Amazon MGM Studios’ “Project Hail Mary” is off to a phenomenal start, both critically and commercially, pulling in $140 million worldwide in its opening weekend and setting many records for a non-franchise and non-sequel Hollywood release. The book’s author, Andy Weir (“The Martian”), was also a producer on the movie and was present for the majority of its shooting days.
We caught up with Weir amid the late stages of a month-long whirlwind press tour to see how he’s been holding up in the media storm and hear about working closely with Ryan Gosling. But before that, the important question… his go-to beverage during marathon interview sessions.
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Working with Ryan Gosling and watching his careful preparation and process to bring Ryland Grace to life was an enriching educational experience for Weir.
“I didn’t realize how much a part of the creative process that the actors are,” he notes. “I naively thought that actors are just there to read the words and put the correct emotion behind them. But they do so much more. They help create the character and add depth and complexity. There’s a lot of going off script in order to make the character better.”
“Ryan added so much depth and layers to Ryland that I never had in the book. And I was so happy about that because I consider character depth to be one of my biggest weaknesses as an author. I’m a plot-driven author. Seeing Ryan add all these layers, I’m like, ‘Oh, good, he’s covering the things that I didn’t do.’ Then later I’ll get credit for that character,” jokes Weir.
Gosling’s fine portrayal of the reluctant, resourceful savior of Earth showcases the actor’s ease with comedic material in contrast to his more brooding roles in darker films like “Drive” and “The Place Beyond The Pines.”
“I think he’s been champing at the bit to have a role that allows him more range.” Weir adds, “He’s this very talented actor, and he keeps getting put into these roles where his job is to stare solemnly into space.”
“If you think about ‘Blade Runner: 2049’ and ‘First Man,’ he’s always this blank, flat affect,” laments Weir. “And that’s what those scripts called for. One of the reasons this movie appealed to him is because it did allow him to have a full range of emotion and to express them and have a personality on screen.”
Between all the special screenings, world premieres, and press interviews (sorry), the Hollywood hype cycle can take it out of you.
“For me personally, I’m pretty tired. And I’m not even doing much,” explains Weir. “I have a four-year-old son now, and so I told them I need to do the minimum amount of travel away from home. I can do remote interviews all day long, but actually leaving and traveling costs me wife points. And everybody knows wife points are a precious commodity.”
“Even with my abbreviated travel schedule, it’s been pretty exhausting. The directors and Ryan did London and Paris, and then Mexico City, and then they’re coming back to New York. I’m in Washington, D.C., right this moment. I just flew in this morning. I take meds to fly, and they make me go off to sleepy land. I took a little bit of a nap before my interviews today.”
After long hours on set with cast and crew, we wondered if any “Project Hail Mary” props or mementos came home with Weir as souvenirs or touchstones.
“I got my ‘Andy Weir – Project Hail Mary – Producer’ cloth backing from my producer chair,” he admits. “And I also took some of the Xenonite trinkets from the set. The model shop made everything, and all the Xenonite stuff was crafted by them. They had a few misprints, or the directors didn’t like this, or that version, and so I took some of the rejects home.”
For Weir’s favorite scenes from the Phil Lord and Christopher Miller-directed sci-fi film, the author singles out two in particular, and we completely concur!
“It’s kind of a tie,” he admits. “The first contact stuff when Ryland and Rocky are trying to interact with each other and create a shared language. And the other one would be the fishing sequence when they have to get a sample from Adrian’s atmosphere, that’s really pulse-pounding.”
“Project Hail Mary” is currently playing in theaters around the globe. The Andy Weir novel it is based on can be found in bookstores and online retailers.