Making a Love Letter to Stunts with Sydney as a Backdrop: David Leitch and Kelly McCormick Talk 'The Fall Guy'

With apologies to the many worthy winners at the 2024 Oscars, this year's ceremony will always be known for one thing. When the lights went pink, Ryan Gosling started singing from his seat in the crowd (with Margot Robbie and Billie Eilish giggling around him) and the words "doesn't seem to matter what I do…" rang out, the world began to witness Academy Awards history. His rendition of 'I'm Just Ken' from Barbie was a musical number for the ages.

When he made it up to the stage to keep crooning about Kenergy, the man behind the tan and blonde fragility, it wasn't the only time that Gosling stepped up onto the platform that night. He also delivered a tribute to stunts with Oppenheimer's Emily Blunt — and the two couldn't have been better candidates to make the presentation, which doubled as a reminder that their new film was on the way.

In The Fall Guy, Gosling blends his action and comedy modes to play a seasoned stunt performer. Blunt co-stars as the director of the latest flick he's working on, and also his ex-girlfriend. The picture is helmed by David Leitch, who famously was in the stunt game himself, including doubling for Brad Pitt on movies such as Fight Club and Ocean's Eleven, and also for Matt Damon, then jumping behind the camera on John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, Bullet Train and now this.

Gosling and Blunt's shared portion of the Oscars ceremony was also a call to arms: stunts, despite being so crucial to the film industry, are not currently recognised by the Academy Awards. They absolutely should be. Ask Leitch if he sees The Fall Guy as helping to advance the case to recognise the field at Hollywood's night of nights and he tells Concrete Playground "that's the hope". He continues: "I think it is definitely a celebration of the stunt industry, and hopefully it continues to shine a light on how much these unsung heroes contribute to the films you guys love and we all love. You just can't separate the history of action from the history of cinema, and stunt performers have been there since the beginning."

Loosely based on the 80s TV series of the same name, The Fall Guy tasks Gosling with playing Colt Seavers, who has spent much of his career making actor Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, reteaming with Leitch after Bullet Train) look good. He's been out of the business after a workplace accident when he's enlisted to help out on a big-budget sci-fi blockbuster — not just to double for Tom, but to work out why the flick's star has gone missing in Sydney. Making the gig even more chaotic: plenty of nefarious folks on his tail, complete with a chase across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Plus, there's the fact that his ex Jody Moreno (Blunt) is directing, and it's her first stint in the role. Cue an action-comedy from Leitch, plus Kelly McCormick as his regular producer, that doesn't just showcase stunts but is firmly about stunts as well.

Caroline McCredie

When The Fall Guy's shoot shut down one of Sydney's most-famous landmarks, everyone in Australia knew. It isn't every day that Gosling brings the Harbour City to a halt, after all. The bridge isn't the only part of the New South Wales capital that can be spotted in the movie, however, because this is a film that takes place in Sydney and makes the most of it. The Fall Guy is a love letter to stunts, of course, but McCormick — who also co-founded production and action design company 87North with Leitch — also considers it a love letter to its setting. Using the Sydney Opera House as the backdrop for a sci-fi shoot also isn't forgotten quickly. ("It's still so sci-fi. It's still beyond its time. It's an amazing, amazing building," says McCormick.)

Leitch and McCormick returned to Sydney in early April to give The Fall Guy a big local premiere at the State Theatre. While they were in Australia, the pair also chatted with us. Leitch living the dream as a former stunt performer-turned-filmmaker now making a movie about stunts, the challenges on such a stunt-heavy film, ensuring that the movie is a mix not just of action and comedy but also mystery and romance, casting Gosling and Blunt, shooting in Sydney: we asked the duo about all of the above and more.

On Living the Dream by Being a Former Stunt Performer Now Directing a Movie About Stunt Performers

David: "Absolutely — I mean, the 80s TV show was one of those shows that lit the fuse of me wanting to be a stunt performer. There's a lot of wish-fulfilment in that show as a teenage kid.

So it was exciting that this property would come [my way] — and obviously having 20-plus years as a stunt performer and the anecdotes and the real life experiences to go with it, I had a lot to be able to put into it. And I felt I could really talk with the authentic voice and actually give Ryan some notes from a real place."

On Whether Making a Movie Like The Fall Guy Was the Plan when Leitch Was Still Doubling

David: "I don't know if that was the actual aim, although I did early on get the film bug and really want to tell stories beyond the stories I was telling in the action.

So, I really did lean into spending my time on set observing and learning everything I could about filmmaking process so I could move to the director chair. I was excited about directing."

On the Challenges of Making a Movie That Isn't Just Stunt-Heavy, But Is Constantly Calling Attention to Stunts Because It's About Stunts

Kelly: "I think every movie has its own challenges, action or otherwise. I think safety is obviously something that comes to mind that we are particularly sensitive to. When we're doing an action sequence, bringing a team together that is top of class is essential to make sure that it's as safe as possible and as creative as possible at the same time. That's always the goal.

I think that's maybe a bit of extra pressure, but it's exciting in the sense that stunt performers get into the business to do stunts — so the last thing we want to do is not do stuff. It's making their dreams come true and making them viable in the  film business.

So it's this tricky balance of just trying to make sure that you know you're as safe as possible and you've got excellence around them, and in them, to make sure that you can give them the opportunities."

David: "I think it was fun to be on the other side of it. I was a stunt coordinator for so many years that it was fun to challenge the team to do these things. I knew what they were going to have to go through to achieve them. But to be like 'good luck, guys' and just run in there and throw down the gauntlet — 'I need you to recreate some of these classic stunts from history, but just make them bigger' — that was fun for me.

So I didn't feel the pressure. I made the stunt team feel the pressure and, again, I felt that for many years as a coordinator, when I've been asked to deliver things. And I certainly didn't have to feel the producorial pressures like Kelly had to feel as well. So I was just telling people what to do."

On Making It an Aim to Create a Fun Vibe on Leitch and McCormick's Sets

Kelly: "I have this theory that the set atmosphere flows through the film to the audience. And we actively try to keep a happy, congenial family environment on our sets, as big as they are.

That's what we're always striving for and hopefully achieving. We work with a lot of our heads of departments again and again and again, and part of that is because we like their energy, we like their creativity and we like to have a family kind of atmosphere around our films."

On Balancing the Mix of Action, Comedy, Romance and Mystery in The Fall Guy

Kelly: It was like problem-opportunity in a sense. I consider David an atonal director — and that used to be such a dirty word, but I actually think it's such a positive thing because you never know what energy you're feeling or you're going to be having in a David Leitch film. You may be crying one moment and laughing the next, and feeling the stakes in one moment and thinking it's ridiculous another moment later.

When you have three movies in the one movie, that is the bigger challenge — to strike that tone and to get all of that right. And so it was a way to challenge David in his filmmaking."

David: "I loved it. I loved taking the audience on a ride. I liked what Kelly just said, laughing at one moment, being awed by spectacle the next, then pulling at the heartstrings few minutes later.

And to have an a property, an IP, where we could do that and have two actors that can pull it off with you is was really, really fun to do."

On Casting Ryan Gosling — and Only Approaching Ryan Gosling for the Part

David: "Ryan is obviously an incredible actor. He's great at comedy. He's great at romance. And our early conversations — he was the only person we went to, and we were crossing our fingers and toes that we would get him.

It was even before we had a script. But I think he saw the potential in the property and the potential in this underdog hero, and that we could create an action, hopefully, franchise where he could use all those skill sets. I think that's what he was excited about — where he could use romance and comedy, and his new action chops that he had on The Gray Man.

So a lot of the DNA of the tone stems from also what Ryan was excited about doing and we all leaned in as well, and it was fun."

On Casting Emily Blunt — and Shaping the Role to Suit Her

Kelly: "To be honest, we just feel so lucky that we got her. Right before we went to her, we switched the role from a makeup artist to a first-time director, thinking that it raised the stakes for that character and allowed for her to be in a place where she was dealing with some really serious stuff, like the weight of her dream on her shoulders and getting that to take over directing for the first time — and then this person who basically broke her heart and she thought she was over coming in, and the last thing she ever wanted to see, and the one thing that could probably disrupt this big opportunity for her.

We went to Emily right after we had come up with that idea with a very, very rough draft and felt so lucky that she saw her way into it, so that she could add so many layers.

And so, in a sense, it was really tailored to her as well to like Colt was to Ryan."

On Shooting in Sydney, Including on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and at Sydney Opera House

Kelly: "It was really exciting, actually, to get the access to both of those two super-iconic locations. I was amazed at how much time we got at the Opera House. And we chose a scene that we could really exhibit the Opera House as something other than the Opera House — Jody Moreno is using it as the sci-fi backdrop of her epic sci-fi love story.

That they allowed for us to put a bunch of sand on the beautiful stairs, and bring in waterworks so that we could make it rain, even though the sun was shining that day — and let us yank and pull and show the beauty of what a ratchet looks like in an action sequence — that stuff you don't get to see when you're normally looking at just the film, instead of the movie being made.

It was really, really exciting and we just kept pinching ourselves. 'Can you believe we're just at the stairs with the Opera House here and they're letting us do this? This is a thing.' It was amazing.

The whole city just really opened their arms, and wanted to solve the problems and give us access and show the town. And we just hope that everyone's really as happy with it as we are in showcasing Sydney. We really consider it a love letter to to this town."

The Fall Guy releases in cinemas Down Under on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. Read our review.