Project Hail Mary: How Julia Roberts Solved A Major Acting Problem For Ryan Gosling

In a new interview with IndieWire, Ryan Gosling admitted that acting in his 2026 sci-fi film "Project Hail Mary" was lonely work. Luckily, a visit with, of all people, Julia Roberts gave Gosling an idea of how not to be so lonely. It seems Roberts was partially responsible for Gosling's inspiration for creating Moppy Ringwald, a makeshift scene partner that Gosling required to stay sane.

As those who have seen "Project Hail Mary" can attest, Gosling's character — Dr. Ryland Grace — spends a huge portion of the movie alone, the only human onboard a space vessel sent to investigate a faraway sun. Grace was meant to be part of a three-person crew, but his companions died during the long journey. After waking up light-years from home, Grace, sporting a long caveman-like beard, struggles to regain his memories all alone in the cosmos.

Eventually Grace does gain some companionship in the form of Rocky (James Ortiz), an intelligent alien rock spider. But for a long time Gosling was the only actor on set, and he began to experience the same painful isolation that Dr. Grace was going through. Eventually, the crew made him a companion: a mop with a face and a dress attached. They nicknamed their creation Moppy Ringwald.

As he recalls in the IndieWire interview, Gosling made the request for Moppy Ringwald's construction after a chance meeting with Julia Roberts.

Ryan Gosling told IndieWire that he got to a point where was "tired of acting alone" on "Project Hail Mary." When he left the set for a breath of fresh air, he just so happened to run into Julia Roberts filming "After the Hunt," which was also an Amazon MGM Studios production. The two had never spoken before, but they struck up a conversation. Gosling said: 

"I'd never met her, and she sat down and talked to me. [...] She was talking about how much fun she was having on her set with Luca Guadagnino on 'After the Hunt.' She said, 'You should come over,' and I needed human interaction. So I went down to the set, and they were shooting a party scene, and they were all drinking and having fun, and they seemed like they were having a great time."

"After the Hunt" is a terse drama about allegations of sexual assault and the dark secrets lurking in the past of a high-profile Yale philosophy professor. It's a pretty good movie – /Film accurately gave it a 6.5 out of 10 – but it's definitely not a feel-good movie. Calling it "a great time" might seem incongruous, but Gosling was clearly relieved to be on a set where a party scene was being shot, just grateful to be around people. 

It was the experience of visiting the set of "After the Hunt" that let Gosling acknowledge just how much he missed working with other actors. Of course, the story of "Project Hail Mary" demanded that Gosling's character be the only human around, so he and the film's directors, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, came up with Moppy Ringwald.

Yes, the solution to Ryan Gosling's on-set loneliness was a little strange, but luckily Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were not only game but also a little whimsical. Gosling recalls the inception of Moppy Ringwald thus: 

"I said, 'I want a friend, I want someone to act with,' [...] They were like, 'okay, but what do we do?' And I said, 'I want to get a mop, and I want to make it into a person and talk to it.' And they stopped everything on our fancy, expensive day, and crawled around the sets looking for tape and glasses, and a dress. And they helped me build this mop lady for me to do scenes with, who we called Moppy Ringwald." 

The set, Gosling said, was a high-tech marvel full of working LED screens. It was, however, a mop with sunglasses that ultimately saved shooting. And Gosling said he learned a very important lesson that day, and it's one we can all take to heart. "If you're having a problem and you can't solve it," he said, "talk to Julia Roberts. That's the big lesson here. She'll solve it for you." So be sure to have Ms. Roberts on speed-dial at all times, dear readers. She'll be there for you.

Moppy Ringwald actually does have a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in "Project Hail Mary," and is featured even more in the deleted scenes, but it's nice just to know that Gosling really bonded with his "co-star." Knowing that Moppy was on set, often just of-camera, serving as Gosling's ersatz "scene partner," makes rewatching "Project Hail Mary" just that much more rewarding. And we have Julia Roberts to thank.