Peter Jackson says 'mistakes' were made around Ryan Gosling exit from 'The Lovely Bones'

Peter Jackson says recasting Ryan Gosling in 'The Lovely Bones' reflected casting mistakes

Peter Jackson has addressed Ryan Gosling’s departure from The Lovely Bones, acknowledging that “mistakes” were made during the casting process for the 2009 film.

Speaking during a career retrospective conversation at the Cannes Film Festival, Jackson was asked about Gosling’s previous comments regarding his abrupt exit from the adaptation of Alice Sebold’s novel.

Gosling had said in 2010 that he gained 60 pounds for the role before being replaced by Mark Wahlberg shortly before filming began.

Jackson declined to discuss specific details about Gosling directly but accepted responsibility for the recasting process.

“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,” Jackson said. “It's not because they did anything wrong.”

He added, “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.”

Gosling previously said that he believed a lack of communication during pre-production contributed to the situation.

“We didn't talk very much during the pre-production process, which was the problem,” he said in 2010. “I just showed up on set, and I had gotten it wrong. Then I was fat and unemployed.”

Jackson also described filmmaking as a matter of chemistry between actors, filmmakers and the story itself. “Ryan is a fantastic actor, as we know. Films are a chemistry,” he said during the Cannes discussion.

The Lovely Bones eventually starred Mark Wahlberg alongside Saoirse Ronan, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci and Michael Imperioli. The film follows a murdered teenager observing her grieving family from the afterlife.

Fran Walsh, Jackson’s creative partner, previously said Gosling had raised concerns about being too young for the father role before production began. “It was our blindness, the desire to make it work no matter what,” she said at the time.

Jackson attended Cannes to receive an honorary Palme d'Or and also confirmed he is developing a new Adventures of Tintin film alongside producing two new The Lord of the Rings projects.