Ryan Gosling could not hide his genuine concern for journalist Jake Hamilton after he video-called into his press junket interview with the Hollywood star while stranded in the middle of a desert.
While Jake tried to remain completely professional and keep the interview on track to promote Ryan’s new movie, Project Hail Mary, Ryan could not get over the bizarre setup, and repeatedly ignored the questions about the movie to check that Jake and his girlfriend, Iris, were OK.
Jake kicked off the interview by casually greeting the star, but Ryan immediately looked confused, asking: “Are you in a volcano?!”
At this point, the reporter explained that he had been “rushing back from a tour of the Grand Canyon” to do the interview, when the tour bus “broke down on the side of the road.”
“Obviously, I would do anything not to miss an interview with you, man,” he then joked, to which Ryan quipped: “You look like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, the one where he’s climbing!”
Visibly bemused, Ryan went on: “This is amazing. I don’t want you to be stranded, but the production value on this… Do you technically need a permit to shoot there? It’s like you’re doing a Western!”
Jake had the camera pan over to the broken-down tour bus, where several other people could be seen waiting around. “Oh, it’s a bus!” Ryan exclaimed, he then asked: “Did you see the Grand Canyon?”
“Well, I saw the Grand Canyon. It was almost as beautiful as Project Hail Mary,” Jake replied, expertly trying to get back to the movie. At this point, Ryan obliged, answering a couple of questions about his film, but he still couldn’t get Jake’s situation off his mind.
After Jake asked about his differing experiences of shooting movies set in space, Ryan bluntly asked: “Do you have help on the way?”
“It’s going to be about an hour,” Jake replied. “So, I don’t know how long you got to talk to me, but I’ve got about an hour.” Ryan then asked: “Hold on, let’s just… First things first, do you have water? Are you staying hydrated?”
When Jake confirmed that he did have water, Ryan went on: “You sure? You’re sure you have enough water for everyone? Because that could get ugly.” He then jokingly advised Jake to “start squirreling” away his water so he wouldn’t have to share with the others. He laughed: “ABS, man, always be squirreling.”
Jake then revealed that his girlfriend, Iris, was actually the one filming him for the video link, to which Ryan asked: “Can she turn it around, please?” When Iris appeared on camera, he said: “You’re the MVP, Iris… Thank you for doing this!”
Again, Jake tried to get the interview back on track, but Ryan wasn’t having it, marveling at Iris’s “great handheld work.” After Jake continued to push, Ryan finally agreed: “They were very different space experiences,” with Jake playfully ribbing him for the brief answer. They had a back and forth about movies for some time, before Ryan admitted: “I am worried about your hydration. You got a power bar?”
“We got about a half of bag of gummy worms,” Jake revealed, he then started to wrap up the interview, which prompted Ryan to interject: “Do you guys have a blanket if it gets cold?”
“I definitely want to hear that you got out of this,” the star went on, with Jake assuring him that he’ll let the studio know once he and Iris made it home.
As you can imagine, the interview almost immediately went viral after Jake shared clips of it to social media, with many people obsessed with how genuinely concerned Ryan was for the reporter. One popular tweet reads: “the way you can see the gears in his head turning as he kept asking questions and barely cared about the actual interview anymore had me fucking crying 😭😭😭😭 god this gem of a man-“
Somebody else wrote: “2026 has its best interview & it’s only March 2nd.” Others praised Jake’s professionalism, with one tweet reading: “Best thing about this is I love that Ryan keeps checking in on Jake, and Jake ALWAYS brings it back Project Hail Mary.”
“the way u keep trying to get back on with the interview but he is way more fascinated by your current situation 😭😭😭” another tweeted in response to Jake’s video. Somebody else concluded of Ryan: “he read the room so well bc how can you just ignore that he’s stranded 😭😭😭😭”
Thankfully, Jake, Iris, and the rest of the tour bus passengers did manage to make it out of the desert, eventually. You can watch Jake’s iconic full interview below, and as always, let me know your thoughts in the comments!
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Jake’s Takes / Via youtube.com
