Film & TV3 min(s) read
Published 16:08 15 Apr 2026 GMT
Ryan Gosling was fired from movie after gaining too much weight for the role
Ryan Gosling said that he lost a film role due to the weight he'd put on in preparation for production.
The Project Hail Mary star opened up on the experience in a 2010 interview, where he revealed that his efforts to better suit the role were rebuffed by the director.
Gosling, 45, was set to star in a 2009 supernatural drama film, until he showed up on set and had a disagreement with filmmakers about how the character should look.
What film was Ryan Gosling fired from?
The Lovely Bones hit cinemas 17 years ago, and starred the likes of Saoirse Ronan, Stanley Tucci, and Mark Wahlberg.
It was a Peter Jackson-led title, with the production based on Alice Sebold's 2002 novel of the same name.
In the film, Susie Salmon (Ronan), is killed by her neighbour George Harvey (Stanley Tucci), and watches over her grieving parents Jack (Mark Wahlberg) and Abigail (Rachel Weisz) from the afterlife.
As the couple struggle to cope with her death, the late teen tries to seek justice while they come to terms with her new form.
Why was Ryan Gosling fired?
Gosling was set to star as Susie's father Jack, but he was instead replaced by Wahlberg after being dropped days before production started in 2007.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in 2010, the Blade Runner 2049 actor admitted that he and Jackson had different ideas for the character's appearance.
The actor had gained 60 pounds before production, revealing: "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," Gosling admitted, joking: "Then I was fat and unemployed."
Director's wife recalls what happened
Jackson's wife Fran Walsh also spoke to the outlet, though one year previously, explaining: "Ryan came to us two or three times and said, 'I’m not the right person for this role. I’m too young'."
She added: "And we said, ‘No, no, no. We can age you up. We can thin your hair.’ We were very keen.
"It wasn’t until we were in preproduction and we had the cast there that it became increasingly clear: He was so uncomfortable moving forward, and we began to feel he was not right.
"It was our blindness, the desire to make it work no matter what," she admitted.
Gosling's weight-gain tactics came in handy
Other actors have taken inspiration from Gosling's weight-gain tactics, with Austin Butler admitting that he used a similar technique to play the older version of Elvis Presley in the film 'Elvis'.
Speaking to Variety, he admitted: "I heard that Ryan Gosling when he was going to do The Lovely Bones, had microwaved Häagen-Dazs [ice cream] and would drink it.
"So I started doing that. I would go get two dozen doughnuts and eat them all.
"I really started to pack on some pounds.
"It’s fun for a week, and then you feel awful about yourself."