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The past few years have been out of this world for James Ortiz, the New York theater artist and puppeteer behind Rocky, the lovable alien at the heart of the film. Hail Mary project.
Ortiz spent months on set in London working opposite Ryan Gosling, providing the voice and supervising puppeteering for the rock-like alien, who is on a mission to save his home planet’s star when he meets Gosling’s Ryland Grace, who is on his own mission to save Earth’s sun.
The friendship between the two is at the heart of the film, which has grossed over $322 million worldwide, making it the biggest hit of the year so far.
Although Peace be upon you, Mary Being a $190 million production with action and spectacle, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller asked Ortiz and Gosling to improvise long takes, almost as if it were a theatrical production.
“Sometimes, we would only play 45-minute stuff,” Ortiz says.
Ortiz got the role after a chemistry read with Gosling in Los Angeles, where he was given a doll to work with. But at the last minute, he asked to use his little puppet he brought with him to audition, because he felt he could deliver what they needed better.
“Later, Phil and Chris said it felt very embarrassing for him to be that bossy,” Ortiz says with a laugh.
Gosling had been an A-list star for twenty years and was coming off an Oscar-nominated role Barbie. But despite the stellar wattage, he quickly put Ortiz to rest.
“Ryan has a quality that really catches your eye and really speaks to you,” he says.
The two had an early phone call after Ortiz got the role, where he promised that despite the challenges of making the puppets, he would over-prepare so they could play when the cameras were rolling and not get in the way of technical details.
“I said, ‘I want us to improvise, I want us to make each other laugh, let’s have as much fun as we can,'” Ortiz recalled. It was Gosling’s game.
Ortiz worked with special effects artist Neil Scanlan to build Rocky and ran tests to find other puppeteers to help him operate the five-limbed puppet. (He called these collaborators “missiles.”)
After six weeks of preparation in London, Ortiz arrived for his first day of filming. Emma Thompson happened to be on her way to visit Lord & Miller, the producers of her upcoming film Sheep investigations. There’s no pressure, it’s just a two-time Oscar winner watching your first day on set.
“I felt like I was patting my head and rubbing my belly every day,” Ortiz says with a laugh.
That day, they filmed a scene that did not appear in the film, in which Gosling tries to get some sleep on his ship.
“Rocky can’t stop talking to him. And Ryan tries to explain what dreams are to Rocky, and it’s a very sweet moment,” says Ortiz, who imagines it will make its way into deleted scenes for home entertainment.
The days were so mentally exhausting that he would often go to bed when he washed, although he would spend his days off exploring London. After six months abroad, his time on the project came to an end and he returned to New York.
The initial idea was that Rocky’s voice would later be replaced by another, more famous actor. But after principal photography was completed, Lord and Miller continued to field Ortiz requests to record additional lines of dialogue for test screenings.
“And then finally, I just got a text from Chris saying, ‘We really want to do this with you. Why don’t we officially talk about it? Let us get you into the ADR booth so we can clean all these random clips off your phone,” Ortiz recalls.
“The idea of getting an actor to come in and mimic what actually happened on set and the nuances that were going on seemed like a crazy proposition. He did a really good job and was really Rocky. It really became a no-brainer,” Miller says.
“In animation, you say, ‘Never draw a drawing.’ It’s like it’s losing its life, that moment of being created is the thing you want to capture,” Lord adds.
In the end, about half of what you see in the movie is the puppet, and the other half is animation for moments the puppet couldn’t perform (such as Rocky rolling around in his hamster ball, with Framestore providing the animation).
Ortiz saw the film four times in theaters with the public, including renting a theater to friends.
“They were basically saying, ‘James, that’s you,'” he says. Because Rocky might not be that different at the end of the day.”
Rocky might live. Peace be upon you, Mary Creator Andy Weir is toying with sequel ideas, multiple sources have told THR A sequel movie is not out of the question.
But for now, Ortiz is living with the memory of one of his last scenes on set — when he said goodbye to Rocky and Grace.
“The farewell scene is pretty much just me and Ryan experiencing things,” Ortiz says.
By this point, Gosling and Ortiz had put together many moments together that they could call back, such as when Rocky couldn’t tell the difference between a thumbs up and a thumbs down.
But there was something the team wanted to try but couldn’t find the right place for.
“There was a design on Rocky’s inner forearm that we hadn’t used yet. Phil and Chris designed all these tattoos and carvings everywhere that meant different things,” Ortiz says. When Rocky scratches someone with his leg, it makes a musical sound.
In one of the last shots of the day, Miller suggested we say goodbye using that. It works, and Sandra Höller’s Eva Strutt even imitates it back on Earth later in the film.
“I can’t imagine doing it any other way,” Miller says of working with Ortiz. “Ryan always had a scene partner and had someone to talk to and interact with. There were all these happy accidents that happened along the way.”
