The Hidden Detail In Project Hail Mary Most Fans Never Notice

As we have previously written about here at /Film, directors Phil Lord's and Christopher Miller's sci-fi hit "Project Hail Mary" contains an amusing cameo by super-actor Meryl Streep. The film's lead character, Dr. Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), is on an extended space mission when he comes into contact with an intelligent alien life form, whom he nicknames Rocky (as they resemble a rock). Grace and Rocky then spend a portion of the movie learning how to communicate. Eventually, Grace finds a way to plug Rocky's alien vocabulary into a computer and have it read out Rocky's words in plain English.

The Meryl Streep cameo comes when Rocky and Grace are cycling through the artificial voices they might use for Rocky's translations. Should Rocky sound like an old British man? A woman? One of the voices is Streep's. Dr. Grace recognized Streep's voice and comments, full of awe, that she really is capable of anything. It's a good chuckle in a lighthearted movie full of good chuckles. The voice that Rocky and Dr. Grace finally settle on is provided by James Ortiz.

There is, however, a second voice cameo during the Rocky-voice-selection scene that likely passes most viewers by. Indeed, one of the voices that Dr. Grace and Rocky consider is that of actor Ray Porter. Ray Porter isn't as famous as Meryl Streep, but he does have a prolific TV career and has performed many, many audiobooks ... including the one for the Andy Weir novel that "Project Hail Mary" is based on.

Porter's cameo was confirmed by Lord and Miller during an interview with Cinemablend. Of course, there's a cute irony in the fact that the narrator of the "Project Hail Mary" audiobook makes a voice cameo that's been overlooked.

Ray Porter has been acting on the screen professionally since the late 1990s, having appeared in hit TV shows like "Murphy Brown," "Will & Grace," "ER," and "Frasier." Altogether, his screen acting career includes plenty of hit series and numerous high-profile movies. For example, he played a roadie in "Almost Famous," and, perhaps most notably, he provided the voice and motion-capture for the villain Darkseid in the director's cut of Zack Snyder's "Justice League."

Porter has also lent his voice to various animated projects, playing roles in shows like "Teen Titans," "Curious George," and an obscure film from 2000 called "The Scarecrow." Moreover, his voice has secured him a lot of work reading audiobooks and radio dramas. He has previously narrated titles like Richard Matheson's "Hell House" and Jay Anson's "The Amityville Horror," in addition to him acting in the full-cast audio version of Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman" comic books. Eventually, Porter narrated "Project Hail Mary" in 2021 and won two Audie Awards for it.

Phil Lord and Chris MIller revealed Porter's voice cameo in "Project Hail Mary" after being asked about a rumor that Emma Stone played one of the voices in the movie. That's not the case, though, and the rumor was news to them. As Miller put it:

"I have not heard this, but do you want us to tell you if that's true or not? [...] It's not true. [...] But Ray Porter is one of them, I can tell you that."

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller also revealed that there are a few other fun cameos besides Ray Porter and Meryl Streep in the Rocky voice selection scene. It seems that Ryan Gosling was given an earpiece for the scene, so he could hear the voices being tested. So, to have some fun, Lord and Miller hooked the earpiece up to a microphone and had people around the set read the dialogue. Lord confirmed that Eunice Houghton, the movie's stunt coordinator, is one of those voices. In addition, Miller noted that they included a little wink to Gosling in that scene (although it didn't end up in the final cut of the movie):

"One of the fun things we did was we had, we had people from the crew, and secret people would say the line in Ryan's ear so that he could hear different versions and react to them naturally. And we had a whole lineup of people, including — it wasn't in the film — but his daughter, who was visiting set that day. We had her secretly say the line and got him to really crack up." 

Gosling has two daughters with his longtime partner Eva Mendes, born in 2014 and 2016, and Miller wasn't clear which one provided the voice cameo. But, naturally, Gosling recognized her voice right away. Maybe Gosling's laughter will one day be released as part of a "Project Hail Mary" blooper reel.

"Project Hail Mary" is still in theaters as of this writing, and it's certainly worth a look. Or if you've seen it, go ahead and watch it again. As /Film's Ethan Anderton observed in his review, it's one of the best films of 2026 so far.