Sir Peter Jackson comments on recasting Ryan Gosling in 2009 film after actor gained 27kg

Sir Peter Jackson recast Ryan Gosling for the role of the father in 'The Lovely Bones' in 2009. Photo / Getty Images

Sir Peter Jackson has addressed the years-long controversy surrounding Ryan Gosling’s abrupt departure from the 2009 production of The Lovely Bones movie, based on the Alice Sebold novel of the same name.

Gosling revealed in a 2010 interview that he was fired from the cast after he gained 60 pounds (27kg) for the role, without consulting Jackson.

During a conversation with film journalist Didier Allouch in Cannes, after receiving an Honorary Palme d’Or last week, Jackson addressed the infamous situation for the first time.

“I won’t talk about any particular examples of actors because it’s a personal, private thing and it’s not their fault,” the director said.

“Anytime we recast an actor, it’s actually our fault because we didn’t get the casting right and we cast the wrong person for a role. It’s not because they did anything wrong.

“So, I’m not going to talk about individuals, but you just got to realise that what you were imagining isn’t really quite happening, which means that we got it wrong and so we take full responsibility,” Jackson added.

He did speak about Gosling specifically, saying he is “a fantastic actor, as we know”.

“Films are a chemistry both on camera and behind the camera. They’re chemistry in terms of what the actor conveys to the audience of the film. It’s just a complicated sort of amalgam of communication of how somebody gels into a group of people, into a story, into a character,” Jackson added.

“It’s complicated and usually you try very hard when you’re planning the film, casting it, trying to get that gel kind of right, but occasionally we make our own mistakes.”

In his 2010 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Gosling said he and Jackson “had a different idea of how the character should look“.

“I really believed he should be 210 pounds [95kg]. We didn’t talk very much during the pre-production process, which was the problem,” Gosling recalled.

“It was a huge movie, and there’s so many things to deal with, and he couldn’t deal with the actors individually. I just showed up on set, and I had gotten it wrong. Then I was fat and unemployed,” he added.

Mark Wahlberg ended up being cast in the role of Jack Salmon, the father of the main character and narrator, Susie Salmon, played by Saoirse Ronan.