On the 11th October 'First Man' premiered in cinemas, the latest film from the director of 'La La Land', and we spoke with his star, Ryan Gosling. The actor is returning to working with Damien Chazelle after having played the role of Sebastian in Chazelle's romantic musical, and receiving his second Oscar nomination. But before he even started filming 'La La Land', Gosling had already spoken with Chazelle about this galactic project. "I actually met Damien for the first time about this film. He had still to make 'La La Land'." He said that in this meeting the two talked more about Gene Kelly than Neil Armstrong, but that the director "was just really trying to share with me just how dangerous these missions were and how little we knew about them."
And thus this biopic was born, which has already received excellent reviews in film festivals in both Venice and San Sebastian, Chazelle and Gosling received praise for the realism in relation to the personal life of Neil, and Gosling confessed that "the personal aspect was very moving to me". The famous astronaut was tormented from within after the death of his daughter, Karen, who suffered from a tumor, while he was preparing for one of the most dangerous missions in history.
It was precisely this aspect which affected Gosling the most, worrying whether Armstrong's son's would feel proud of the film. "I think the hardest thing was knowing that his sons were going to see the film, that just was with me every day," he admitted. Despite this, the film was well received by the astronaut's sons, Rick and Mark Armstrong, who did not doubt the praise for the film and Gosling's interpretation of their father.
An Immersive Experience
As well as worrying about faithfully reflecting the personal life of the protagonist, the 'Drive' and 'Blade Runner' actor also revealed some of the most impressionable parts of the filming process: "What I thought was exciting about the way Damien was shooting the film was that he shot a lot of it from the POV of the astronauts so the audience too gets to have that experience." The film did everything it could to make the experience as realistic as possible, avoiding the use of green screens and trying to recreate how primitive and dangerous the technology was at the time.
