In two films, Ryan Gosling has become a major player in Hollywood. His performances in Drive and Only God Forgives impressed the retinas for a long time. If both films are to be seen, we tell you why the first made Gosling a star.
Once in a while, all it takes is one role to change the course of an actor’s career forever. By showing its range of play and its ability to reinvent itself in a new incarnation. Drive, released in 2011, marked the start of the last decade with a singular and defining performance from Ryan Gosling. It’s the perfect example of how an actor can reinvent themselves.
This stripped-down story of a driver/stuntman who finds himself entangled in the criminal underworld and whose life falls apart is an auteur film disguised as an action thriller. Not only is this a game-changer for the actor, but it’s a role he wasn’t even supposed to have originally. According to Empire, Hugh Jackman was to play the driver (never named in the film), which seems odd in hindsight.
It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Gosling in that role now. The Hero is an almost entirely silent man, a performance that required Gosling to do the exact opposite of his previous performances. He had played more talkative and emotional characters. All of that is gone in Drive, and in its place is a role that challenges the actor to show what he’s capable of.
This film changed our perception of Ryan Gosling, who was no longer just a pretty face but an actor capable of doing a lot with very little. A casting choice which turned out to be judicious and which accompanied an effect of surprise. Because the tone and the acting of the actors breathed into the feature film a feeling of uncertainty which is too often lacking in films.
Wild Side Films / The Pact Ryan Gosling as the driver
The importance of mere physical presence cannot be overemphasized, with moments where a mere look from Ryan Gosling is enough for a scene. The driver character has very little dialogue. As Gosling told the Los Angeles Times in 2011, he was the one who decided to keep his dialogue to a minimum at the start of filming. A decision in the form of a counter to his previous film, Blue Valentine by Derek Cianfrance.
Since then, through his other performances, whether in The Place Beyond the Pines, Only God Forgives, Blade Runner 2049 and even First Man, Ryan Gosling has built this image of a silent actor whose silences are worth more than a silence. long speech.
Drive and Only God Forgives are leaving the Prime Video catalog on December 7.