Saoirse Ronan talks about Ryan Gosling’s Lovely Bones exit

Fifteen years after the release of The Lovely Bones, Saoirse Ronan reflects on the film’s almost cast.

The four-time Oscar nominee played Susie Salmon, a murdered teenager who tells her story from the afterlife as her family members try to track down her killer, in the 2009 film adaptation of Alice Sebold’s supernatural novel.

On this week’s episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Ronan discussed Ryan Gosling’s much-publicized departure from The Lovely Bones shortly before filming began.

“I just loved Ryan and his dog George and was just sad that he wouldn’t be there,” she said. “But I think the reasons why they broke up were absolutely justified. I’ve spoken to both of them now…it’s happening. It’s not necessarily personal. It’s like sometimes you just disagree.”

Gosling was set to appear in The Lovely Bones as Susie’s grieving father, Jack Salmon. However, just a few days before production began, the “Half Nelson” actor was fired by director Peter Jackson and replaced by Mark Wahlberg.

Ultimately, Ronan believes that Wahlberg – who was a father of three at the time – was better suited to the role of Jack.

“He probably had an experience … that Ryan felt he didn’t have,” she said.

In 2010, Gosling admitted he “made a mistake” in his physical preparation for The Lovely Bones.

“We had a different idea of ​​what we wanted the character to look like. I really believed he should be 210 pounds,” he told The Hollywood Reporter at the time, also revealing that he gained 60 pounds for the role by following a diet of melted Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

After noting that he and Jackson “didn’t talk much during the pre-production process, which was the problem,” Gosling added, “I just showed up on set and misunderstood something. Then I was fat and unemployed.”

Although Gosling did not appear in The Lovely Bones, he directed Ronan in his 2015 film Lost River, which also starred his wife Eva Mendes.

Elsewhere in her Happy Sad Confused interview, Ronan admitted she feared being fired from Greta Gerwig’s 2017 film Lady Bird.

“My mom flew over at one point because I was so worried,” she said. “I don’t know if [Gerwig] actually knows that.”

Check out Saoirse Ronan’s “Happy Sad Confused” chat below. Your comments on “The Lovely Bones” start at 29:58.