'The Fall Guy' director David Leitch, Ryan Gosling, and his stuntman Logan Holladay break down how they pulled off a variety of stunt scenes in their new action film. From breaking the world record for cannon rolls in a car to Ryan (maybe) overcoming his fear of heights, they each explain from their own perspectives the nuances of coordinating and filming such intricate sequences.THE FALL GUY is in theaters now, https://www.thefallguymovie.com/tickets/Director: Kristen DeVoreEditor: Phil CeconiGuest: Ryan Gosling; David Leitch; Logan HolladayProducer: Sam DennisLine Producer: Jen SantosProduction Manager: James PipitoneProduction Coordinator: Elizabeth HymesTalent Booker: Meredith JudkinsProduction Assistant: Brock SpitaelsPost Production Supervisor: Rachael KnightPost Production Coordinator: Ian BryantSupervising Editor: Rob LombardiAssistant Editor: Andy MorellSpecial Thanks: Glass Engine
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 But where'd the pickle even come from?
00:01 Someone's idea to put a pickle sticker on the helmet.
00:03 I hope it's gone.
00:04 No.
00:04 No, there it is.
00:05 It's a damn pickle.
00:06 It's on there.
00:07 It didn't come out.
00:08 I don't like to do scenes with stickers that are more interesting than I am.
00:11 Hey GQ, I'm David Leitch.
00:12 I'm Ryan Gosling.
00:14 And I'm Logan Holliday.
00:15 Today we're going to break down how we did basically how Logan did some of the coolest stunts in our movie, The Fall Guy.
00:21 Cue fake remote.
00:22 [laughs]
00:23 [music]
00:32 We're going flat, please.
00:33 The reason I put on these sunglasses is because I had to hide my fear.
00:37 [laughs]
00:38 There's no reason for me to have sunglasses.
00:40 I fall backwards into whatever the fictitious shot of this.
00:43 Whatever this movie is.
00:44 I mean, that's how we feel a lot of times doing this stuff.
00:46 It's not that it's not scary.
00:48 It's always scary.
00:49 You just take the right precautions. You have the experience for it.
00:52 It was a long process.
00:53 They were really great with me because they knew I had this fear of heights.
00:57 But I wanted to do this because, I mean, I tried to get out of it a million times.
01:00 [laughs]
01:02 But in the end, I understood that I needed to do it.
01:04 They have this thing.
01:05 It's called green screen.
01:06 It's called green screen.
01:06 You could just do this and shrink me.
01:08 [laughs]
01:09 But it was an opportunity to sort of even get a little bit of a sliver of the experience that you guys have every day.
01:16 What you go through, and that's the whole point of this opening sequence, is it starts in the trailer.
01:21 We go all the way through set.
01:23 You get a sense of just the day-to-day of this guy's life.
01:25 And then he's going up and up and up.
01:27 And he goes up 12 stories.
01:28 And then they drop him off a building.
01:30 And so it felt like the perfect way to start the movie.
01:32 People ask how you get actors to do some of these things.
01:37 Having the right crew, creating the element of trust, and then working in a progression.
01:41 We started in a parking lot.
01:43 And over the course of many weekends, it was slowly getting higher and higher and higher.
01:47 And then also just kind of developing that trust.
01:50 I thought I might get over my fear of heights, which I did not, unfortunately.
01:55 What I did was just learn to trust the people around me.
01:58 They were the best of the best.
01:59 We have to do the same thing.
02:00 I mean, there's plenty of times you're doing stunts as a performer where it's not performance dependent.
02:05 It is absolutely 100% the rig.
02:07 All the shackles are tight.
02:09 Yep.
02:10 You sure?
02:10 Yeah.
02:11 OK.
02:11 You hit a button and you're like, "Oh, God."
02:13 You build this camaraderie and you build this trust with each other.
02:16 You start doing a lot of stuff with a team.
02:18 And you get to know them and you get comfortable with them.
02:20 Everybody has their job.
02:22 And you just have to not think about that other person's job.
02:24 You've got to just go, "OK, well, I know that it's good because I trust them.
02:27 Now I just have to do what I have to do."
02:29 This was hard.
02:35 To do a cannon roll and just have a big wreck, that's something you could achieve in just one take.
02:39 You put the cannon in the car, you set up, you go fast.
02:42 You hit the cannon, how it rolls, it rolls.
02:45 Not often are you trying to do, like, break a record, you know?
02:49 I love this scene for so many reasons.
02:53 You'll see that it's Logan who straps me into the seat for this stunt.
02:57 He goes on to do the stunt, break the world record, and then when it's over, you'll see he pulls me out of the car
03:03 and pats me on the back for the stunt he just did.
03:06 At this point, I'd already done, like, five of these things on this movie.
03:09 And so then two hours later, I'm pulling you out of the car.
03:12 You have to come pat me on the back for it.
03:14 We're doing the scene, and I'm helping you take your helmet and your neck restraint off.
03:17 And they start rolling cameras, and you look at me, and you go, "This is so fucked up."
03:21 He goes, "You just did this, and then now you're helping me get out of it."
03:25 And they go, "And action!" I'm like, "All right, buddy, let's go!"
03:27 Watching this go down was the most tense day I've ever had on set.
03:31 Knowing you were trying to break the record, so it was like this weird combo
03:34 of counting the rolls, wanting those rolls for you,
03:38 but then also worrying about what every roll was doing to you.
03:41 There's a reason why no one's broken this record since the early 2000s.
03:45 It was freaking hard. It was so technical.
03:48 You had to have the perfect amount of pressure in the cannon,
03:51 the right amount of pressure in the tires, the exact speed, the entry.
03:56 The sand density.
03:57 The sand density was a really bad thing.
03:59 Which worked its way into the movie, because we were like,
04:01 "Everything has to go right, and you're factoring everything in."
04:04 Look, I don't want to be that guy, but the sand's a little loose.
04:07 They level the sand at the beach out. They compact it.
04:10 They make it better. But now it is a different thing.
04:14 The only difference I made from the first one we did on camera
04:17 that did three end over end, to the second one I did on camera
04:21 that did eight and a half sideways, was turning and holding the turn
04:26 for one second longer before I hit the button.
04:29 The first one I did, I turned, hit the button.
04:31 Second one I turned, held it for one more second, then hit the button.
04:35 And that was the difference.
04:36 Yeah, because the first wreck, at which we had it, was already epic.
04:40 It kind of went up and twisted, side-spin pirouetted,
04:43 and in any other movie you'd be like, "Ah, this is amazing.
04:46 It'll be in the trailer. Everyone's going to use it for materials."
04:49 And then we wanted to do something special, and you guys asked to do it again.
04:53 And I'm like, "I think we got it in the can. It's good for the story."
04:56 And you're like, "No, you really fought for it,
04:59 and we really wanted you guys to have it."
05:02 It was cool the other day, I heard you say, someone asked you
05:05 what was the difference about this particular stunt, and you were like,
05:08 "In a lot of stunts, you're hoping not to wreck,
05:11 but this one you know you're going to."
05:13 The ideal outcome is you don't crash, you jump, you clean it,
05:17 everything's clear, and you make it to the other side.
05:19 Where going bad in a situation like that would be not making it
05:24 and crashing and having a really big wreck.
05:26 What's at least great about this stunt is that you're wrecking.
05:30 If I could make it a bigger wreck, we would have.
05:34 We made it the biggest wreck that it could be.
05:37 The whole crew was with you, everybody was just so invested.
05:40 You could hear a pin drop.
05:42 We knew you broke the record, but we were waiting for you to give the thumbs up.
05:45 And when it comes out, the whole crew was so elated and erupted in applause.
05:49 It was just amazing. I remember thinking, "We should make a movie about this."
05:53 I was like, "Wait, I think we are."
05:55 Things are never perfect conditions.
05:57 You get to the edge and they're like, "Oh wait, but you've got to wear the boots."
06:00 What?
06:01 And then there's a 10K in your eyes and you're like,
06:03 "Wait, I've got to wear the boots," and there's a 10K and they're like,
06:05 "And action!" You're like, "What?"
06:07 That's why it's real. What Colt is feeling in the story is real.
06:10 Like, "Wait, the sand is loose. I told you guys."
06:12 And they're like, "We've got to keep going."
06:13 You bump the camera and you're like, "We've got seven more."
06:15 That is so-- it might seem hyperbolic, it is absolutely the truth.
06:21 The actor doesn't want a pickle on his helmet.
06:24 We've got to shoot all over again.
06:26 But the fact that you came in and you congratulated me for what you did
06:29 also in the scene is just-- I think the whole point of this movie
06:33 is summed up in this one scene.
06:35 A thousand percent.
06:36 I blacked out for most of this. You tell me what's me.
06:41 That's you?
06:42 That's me.
06:43 This was an early start.
06:44 That's Ben.
06:45 The craziest thing was the fact that we locked down the harbor bridge
06:50 and that Ryan was game enough to just show up kind of uninitiated
06:55 because we didn't have a chance to rehearse this.
06:56 Hard to rehearse this.
06:57 We did a few kind of rehearsals in a parking lot,
07:00 but it felt different on the day.
07:02 It felt a little faster, more sparks, it was raining.
07:06 It started to rain and then the dirt is just kicking up.
07:08 There's no way to stop it. There's no way to block it from you.
07:11 It was like 5.30 in the morning or something crazy
07:14 because you were trying to limit the traffic.
07:16 I'm glad it was that early because I was so tired.
07:19 I just kind of walked up to set.
07:21 I was held onto the shovel and then it just hauled my ass across the bridge.
07:26 And then it was over and then we did it a few times
07:29 and I went back to the trailer and fell asleep.
07:31 And I was like, "That was a really weird dream I just had."
07:34 Or was it a nightmare?
07:36 Normally we talk about the scene and we're like,
07:38 "Make sure we're making all the right choices."
07:40 And I just looked at you like--
07:42 We can't talk.
07:43 There'd be no talks right now.
07:44 Just shut up till this morning. Just do the stunt.
07:46 I'm already hooking you up like this and you're like,
07:48 "Action!"
07:49 And you were beside me in a follow car, both you and Kelly.
07:52 I could see you guys looking out the window and I was just like,
07:55 "Oh my God."
07:56 I was on the motorcycle right in front of you
07:58 trying not to let you catch the bike.
08:00 It's a great way to see Sydney.
08:02 If you can have the garbage truck tour of Sydney,
08:05 I highly recommend it.
08:07 It was funny because we worked so much I didn't get to get out very much.
08:10 And sometimes when I did I would look around and be like,
08:12 "This looks familiar."
08:13 And then I would kind of pretend lay down and be like,
08:16 "Oh yeah, I was here in a garbage truck.
08:18 That's why I recognize this street."
08:21 Continue this charade.
08:22 One of those remotes that points.
08:24 There's Jean-Claude. Amazing.
08:31 Stunt dog. Right? Stunt performer in his own right.
08:35 Actually did all of his own-- her own stunts.
08:39 What's fun thing about this scene, there's stunts in it obviously,
08:41 but we were connecting the characters,
08:43 which makes I think the action more exciting.
08:47 There's actually stakes.
08:49 Is he going to get to karaoke on time?
08:51 How the hell did you do this?
08:52 So this is a classic Fall Guy truck jump,
08:55 kind of like the truck jumps were on the Fall Guy TV series.
08:59 Not a really, really big one,
09:01 but just a cool jump to do in the middle of a chase.
09:03 It's a little more technical than just hitting a ramp and going for it
09:06 because there's a truck that I'm supposed to land right behind.
09:10 If you go a little bit too fast or you're there too soon,
09:13 you land on that truck.
09:14 The cameras all have to catch this,
09:16 so we rehearse this thing and know exactly how high the truck goes.
09:20 We also have a jump calculator that will calculate
09:23 exactly where it's supposed to land.
09:25 I'm not surprised.
09:26 So I could put in the weight of the vehicle.
09:28 I could put in the wheelbase of it, the ramp.
09:30 I put in all the dimensions of everything,
09:32 and it'll tell us exactly where it's going to land,
09:36 and it's pretty accurate.
09:37 I mean, on this jump right here, it was accurate within one foot
09:41 because once you jump this truck, you ruin it.
09:44 As soon as this thing hits the ground, it's bent.
09:47 It's not going to do anything else again,
09:50 so everything has to be just right to make this thing work.
09:54 Chris goes, "You can put a camera right there
09:56 because he's going to land right here," and I landed right there.
09:59 In the Fall Guy show, you watch multiple times.
10:02 That truck would just show up from nowhere.
10:04 It would just be funny, like the middle of the thing,
10:07 the bad guys are going, and this truck just lands into frame.
10:11 Look out for the school bus!
10:13 [truck engine revving]
10:15 So we were playing with that, but I think after a couple
10:18 audience screenings, they're like, "Where's that truck coming from?"
10:21 You can't really do this type of jump just sitting in the seat
10:24 being strapped down because there's way too much G-force
10:27 on the landing going down that it would be hard on your spine.
10:30 So you're suspended above the seat?
10:32 Yeah, so I had them take the stock seat out, put in a racing seat,
10:35 but only for the purposes of it being extra low,
10:38 and wear a full harness that grabs my legs and my torso.
10:41 Then we put pulleys in the roof right here above me,
10:45 and the ropes go up into those pulleys down behind me,
10:48 and then they're into a really stiff bungee system.
10:51 That cushion, that little bit of movement you get right there,
10:54 it saves your spine, so you can walk away from this
10:57 with having no injuries whatsoever.
11:00 If you did not run that setup, it would be a different story.
11:03 Then there's a fail-safe as well, which is just empty water bottles
11:07 that I taped together and sat on.
11:10 I ended up popping, I think, three of them.
11:12 Is that standard practice, or is that your idea?
11:14 That's kind of standard practice, actually.
11:16 You have all this technology.
11:18 Two cups and plywood.
11:20 Yeah, and then you go back to some old-school methods that work
11:23 that have saved people for years and years and years.
11:26 No flowers were harmed while shooting this.
11:29 Those are not real flowers. [laughter]
11:31 Thanks for watching. I think there's something wrong with my remote.
11:34 It's not working, so I'm going to go fix it.
11:36 Go see The Fall Guy May 3rd.
11:38 See some more amazing work from these two incredible stunt performers.
11:42 Wow. Thanks, man.
11:44 - Yeah. - Yeah.