The ‘Fall Guy’ Stunt Ryan Gosling’s Daughters Vetoed (Exclusive)

Ryan Gosling wanted to get in on the action in his new movie, The Fall Guy. His daughters, however, had demands. 

“My kids didn’t want me to be set on fire,” the actor-producer, 43, tells PEOPLE exclusively. Esmeralda Amada, 9, and Amada Lee, 8, who he shares with longtime partner Eva Mendes, 50, “asked specifically” that he avoid any pyrotechnics. 

“Even though I said, ‘Well, it’s actually, technically the safer thing to do because there’s a lot of protective stuff involved,’” recalls Gosling of the trick — which entails fire-resistant clothing and special protection gel — his daughters nevertheless “were like, ‘No. No fire.’ So I didn’t do it.”

Ben Jenkin, one of several doubles who helped Gosling bring the character of stuntman Colt Seavers to life, did the stunt instead. His fire burn, as it’s called, was completed a total of eight times. 

The Fall Guy (in theaters Friday, May 3), loosely based on Lee Majors’ 1980s TV series of the same name, was conceived as an homage to the filmmaking community, particularly those who make spectacle possible: the stunt professionals who Gosling calls the “unsung heroes” of the biz.

At the March 13 SXSW premiere of the David Leitch-directed movie, Gosling told PEOPLE it was “important” that he do “a few” of his own stunts — despite a fear of heights. While the actor “would have been happy to say I did none of my own stunts in this movie,” he wanted to get closer to the work his movie was honoring. “It helped me to understand exactly on some small level what [stunt professionals] do every day.”

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That’s how the Barbie star found himself dropping backwards 12 stories off a building while held up with wires, The Fall Guy’s opening scene. “This was orchestrated so that it would happen after a long, very involved take that starts outside, comes inside, up the elevators about 12 stories. When I got [to the ledge] I was like, ‘I think I’m going to need to put on sunglasses for no reason, so that the audience doesn’t see how afraid I am.’ ”

Emily Blunt, Gosling’s costar, confirms that it was really him falling from that height take after take. “It was very scary watching you do that,” she tells him. “Everyone went silent. Then when he first did it, we all started cheering.”

The Oppenheimer star, 41, adds with a laugh, “After you’d done it the first time, people didn’t cheer afterwards, and I felt bad. I was like, ‘Come on, he’s still doing it!’ ”

“I just blacked out,” admits Gosling. “I just don’t remember any of it.”

Assisted by parkour prodigy Jenkin, driving double Logan Holladay, high fall expert Troy Brown, martial artist Justin Eaton, stunt coordinator Keir Beck and second unit director Chris O’Hara — who on The Fall Guy earned the industry’s first-ever credit of stunt designer — Gosling participated in several flips, fights and other falls. The stunt team also helped rehearse the action sequences and ensure safety for cast members Winston Duke, Hannah Waddingham, Stephanie Hsu, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and more. 

In March, Gosling and Blunt presented a tribute montage to stunt performers at the 2024 Academy Awards. Ahead of the movie’s release, the team also presented Holladay, 34, with a Guinness World Record for the most cannon rolls in a car, a stunt he pulled off for the movie. 

“You can’t separate the history of film from the history of action and stunts,” Gosling tells PEOPLE. “Action is designed in the same way that makeup is designed in a film or costumes or anything else, and they risk more than anyone else in those departments. They risk everything and they get no credit for it, really.”

He adds, “It was more than time for a film like this, but it’s also more than time to recognize what they contribute and what they risk to create these moments for us.”

The Fall Guy is in theaters Friday, May 3.