IT’S A BLUE-SKY MARCH DAY on the New York Street back lot at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. The acrid smoke of burning rubber wafts in the air around The Fall Guy director David Leitch and star Ryan Gosling. The reported $125 million movie dropped May 3 and is loosely inspired by the ’80s TV action series about stunt performers. The smoke comes from stunt driver Logan Holladay, who is behind the wheel of a 750-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. He’s spinning doughnuts around Gosling and Leitch for their Men’s Health cover shoot. The actor and director seem genuinely close, having spent six months filming the movie in Australia. “Anytime they let you burn rubber and don’t kick you out is a good day,” quips Gosling.
The 43-year-old Canadian still has the glow from another good day, when he performed his epic rendition of “I’m Just Ken” at the Oscars a week earlier. The three-time Oscar nominee (Half Nelson, La La Land, Barbie) gives off a pensive, percolating vibe—part chess grand master, part mime—with twinkling blue eyes and smile-smirk-simmer variations for days. The Mouseketeers alum says his appreciation of stunt performers dates back to playing Young Hercules as a 17-year-old. He jokes he’s had stunt doubles doing his hard work ever since. In The Fall Guy, there’s an action-movie-within-an-action-movie concept, and Gosling plays Colt Seavers, the stunt double to that movie’s star, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
To create Gosling’s larger-than-life Fall Guy character, Leitch says, it actually took five stunt performers: driving whiz Holladay, primary stunt double Ben Jenkin, martial-arts expert Justin Eaton, and other specialists in jumping, falling, parkour, fist fighting, and sword dueling. Although you may not recognize the 54-year-old Leitch, you no doubt know his handiwork as a stunt double for both Brad Pitt in Fight Club and Matt Damon in The Bourne Ultimatum, as well as his fight and stunt choreography as a director of John Wick, Atomic Blonde, and Bullet Train. While his movies portray stylish violence, Leitch himself oozes fun energy, is quick to laugh, and has an empathetic, gentle demeanor.
is the exploding-spinning-fighting, slow-motion, split-screen sum of Leitch’s movie experience, a visual mega mix of car jumps, boat chases, helicopter hijinks, and every known kind reminds us of the human grind that stunts demand and the physical and emotional cost of creating the mind-blowing action scenes so many of us love. sat down with Leitch and Gosling to talk about what’s at stake.
