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Project Hail Mary's Andy Weir on torturing lead Ryan Gosling: "No amount of physical discomfort for Ryan is enough"

Weir, who wrote the bestselling novel on which Project Hail Mary is based, appeared at San Diego Comic Con with star Gosling. And somehow, Gosling seemed happy to be there?

News by Grant DeArmitt, Staff Writer

Published on Sat Aug 02 2025

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How do you make a groundbreaking sci-fi film? If you're George Lucas, I suppose the answer is to pioneer spaceship SFX. If you're Stanley Kubrick, it's to work in as much classical music as you can. But if you're the team behind 2026's Project Hail Mary, some of whom appeared at this year's San Diego Comic Con, the answer appears to be even simpler:

You put your star through absolute Hell.

That star would be Ryan Gosling, who took to the Hall H stage at SDCC '25 along with Project Hail Mary's directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and the author of the novel upon which the book is based, The Martian creator Andy Weir. At one point in the panel, Weir shared the amount of physicality involved in Gosling's portrayal of main character Ryland Grace - and apparently, it's. not the fun kind.

"We agreed that no amount of physical discomfort by Ryan was too much," Weir chuckled, "If he has to hang from wires, if he has to be covered in Vaseline, doesn't matter. Unpleasant prosthetics on him? Doesn't matter, we were willing to make that sacrifice."

In case you don't know, Project Hail Mary sees Gosling's character shot into space to attempt to make contact with an alien lifeform. A lightyear-long journey like that requires him to go through things like cryosleep and anti-gravity conditions, the effects of which were performed practically on set, and all by poor Gosling.

"He was our Fall Guy," Weir concluded. Good one, Andy.

Project Hail Mary comes to theaters March 20, 2026.

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Grant DeArmitt: Grant DeArmitt (he/him) likes horror, comics, and the unholy union of the two. In the past, and despite their better judgment, he has written for Nightmare on Film Street and Newsarama. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner, Kingsley, and corgi, Legs.