“The real surprise was James Ortiz,” the star says. “We were improvising for hours.”

Project Hail Mary’s secret weapon: How a puppeteer brought humanity to Ryan Gosling’s alien BFF

"The real surprise was James Ortiz," the star says. "We were improvising for hours."

By Mike Miller

Mike Miller

Mike Miller is the executive editor on the movies team at . He previously worked as a writer-reporter for PEOPLE and TMZ.

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March 24, 2026 9:00 a.m. ET

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Ryan Gosling and Rocky in 'Project Hail Mary'. Credit:

Amazon MGM Studios

- *Project Hail Mary* star Ryan Gosling, along with directors Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, praise James Ortiz for bringing the alien Rocky to life.

- Ortiz recalls his audition, meeting Gosling for the first time, and improvising for hours with the actor on set.

- The puppeteer reveals how he infused Rocky with heart and personality, despite the creature lacking a face.**

The beating heart of *Project Hail Mary *lies in a strange little alien shaped like a rock.

Oscar-winning directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s big-budget sci-fi epic, based on the book by *The Martian *author Andy Weir, stars Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace, a middle school science teacher who’s turned into a reluctant astronaut when a mysterious microorganism starts dimming the sun, threatening all life on earth.

The stakes are enormous, but what really makes the movie special is relatively small. In his interstellar journey to save the world, Grace encounters a small, multilegged, faceless alien shaped like a rock, whom he names, you guessed it, Rocky.

Rocky is also on a mission to save his world from this sun-eating microorganism, and, after cleverly working together to learn each other’s language, the two quickly form an adorable bond that not only sustains them on their perilous quest but also forms the film’s emotional bedrock.

That Gosling could pull heartstrings acting opposite a puppet (Lord and Miller insisted on using practical effects for the character) is impressive but not altogether surprising. What really affected everyone, from the filmmakers to Gosling, was the man behind the puppet.

James Ortiz and Rocky behind the scenes of 'Project Hail Mary'.

Sony Pictures India/YouTube

“The real surprise was James Ortiz, because he was just supposed to be the puppeteer,” Gosling tells *. *“He was never supposed to be Rocky's voice. He just had such a deep connection with the character that I could ask him anything as Rocky, and he knew what Rocky would say, what he would like, what he wouldn't like.”

Before long, Gosling says, “We were improvising for hours off script in character because James *was* Rocky. So, as Rocky was trying to find his voice in the film, so did Rocky find his voice on set through James.”

“We did chemistry reads with Ryan with a handful of puppeteers, and we were like, ‘Oh, this is the dynamic we need,’” Miller says of Ortiz’s audition. “So we knew they had chemistry from the beginning.”

Below, Ortiz shares his memories from the production, from his magical audition to his favorite improvised moments, and breaks down how he and his team, dubbed the Rocketeers, brought their alien friend to life.

**: We both saw the movie for the first time last week at the Chinese Theatre. What was it like watching the movie with an audience for the first time? **

**JAMES ORTIZ:** Oh, it was incredible. I obviously am very, very close to it, so there were definitely moments of like, *Oh, where's that scene?* But it was so moving. I mean, the entire audience was so reactive, and it was hard to not be emotional when everybody was getting emotional. It was really, really special.

The Rocketeers behind the scenes of 'Project Hail Mary'.

Sony Pictures India/YouTube

**When you were watching it, how much did it look like what you had seen first-hand on the set? **

While we were shooting it, I was rather busy, as you can imagine. Anytime you see Rocky in that film — and I say this because audiences are trained to believe that anything that's magical is sort of CG — and what's really, really special about Phil and Chris and the choices they made about bringing me on and including puppetry is that, if you see Rocky in a frame, we puppeteered him to be in that frame. He's really there.

The incredible team at Frame Store did such an extraordinary job of digitally removing this black shrouded puppeteers' coven of witches huddled around Rocky and the rods and everything and putting the background in, but there is this really magical blend of digital animation and live action puppetry.

Ryan Gosling reveals his daughters hilariously subbed in for alien costar while filming 'Project Hail Mary'

Ryan Gosling introduces his 'space caveman' and alien partner in 'Project Hail Mary' Comic-Con panel

**What about the scenes where Rocky is rolling around inside the Hail Mary in that geometric ball? How was that done? **

We were always talking to each other, even in shots where there's no way we could have done it with a puppet, like where Rocky's rolling around in a ball. There were always practical elements, you know? There was a big plastic ball that had handles, and I was running through the set, screaming my lines and knocking into everything. So there was always a practical element. And what's amazing is there's more puppetry in the movie than you might think. There are a lot of scenes where there's only like a partial digital arm that's doing something that the fingers couldn't quite achieve on the day.

So what I'm really proud of is Phil and Chris stuck to their guns. They made it this amalgamation of new and old technology, and I'm just so grateful to be a part of it.

James Ortiz behind the scenes of 'Project Hail Mary'.

Sony Pictures India/YouTube

**Backing up a bit here, for people who might not know a lot about how this all works, how would you describe what you do as a puppeteer and creature performer? **

Well, for this film in particular, it was a very specific conversation in that I was given a lot of freedom. So Phil and Chris invited me to every production meeting that you can imagine. I was sitting with all the production heads and basically having conversations like, *Yes, but if Rocky has to do this scene there, we need six more inches here. *I was really in a lot of open conversations.

But for this film, I was the on-set performer. Originally, I was only hired to perform it on set and do the other lines with Ryan, because most of the dialogue you hear in the movie is actually mostly the dialogue that we recorded on set. There's only a little bit of ADR here and there on scenes that had to be trimmed down because, as you can imagine, Rocky not having a face means that you can take two clips of Ryan and then have Rocky be the glue in between.

**Did you have a hand in Rocky’s design?**

My job was originally to puppeteer him and sort of take ownership of this part that had already been in process with Neal Scanlan's creature shop. They were designing the character, but he gave me such freedom to go,* Actually, can we make him out of this material? Actually, can we put handles here? I'm gonna play him like this. Maybe we take the weight off of this. We add a bungee here.* I had so much communication, which, to be clear, doesn't happen in so many arenas like this.

James Ortiz and Rocky from 'Project Hail Mary'.

Sony Pictures India/YouTube

**How did you learn you’d landed the role? **

I had a series of auditions, and I had an amazing chemistry read with Ryan, and we immediately hit it off. I got the part and then a couple hours later, I get a cold call from lovely Ryan Gosling, and I went, "Oh, hi, how are you?”

I had just met him a couple hours before, and on that call, we talked about a bunch of stuff, but one of the things I promised him was, I know that puppetry can be really, really technical — and he's worked on things where there were puppet characters in it — and it can be such a time suck and it can kind of kill the mojo of creativity. And I promised him, "We're going to keep this improvisational and light. I'm going to work with my team to make sure that we're flexible enough so that we can play." And we did.

**What did you do on your end to make sure that happened? **

Every day when we would start, it would be me, Ryan, Phil, and Chris, and I wouldn't have the puppet; I would just be playing the scene as Rocky. We could look into each other's eyes, and we would just make it up or add different things or change the scene and make it what we thought would be the funniest, and then, we would pup it up and get going and shoot the stuff. That was sort of the structure of the whole thing

I think it really helped the connection between me and Ryan because, at a certain point, we just completely trusted each other to go anywhere in the scene to get another morsel out of it.

'Project Hail Mary' directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

**Phil, Chris, and Ryan all mentioned being blown away by your audition. What do you remember from that experience? **

The audition was so funny because I had done some stuff on camera for basically a preliminary audition, and I was doing that for the casting directors, Jeanne McCarthy and Nicola Abellera, who are both incredible. And I basically had to build a little quick Rocky puppet because they were like, "Yeah, we need to see you puppeteer." And I went, "Well, let me just make something." So I had a little guy who was kind of built off of a glove, really, like the Thing from the Addams family. And I did that tape, and that kind of went away, and I didn't think anything about it. And then suddenly I was being flown out to L.A. to do a chemistry read. And that room was like, *Oh, Amy Pascal sitting in the back, and there's Phil and Chris and, uh, hello, Ryan Gosling, I'm such a fan, do you wanna play a silly scene?*"

**Did you bring your Thing puppet with you? **

They had a puppet for me, and it was beautifully made. I believe it was made by Neil's team for the purposes of an audition, but it was massive; it was like an ottoman. It was like this huge stuffy thing, and I only have two hands, and I just sort of went, "I don't think I'll be able to give you what you want…Can I use mine?” And they were like, "Uh, yeah, I guess." But they were really lovely. And I have to say, I did black out on that audition at some point…

I remember at some point, Ryan and I were improvising, and he was trying to teach Rocky what dancing was, and Rocky like, "What dance? No understand.” And at some point, I think I crawled up his arm, and I was on top of his head. We were just having a great, silly time. Then I shook everybody's hand and got out of there.

Ryan Gosling and Rocky's hands in 'Project Hail Mary'.

Amazon MGM Studios

**I know there was a lot of improvisation on set. Can you think of something that made it into the film that you’re particularly proud of? **

There are so many things, but the thumbs-up thing I think about a lot. [Rocky's inability to distinguish between a thumbs up and a thumbs down is a running gag in the film.]

In the script, it wasn't even thumbs up, but it was something like that. And Ryan just kind of threw that at us, and we all knew that the way that Rocky's forearms are built, he doesn't have really enough wrists. So his thumb is always pointing down. And we tried, but if we twisted too much, he would break. So we were just playing around, and Phil and Chris were in my ear going, "No, do a thumbs up." And we're like, “Uh.” And then pointed it down, and it got such a belly laugh on set, that we just [kept it].

**You mentioned earlier that you’d start the day without the puppet, running your lines with Ryan. Once Rocky entered the picture, how did you balance puppetteering with acting? **

Once the puppet is in place, I'm looking at a monitor, a little one that's nearby where I'm working, and I have a little headset and I'm saying all the lines, and he's wearing that earpiece so he can hear what I'm saying, because sometimes the Xenonite walls [the alien polymer separating Rocky’s environment from Ryland’s] were so thick, you actually literally couldn't hear each other.

But you hit on something really true, which is, the most challenging part of the whole job was balancing the extremely technical with this sort of emotive, playful improvisation of who Rocky is. I was trying to do both at the same time. And that was when, once the film had been edited, it was sort of a relief because I could just focus on the ADR and honing little moments with Phil and Chris and tightening up Rocky's arc. So that was really thrilling.

Ryan Gosling in 'Project Hail Mary'.

**Given that Rocky doesn’t actually have a face, how did you communicate emotion and intention through his movements to develop his personality? **

It became a lot about physicality and posture. Most actors, you'll walk into a process, and you'll read the script, and you'll come up with what you're gonna be doing on the day. But for this, I had to wait until the puppet was made so I could figure out what the puppet was great at, and you start learning things from there.

So a lot of Rocky's expressivity, you may notice in the movie that Rocky is almost never completely still in a single shot. He's always kind of moving because, if you can imagine, if he raises one leg, his center of gravity will go off-center. So in a funny way, we were always keeping him a little kinetic, a little bit like a bird turning his head constantly, which in turn, I think, helped me find the sort of anxiousness of Rocky.

**He does seem like an anxious little guy.**

You know, he's been through a traumatic experience, and he's processing that through most of the film. So it was a great way of physicalizing the thoughts and ideas. And sometimes it was also about being really broad. You would have to yank back really far whenever he was confused or upset, or disgusted, and sort of come up with the physical language of what that was.

*Project Hail Mary* is in theaters now.

*This interview has been edited for clarity and length.***

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