Before Ryan Gosling starred in exceptional movies like The Notebook, Barbie and his upcoming movie The Fall Guy, he was a TV star. If you can believe it, one of Gosling’s earliest and final TV roles was starring in Fox Kids Network’s Young Hercules. While it’s been a long time since that prequel series premiered, the Canadian actor found it in himself to think back to his 17-year-old self's time on the show while explaining why he wanted to make a movie about the stunt industry.
Young Hercules was filled with plenty of action sequences as we see the aspiring warrior train at Cheiron's Academy. But if you thought that Ryan Gosling did all of those stunts himself, think again. Especially if you look back on slow-motion action clips from the prequel series, you know that is definitely not the La La Land actor’s face. Gosling said at the Grove in Los Angeles for a special screening of The Fall Guy (via Variety) about how taking part in that kids series was where his love for stunt performers came from:
I was on a kid’s action show called ‘Young Hercules,' I’ve basically had a stunt double my whole life and there’s this sort of accepted dynamic where they come on set, they do all the cool stuff, they risk everything, and then they disappear into the shadows and we all pretend as though they were never there. Everyone else on set gets credit, but there’s some sort of understanding that they don’t.
If what Ryan Gosling said is correct, it’s a shame that stunt performers are so overlooked in their profession. After all, not everyone is like Tom Cruise performing dangerous stunts. Stunt performers are risking their lives to perform action maneuvers that not all movie stars have the training to do. Take it from the documentary David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived, which is about how Holmes suffered an accident on the set of Harry Potter that left him partially paralyzed. I’m sure the cast and crew are very fortunate for the hard work they do.
With Ryan Gosling’s prolific film career working with stunt performers, he knew it was important to star and produce the praiseworthy movie The Fall Guy about a stunt performer turning into an unlikely hero. As it took eight stunt workers to complete the action-comedy, the Oscar-nominated actor made sure to convey at the screening what scene makes the blockbuster action flick so unique:
There’s a gentleman who buckles me into a car — that’s Logan Holladay — for a stunt he’s about to do. Then he goes on to do eight-and-a-half cannon rolls, which is a world record. And then he pulls me out of the car and pats me on the back for the stunt that he just did.
Gosling continued to say that it’s the stunt doubles we should hold responsible for creating some of cinema’s best action sequences. If you want to know just how important stunt work was for The Fall Guy, stuntman Logan Holladay was presented with a special plaque at his film's screening to commemorate a major Guinness World Record.
This award-winning stunt was what Ryan Gosling described as a series of eight Jeep Grand Cherokee vehicle cannon rolls, with Holliday being the man behind the wheel performing them. The original record was set by stuntman Adam Kirley, who did seven cannon roles for Casino Royale. Holliday was more than worthy of that plaque, and I'm glad he received recognition for them.
As Ryan Gosling has worked with stunt performers ever since his former child star days on Young Hercules, he has an understanding of the hard work the risk-takers go through for their craft and how important it was to bring to life their story. Maybe action movies like this will finally inspire the Academy Awards to give Oscars to stunt performers. The talented people behind awesome stunts will be honored in the 2024 movie release of The Fall Guy on May 3rd.
