TIFF 2018: Former astronaut says Gosling has 'right stuff' in First Man

Canadian Ryan Gosling has “the right stuff” as astronaut Neil Armstrong in the TIFF movie First Man.

That’s according to no less an authority than actual astronaut Al Worden, who was the command module pilot on Apollo 15 and a consultant on the film. He knew Armstrong but never did an actual lunar mission with him.

“He’s perfect,” said Worden on the First Man red carpet on Monday afternoon at the Elgin Theatre which also drew Gosling, director Damien Chazelle, actors Patrick Fugit and Brian D’arcy James, among others.

“Cause he’s got that kind of stoic look that Neil had. It wasn’t really stoic but Neil didn’t change a lot and Neil was a very, very friendly nice guy but Neil was very much into himself, OK, a lot of the time and I think Ryan really pulls that off very well.”

Worden also says the fuss made about First Man not including a scene of the actual planting of the American flag on the moon is much ado about nothing.

“That’s nonsense!” said Worden. “I think the problem with that discussion is we’ve gotten too politicized to think of anything outside the context of it being politics. A few small group of people objected to not seeing the flag being planted but what I understand is those are people who never even saw the movie. How could they tell? But we are so political these says days and drive in both directions so far that the slightest little thing starts a fire.”

“In my opinion, taking time out of the main thrust of the movie to plant the flag would detract from the thought process in the movie and I don’t think it’s necessary.”

Otherwise, Worden says his fave space movie to date is 2001: A Space Odyssey.

“There are some movies that I’ve seen that I laugh at. And 2001 was a very serious movie. It was science fiction, of course, but the onboard scenes where they showed life on board spacecraft were very well done,” he said.

Worden also gives the scenes in First Man the thumbs up.

“Their scenes in flight are very realistic. They’ve done a really good job.”

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