Ryan Gosling teams up with Russell Crowe to play a private eye with a wacky sense of humour in The Nice Guys, currently playing in cinemas. A chat.  

How did the script of The Nice Guys come to you?
I had had a bit of a relationship with Joel [Silver, the film’s producer], over the course of a couple of years. I read it the same day I got it and I really just loved the script. I grew up on Shane Black movies and I grew up on Joel Silver movies. My first exposure to what Hollywood was like, behind the scenes, was when Joel Silver started screaming at Roger Rabbit, at the beginning of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). And Shane Black wrote The Monster Squad and all of these other films that I grew up on. So, for me, it was a no-brainer. And then, to know that Russell [Crowe] was playing the other role, it was just something I had to do.

The film was written more seriously, but the rumour is that you spiked your character’s pre-shoot auditions and early read-throughs with crazy comedy moments... 
Okay... it’s on me! It’s my fault! I just want to say that there’s a giant talking bee, a smoking bee, in this (in the original screenplay). So I can’t take full responsibility for the comedy element and I don’t know how serious and hard-boiled it was meant to be.

What about this film attracted you? 
I think these movies exist, and there has to be something between those two characters, since they’re two-handers. If it wasn’t Russell, I don’t think I would have done it. Just, when I read the script, I knew that Shane was on a plane trying to convince Russell to do it, so I read it with Russell in mind. I just could completely picture him in the role and I’ve never, you know, seen him do anything like that and the movie just immediately became so funny.

How do you manage to find humour, even in the dark stuff of tragedy? 
I just think it’s part of life. In movies, it gets sort of surgically removed and I never quite understood it. It also feels that, if you’re looking for the truth of something, you have to acknowledge the humour of it as well. So it is something that I always look out for and try to incorporate into the films that I am doing. It is not always welcome and often it gets cut out, you know. But I’m always confused by that because it seems counter-productive to me. Because, a lot of the time, it actually helps you feel more deeply about something. It kind of disarms you and you can’t prepare for the emotional punch that’s coming.

You and Russell make a great pair and have certainly hit it off very well...
It’s been so surprising to me how he has been so wildly supportive. And I really am grateful for that. I am used to meeting a certain amount of resistance when I am trying to take something in a comedic direction. To want to go as broad as I wanted to go with this and to have Russell be such a champion of that... well, I am very grateful. 
I just realised that I’m lucky just to be an actor. It’s an honour. I grew up dreaming about doing this. It sounds cliched... but I get to do it. Not only that, but I get to have the choice and to work with people that I admire.

Did you have a nickname on the sets of the film?
I play Holland March in the film and on sets I heard the word ‘schmuck’ more on this movie than I’ve ever heard before. They stopped saying ‘cut’ at a certain point. I’d just hear Joel behind the monitor going: ‘What a schmuck!’ (Laughs)

You are now doing Blade Runner’s much-awaited sequel. Feelings?
I really can’t believe it. I feel really lucky. But it’s a tall order and obviously it’s a huge responsibility. I can promise the fans that everyone working on the film is aware of that, and trying to honour the original (a 1982 classic directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford).

Finally, congrats on your daughter Amada. How does it feel now the girl-to-boy ratio is 3:1 in the family?
It’s heaven. It’s like walking through a field of flowers every day. I live with angels (partner Eva Mendes and daughters Esmeralda and Amada). It’s a ray of sunshine in a dark time. 

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... but he is ‘Greek God Gosling’ for the t2 girl gang!