Project Hail Mary has only been in theaters for a few weeks, but its alien star, Rocky, has already become a legend. He’s got merch, hundreds of millions in box office dollars, and was even quoted during the Artemis 2 space mission. And to think it all began with puppeteer James Ortiz walking a hand-sized puppet all over Ryan Gosling’s body.
The Los Angeles Times recently posted a lovely little profile on Ortiz, who has been a successful, well-known puppeteer long before his work as both the puppeteer and voice of Rocky in Project Hail Mary. So when he got called in to audition to help bring the character to life, he didn’t use the larger-sized puppet the filmmakers had made. No, instead, he used a smaller puppet of his own creation that apparently looks oddly familiar.
“For a chemistry read with Gosling, with the film’s producers also present, Ortiz opted for using a version of Rocky he had made himself, which looked like Thing from The Addams Family; built off a fancy glove, instead of the larger puppet the production had available,” the article says. “That his hand version of Rocky could climb onto Gosling, and interact with the actor more directly, allowed for an amusing rapport to develop instantly between them.”
Once he had the job, the Rocky puppet that would be in the movie was designed by famed creature creator Neal Scanlan. Ortiz, though, being a seasoned pro himself, also provided input. “I had, ultimately, a lot of input, never on how Rocky looked, but a lot on how he was operated and what materials he was made out of,” Ortiz told the Times. “I was able to pick what types of fiberglass we were using to cast him out of, because I knew, given the amount of improvisation that we would be doing on set, [that] I needed a puppet that could do anything.”
And, we think, the results speak for themselves.
Read more about Ortiz’s journey to Project Hail Mary over at the LA Times. The film is still in theaters.
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