Back in 2016, Damien Chazelle and Ryan Gosling gave us the masterpiece that earned a whopping 14 Oscar nods and 6 wins, La La Land. Fast forward, to 2018 and the dynamic filmmaking duo are back in the Oscar race with a completely different type of work of art, First Man.
At a recent guild reception, The Movie Mensch had a chance to hear from the Oscar-winning director and Gosling himself about the genesis of this historic project and what it was like to tell this moving backstory of the first man who walked on the moon, Neil Armstrong.
Now, most people know who Armstrong is and what the space pioneer accomplished. But Chazelle successfully pulls back the curtain behind the personal life, sacrifices, and personal journey of the legendary astronaut. A story which hadn’t, until this point, been told other than in Armstrong’s biography, First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong by James R. Hansen—which was the basis of the screenplay. Chazelle said they tried to stick to as close to that story as possible to be as authentic as possible.
Don’t miss our “A” review of First Man!
However, one thing most people don’t know is that Chazelle first approached Gosling with the First Man project when the two first met before the award-winning La La Land opportunity. Gosling recalled the first time the two met in a restaurant as somewhat, well…
“He looked at me like he was going to fight me,” the La La Land star said about Chazelle. “It was tense for a second and I thought, ‘we’re either going to fight or make movies together.’”
According to Chazelle, the two met to discuss Gosling playing Armstrong, but after talking for hours, Chazelle decided to offer Gosling the lead in La La Land. Can you imagine a better choice?
But when The Movie Mensch asked the award-winning director what he and Gosling were working on next he said. “I’m not quite sure yet.”
Perhaps, it will be the new television project Chazelle has with Apple that was just announced?
We asked Chazelle about the biggest challenges in making the film since this genre is unlike anything he had ever done before. After all, blasting off from La La Land to First Man is no easy feat. The humble director simply said there “were so many.”
He added, “The toughest was trying to be as accurate as possible.”
Chazelle also addressed one of the most piercing mysteries about the film: Did Neil Armstrong really leave his daughter’s bracelet on the moon? The director admitted that one of the most touching scenes in the film was based on “conjecture from the book.”
The Oscar winner went on to explain that the, “idea originated from Neil’s sister, who was ironically one the closest people to him in his life.”
According to those closest to the members of the legendary space mission, the astronauts all left personal objects on the moon.
First Man is an inspiring, intimate biopic that is accompanied by a truly thoughtful performance by Gosling. Arguably, one of the best turns of his entire career. Will Gosling finally get his long overdue Oscar, and will Chazelle take home his second statue? Time will tell… but, the real question we want answers to is: how long will we must wait for these two creative geniuses’ next project? f the best t