Ryan Gosling’s “Project Hail Mary” press junket took a completely unexpected turn after WFLD-TV Chicago (Fox 32) reporter Jake Hamilton was forced to give a video interview to the Oscar nominee while stranded on the side of the road. Hamilton, who publishes video interviews on his YouTube page Jake’s Takes, was unable to interview Gosling in person because his bus broke down while returning from the Grand Canyon to attend a press conference.
“Are you in a volcano?” Gosling asked when he discovered Hamilton conducting an interview on a rocky field outside. “You look like Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible, where he’s climbing!… This is great. I don’t want you to get stuck, but the value of this production is… Do you technically need a permit to film there? It’s like doing a Western!”
Hamilton tried to steer the interview back to “Project Hail Mary,” but Gosling, unable to shake off the absurdity of what was happening, asked, “Is there any help along the way?”
“About an hour,” Hamilton told Gosling, turning the camera around to show the broken down bus on the side of the road and other passengers waiting for help. “So, I don’t know how long you can talk to me, but I’d like to have about an hour.”
“Wait a minute…first of all, do you have water? Are you hydrated?” Gosling asked, and Hamilton replied that he had water. “Really? Are you sure there’s enough water for everyone? Because it could get ugly…I’m concerned about your hydration. Do you have a power bar?”
Project Hail Mary, based on the 2021 novel by Andy Weir, stars Gosling as schoolteacher Ryland Grace. He wakes up alone in a spaceship light years from Earth, with no recollection of how he got there. As his memory begins to return, he devises an outlandish plan to send him into the galaxy to stop a mysterious being from darkening the sun. The film is directed by Chris Miller and Phil Lord and co-stars Sandra Hüller.
“I’d love to hear that you’ve come out of this situation,” Gosling told Hamilton when the interview ended. Watch the entire encounter in the video below.
