Ford, Gosling cultivate chemistry

By LINDSEY BAHR

AP Film Writer

LOS ANGELES

Harrison Ford has a running joke that he can’t remember Ryan Gosling’s name.

“I was delighted for a chance to work with the kid. What’s his name?” Ford told The Associated Press earlier this year.

He did it again recently on a talk show, this time sitting next to Gosling.

“Ryan?” Ford asked his “Blade Runner 2049” co-star after a brief pause, dutifully playing the part of the “slightly aloof 75-year-old legend.”

“It’s Ryan,” responded Gosling, 36, in a deadpan voice, playing the “bemused co-star” role in the bit.

Or perhaps it’s not a bit at all. It’s hard to tell with these two, who somehow manage to whiplash among sincerity, sarcasm and humor in a three-word response.

In a recent interview with the AP it is clear, however, that Ford and Gosling are genuinely amused by one another, even if Ford might not actually know how old his co-star is.

Q. Did you two know each other before?

FORD: Him? No. I met him once or twice casually. But I knew his work. I loved his ambitions. I loved his choices. I loved the filmmakers he chose to work with when he could have had much more obvious choices, and I loved what it produced. ... But the producers had been thinking about him anyway, so it didn’t matter what I thought.

Q. You had some pretty harrowing stunts, including a big set piece in a water tank.

GOSLING: It was a lot like it looks like on camera.

FORD: Things go a lot slower when you’re working with mechanical beasts and wave machines. The time between the time it takes to take the takes takes. ... Let me say that again: The time between the time it takes to take the takes, it’s not the time it takes to take the takes, it’s the time between it takes to take the takes that takes the time.

GOSLING: Is this what peyote feels like?

FORD: (laughs) I wouldn’t know.

Q. People have made a big deal about you accidentally punching Ryan, but what was it like to perform that long fight sequence?

GOSLING: Squirrely.

FORD: It’s complicated.

GOSLING: Touch and go.

FORD: It’s complicated

GOSLING: Hit or miss.

FORD: It was a lot of hitting and only one failure to miss. But the camera was moving, Ryan was moving backward, I’m moving forward. I’m the one who can see where the camera is. There are strobe lights going on at the same time. He’s reacting to the punches. It was complicated, and that’s fun. It’s physical, but it’s fun. I remember that couple of days being great until I had to humiliate myself with an apology.

(Gosling laughs)

FORD: I had to crawl to your dressing room carrying a bottle of scotch.

GOSLING: He came in and said, “I forgive you.”

FORD: Yeah.

Q. Ryan, does this film have you thinking about whether you’d revisit any of your characters some 35 years later?

GOSLING: The thing is, any actor would be lucky to create one character in their career that anyone would want to revisit, let alone multiple times, let alone multiple characters. It’s pretty unparalleled what he’s doing.