Ryan Gosling Reveals How Meryl Streep's “Project Hail Mary” Cameo Happened, Shares Story of When She Fixed His Tie (Exclusive)
Ryan Gosling Reveals How Meryl Streep's “Project Hail Mary” Cameo Happened, Shares Story of When She Fixed His Tie (Exclusive)
Jack SmartSat, March 21, 2026 at 2:00 PM UTC
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Ryan Gosling; Meryl StreepCredit: Stephane Cardinale - Corbis/Corbis via Getty; Jeff Spicer/Getty -
Meryl Streep lends her voice for a quick cameo in producer-star Ryan Gosling’s Project Hail Mary, in theaters March 20
Gosling’s relationship with the actress, he tells PEOPLE, began at an award show in 2017
“My tie was crooked and she fixed it for me,” Gosling recalls. “And then just walked off!”
Ryan Gosling can now count Meryl Streep as a costar — sort of.
In Project Hail Mary (in theaters Friday), Gosling, 45, plays a scientist-turned-astronaut named Dr. Ryland Grace, in deep space to research how to save our solar system’s dying sun. After meeting Rocky, a spider-like alien from a different galaxy whose species has the same problem, he devises a system to communicate: translating Rocky’s vibrations into an automated voice.
In a brief, uncredited cameo, Streep can be heard as Rocky when Grace tries channeling the alien’s words through her voice. The three-time Oscar winner, 76, “can do anything,” Gosling’s character says with a rueful smile — true in Project Hail Mary’s universe and ours.
“We have to thank [producer] Amy Pascal, who's friends with Meryl,” for securing the cameo, Gosling tells PEOPLE. “I don't have that kind of relationship with Meryl, unfortunately.”
Ryan Gosling in 'Project Hail Mary'Credit: Amazon MGM Studios
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Gosling and the Devil Wears Prada 2 actress, in fact, have a different kind of relationship. “It started one day when I was at an award show and she came [over],” he recalls of the 2017 Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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“And my tie was crooked and she fixed it for me,” Gosling adds. “And then just walked off!”
Streep, he says, is “like that. She's just amazing.”
Meryl Streep and Ryan Gosling in 2017Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety/Penske Media via Getty
In a Graham Norton Show interview in 2017, Gosling recalled another interaction with the screen legend. At the 2007 Academy Awards, he asked Streep to compliment his mother Donna, who was feeling insecure about her hairstyle choice. Streep apparently went above and beyond, telling Gosling’s mother she wished she had styled her hair the same way.
Ultimately, in Project Hail Mary, Rocky is voiced by James Ortiz, one of five puppeteers moving the practical-effect creature around the sci-fi movie’s sets. In certain moments onscreen, however, Gosling is actually chatting with occasional Rocky impersonators: his daughters Esmeralda Amada, 11, and Amada Lee, 9, whom he shares with partner Eva Mendes.
Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and screenwriter Drew Goddard’s adaptation of Andy Weir's sci-fi novel Project Hail Mary, costarring Sandra Hüller and Lionel Boyce, is in theaters as of Friday, March 20.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
