for this character because he doesn’t have that. And, yeah, so…it’s much more of an existential crisis for him too, and he doesn’t believe in himself very much anyway,” Gosling told PEOPLE.
PROJECT HAIL MARY follows Gosling’s character Ryland Grace, a science teacher who “wakes up on a spaceship light
years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there.”
Related: ‘I’m a Dad First’: Ryan Gosling Factors His Children Into His Career
“As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out,” the synopsis explains. “He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction…but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.”
“I think that’s also what’s so relatable about his journey is that he just doesn’t [believe in himself],” Gosling continued. “He has to learn to, you know, believe in himself, and, you know, he’s put into this situation that forces him to find what’s in there that he didn’t know was there. And I think we all have that in us. Just what are the circumstances that will bring it out?”
Being a dad has changed the actor’s career, impacting his decision to take on roles depending on how much time they would take him away from his family and the content of the projects. He shares daughters Esmeralda Amada, 11, and Amada Lee, 9, with Eva Mendes.
“I think we look for films that we can bring our family to so that we can go to the theater to see [it] and kind of recreate some of those experiences that I had as a kid, and I feel like I had an opportunity with this one to do that,” Gosling told Movieguide®. “And I also felt like the optimism in this film was something that I wanted to share with my kids, the sense that maybe the future isn’t something to be feared, but just to be figured out.”
PROJECT HAIL MARY delivers on the desire to be a family-friendly movie as it not only features an uplifting plot, but also highlights the faith of a character. A portion of Movieguide®’s review reads:
PROJECT HAIL MARY is a terrific space adventure with lots of humor and heart. It’s a thoroughly uplifting movie with little objectionable content such as two minor references to evolution. Those mentions are counterbalanced by the movie’s Christian title and a lovely reference to God and faith midway in the story, which set the tone for PROJECT HAIL MARY’s exhilarating finish. MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for younger children because of intense scenes of peril.
PROJECT HAIL MARY promises to be a space epic matching the likes of INTERSTELLER and GRAVITY. The movie is in theaters now.
Read Next: PROJECT HAIL MARY Reminds Us of ‘What We’re Capable Of,’ Says Star
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