By George & Josh Bate
Project Hail Mary is the kind of movie that makes you grateful you’re alive at a point in history in which movies are made. That sentence may seem like hyperbole and yet it perfectly encapsulates the sentiment many will experience upon walking out of the new Amazon MGM Studios movie – like you’ve just witnessed a film that checks every single box (and then some) of what a film should achieve.
From directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Project Hail Mary stars Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace, a middle school science teacher who wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no memory of how he got there. A series of flashbacks reveal that Grace was sent on a high-stakes mission far away to assess why a sole planet, unlike the sun and other stars near Earth, is not dying out. Grace calls on his unorthodox ideas and rich scientific knowledge to solve this enigma and save Earth from extinction but eventually discovers he doesn’t need to undertake this mission alone when he teams up with the endearing alien Rocky.
The HoloFiles recently had the chance to speak with Project Hail Mary star Lionel Boyce about the remarkable appeal of the new movie, its deft balance of levity and stakes, improvising lines under the direction of Lord and Miller, acting alongside Ryan Gosling, and more.
Evaluate the palpable anticipation audiences have for Project Hail Mary and one could mistake the film as the next installment in a long-running fan favorite franchise like Star Wars and Marvel. Lionel Boyce reflected on why the movie, which is based on the acclaimed 2021 novel of the same name by Andy Weir, is generating such excitement. “I think it’s a very human story and it’s a very universal story,” said Boyce. “I think, by hyper-focusing in on this relationship between Grace and Rocky, it plays out no different than two children meeting or two adults meeting and connecting. It’s just about pure connection. I think that’s the most universal human thing ever.”
Boyce’s thoughts resonate universally with critics, who have lauded the film’s extraordinary warmth and described how genuinely moving the bond between Rocky and Grace is.
Boyce, who is known for his role as Marcus Brooks in the hit series The Bear, enters Project Hail Mary early on and plays a key role in the film’s numerous flashbacks. Boyce plays Carl, a stoic secret service agent that Gosling’s character Grace develops an affinity toward. Together, Grace and Carl collaborate on a range of unorthodox science experiments that prove vital in discovering why the Sun is dying.
For his scenes with Gosling, Boyce’s Carl largely serves as the straight man to Grace’s funny man, remaining endearingly stern-faced as Gosling cracks jokes and makes light of a harrowing predicament. “It was fun,” Boyce stated regarding what it was like to act alongside Gosling. “I think it was fun, because, number one, Ryan is so funny and just so good with improv as well as Chris [Miller] and Phil [Lord], so those guys are just clicking and firing on all cylinders and so it just makes it so easy to just respond to him [given] the endless well of things he throws at you.”
With directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller having a robust background in comedy, it makes sense that Project Hail Mary is so organic and free-flowing with its dialogue. Boyce attributes this attribute of the film to his directors’ encouragement to improvise heavily. “I think a lot of those scenes had the more natural feeling, because they were just kind of building these things out as they kept going,” Boyce remarked. “A lot of it was loose and improv, which I think benefited [the movie], because it’s about Ryan’s character tearing down my character and eventually winning him over.”
Gosling winning over Boyce’s character is perhaps best exemplified in a fun montage scene early in the film. To compile makeshift materials necessary to conduct their unconventional experiments, Grace and Carl head to a store like Lowe’s or Home Depot and make the most of a stressful situation. The two line up Reynold’s Wrap boxes as bowling pins, have a game of bowling in the store aisle, and play catch with random items, amongst other things.
“It was so fun making that, because it was like a dream come true to be in that kind of store and just fuck around and mess around and not get in trouble,” Boyce joyfully recounted. “Like what you were doing when you were nine, but getting paid professionally to do it.”
Gosling and Boyce improvised heavily during this montage scene. “They shot so much,” Boyce revealed. “They were just throwing things out, just like, ‘Try this. Try that.’ Or whatever. They had so much to pull from and it was cool, because I was wondering how this gets stitched [together] or if all of it was just a great experience that lives in my memory.”
Much to Boyce’s delight, his favorite moment of the scene and his favorite moment involving his character more broadly thankfully made it into the final cut. This moment caps off the hilarious montage and shows Boyce, dressed in stiff and formal attire, dunk an item in their shopping cart at the department store. “My favorite moment from it, I was like, ‘Yes!’ when it made it into the movie,” Boyce joked.
As is the case working on any project, it’s unclear exactly what is going to make the final cut. This concern becomes even more evident when one’s role in a film or show is relatively limited to begin with. Boyce spoke about his approach to making the most of limited screentime. “When filming, you just want to make sure you’re in service of everyone, at least for me,” Boyce reflected. “I want to make sure I’m not the one who dropped the ball, so I want to try my best…I made peace with that none of it might make it into the movie. That’s just the nature of the game.”
For as funny as Boyce’s scenes with Gosling are, they also never lose sight of the world-ending stakes at play for their characters. Boyce discussed how Project Hail Mary so delicately balances a vibrant sense of humor with incredible warmth and a high-stakes narrative. “I credit that most to the filmmakers, because they’re conducting this thing on a tightrope with what they’re balancing,” the actor said. “I think I felt the same as you when I saw the movie, because I was like, This has such a particular bittersweet tone and it’s like doomsday, right? Everything’s coming to an end, but they’re finding hope in this dark place.”
Marcus Brooks, Boyce’s character in The Bear, is known for his sensitive, mild-mannered, and kind-hearted attitude. The actor’s character in Project Hail Mary similarly calls upon Boyce’s ability to combine silence with inner kindness. Along these lines, Boyce spoke about his empathic approach to evoking these two traits with fellow actors. “I try to be very personal,” he said. “The person in front of you is a human being. I always think everything exists inside of them.” Boyce elaborated that he treats his acting counterparts, in this case Ryan Gosling, with a genuine humanity – he’s not just interacting with a fictional character in a movie, but a real person.
While Boyce learned much about being a pastry chef in preparing for The Bear, the Inglewood native picked up on a new body of knowledge while making Project Hail Mary. “This is a cool movie, because you leave smarter,” Boyce said. “Every step of the way, the science is real science…There are moments where I’m not even filming, I’m just walking around set looking like, ‘Oh yeah, that does make sense. Look at the Petrova Line or these things I had no idea about.’ I’ve always loved space and all that stuff so hearing a real plausible story set in this place where there’s things to actually grab onto and research later is cool.”
With Project Hail Mary, Boyce makes his first leap into big-budget blockbuster filmmaking. The incredibly polite actor humbly discussed his hopes that his work on the new sci-fi epic will lead to participation in other larger-scale projects. “I think you always hope that it opens doors, but also you don’t lean on that,” Boyce stated. “There are so many filmmakers I’d love to work with. I’d love to be in a Denis Villeneuve movie. Just these people who do those big things that do them well like Christopher Nolan. I would love to be in any of those kinds of movies. Or like Josh Safdie’s movies. I hope it opens the doors to things and gets [me] closer to the autonomy of doing the things that you want to do. Will it? I don’t know.”
Based on the lasting impression he leaves with his supporting role in Project Hail Mary and the continued acclaim he receives for his work on The Bear, we think many of the doors Boyce speaks will blow wide open soon.
Project Hail Mary is in theaters from March 20, 2026
