Based on the novel of the same name, The Lovely Bones stars Saoirse as 14-year-old Susie Salmon. Susie gets brutally murdered, and throughout the film, she watches from purgatory as her grief-stricken family grapples with her death.
As you may know, Susie’s father, Jack Salmon, is played in the movie by Mark Wahlberg — who was cast in the role at the last minute after Ryan Gosling was fired .
In case you’re not familiar with the story, Ryan was initially cast as Jack but lost the part days before filming was scheduled to begin due to “creative differences” with the movie’s director, Peter Jackson .
Under the belief that Jack “should be 210 pounds,” Ryan began gaining weight by drinking melted Häagen-Dazs ice cream whenever he was thirsty. However, when he eventually showed up on set 60 pounds heavier, Peter had a “different idea of how the character should look.”
“We didn’t talk very much during the pre-production process, which was the problem,” Ryan said while discussing his firing with the Hollywood Reporter in 2010 . “It was a huge movie, and there’s so many things to deal with, and he couldn’t deal with the actors individually. I just showed up on set, and I had gotten it wrong. Then I was fat and unemployed.”
Gilbert Flores / Variety via Getty Images
Because Ryan’s departure was so last-minute, he and Saoirse had already bonded in pre-production. And now, discussing Ryan’s firing more than a decade later, Saoirse confessed she found the whole thing quite “sad.”
“I just loved Ryan. And his dog, George,” the Lady Bird actor said on the latest episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
“I was just sad that he wasn’t gonna be around. But I think the reasons why they parted were totally valid,” she continued. “And I have spoken to both now, and I complete — it happens, you know what I mean? It’s not personal, necessarily; it’s just sometimes you’re not on the same page.”
Gilbert Flores / Variety via Getty Images
Discussing Ryan’s replacement, Saoirse said that Mark might have been better suited to the role because he was already a father in real life.
“He was a father to, like, I don't know, three kids?” Saoirse said of Mark. “He probably had an experience of that that Ryan felt he didn't. Ryan was, like, 27. He was young.”
Kayla Oaddams / WireImage
Interestingly, Peter Jackson’s wife and producing partner, Fran Walsh, told the Hollywood Reporter in 2009 that Ryan felt he was miscast in the role in the first place.
“Ryan came to us two or three times and said, ‘I’m not the right person for this role. I’m too young.’ And we said, ‘No, no, no. We can age you up. We can thin your hair.’ We were very keen,” she recalled at the time.
“It wasn’t until we were in pre-production and we had the cast there that it became increasingly clear: He was so uncomfortable moving forward, and we began to feel he was not right,” she added, taking ownership of the casting issue. “It was our blindness, the desire to make it work no matter what.”
Jon Kopaloff / FilmMagic
So, do you think Ryan could’ve pulled it off? Or was Mark the right choice in the end? Let us know in the comments.
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