Peter Jackson finally addresses firing Ryan Gosling from The Lovely Bones

"Gosling, who had been cast to play the father of Saoirse Ronan's protagonist, was replaced by Mark Wahlberg just days before filming. Jackson made the change because he disagreed with the actor's decision to gain 60 pounds for the part, Gosling revealed in a 2010 interview. "We didn't talk very much during the preproduction process, which was the problem," said the Notebook star. "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.""

"Decades later, Jackson vaguely shared his side of the story during an interview at Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday (13 March), stating that more of the blame lay with himself for getting the casting wrong in the first place. "I won't talk about any particular examples of actors because it's a personal, private thing and it's not their fault," said The Lord of the Rings director, as reported by Entertainment Weekly. "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." Speaking specifically about Gosling, Jackson called him a "fantastic actor, as we know". "Films are a chemistry both on camera and behind the camera," he continued. "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""

Ryan Gosling was originally cast to play the father in Lovely Bones, but he was replaced by Mark Wahlberg just days before filming. The change followed disagreement over Gosling gaining 60 pounds for the role and limited communication during preproduction. Gosling said he had not discussed the process much, then arrived on set after gaining weight and realized he had been replaced. Years later, Peter Jackson said recasting is the filmmakers’ responsibility because the casting was wrong. Jackson emphasized that he would not single out individuals, but he took full responsibility for the mismatch. He also praised Gosling as a fantastic actor and described film success as chemistry between performers and behind-the-camera communication.

Read at The Independent