With huge numbers being racked up by the no-holds-barred action flick, The Gray Man, it didn’t take long for Netflix to greenlight and confirm a spin-off sequel with Ryan Gosling attached. Given Gosling’s role as Hollywood’s go-to cool guy, his role as the titular hero is succinct in capturing his deftly habitable shyness alongside his effortless aloofness. It’s one of the better action movies of the last decade and deserves its sequel, below Gosling picks out some of the pivotal scenes of the film and breaks them down.
One of the most expensive movies Netflix has ever made accrued nearly 100 million hours of viewing on the opening weekend of the film. Considering it not only boasted Gosling in the lead role but with Chris Evans as his adversary, Ana De Armas as his partner-in-crime, Rege Jean-Page as his former boss and Billy Bob Thornton as his mentor, things were always likely to be heading skyward unless, of course, you listened to the critics.
Widely panned by movie critics who seem to not understand that an action lick rarely needs narrative outside of a gun chamber and that, for many, this is considered an enjoyable facet of the art form, The Gray Man is a joy to behold. Bloody and furious, it sees Gosling’s assassin character, Six, being chased by every hitman on earth as they attempt to steal a chip that could bring down the agency.
“Billy Bob’s giving such a good performance,” says Gosling as he deconstructs the opening scene. “And I’m just chewing… chewing the scenery.” the turht is, gosling had been working on a character quirk that would see him chew gum and blow bubbles throughout the movie, but when it was cut it left the rest of the gum chewing in a distasteful spot.
The film also provides a tasty morsel of meta irony as Six is referred to as having a “Ken doll brain”, which, given his upcoming role in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie film feels deliberately pointed. “Ken would love The Gray Man,” says Gosling. “Ken wants all of these clothes, Ken wants that tracksuit.”
Watch Ryan Gosling break down scenes from The Gray Man below.
