Saoirse Ronan Details Feeling “Sad” Over Ryan Gosling Getting Fired From Lovely Bones

Saoirse Ronan had a lovely time working with Ryan Gosling,Sad however brief.

The Lady Bird star recalled the drama that ensued on her 2009 film The Lovely Bones, when director Peter Jackson made the late decision to fire Ryan over their differing interpretations of his character—the Barbie star gained 60 pounds to play the dad role—and replace him with Mark Wahlberg.

Saoirse revealed that, while production "hadn't begun" yet on the film when Ryan was let go from the role, they had formed a relationship and "done some prep" together ahead of filming. Still, it was a difficult move to process.

"I think I just loved Ryan and his dog, George, and was just sad that he wasn't going to be around," she recalled to Josh Horowitz on the Oct. 7 episode of his Happy, Sad, Confused podcast. "But I think the reasons why they parted were totally valid, and I've spoken to both [Ryan and Peter] now."

As Saoirse—who was 14 at the time—explained, casting shakeups aren't uncommon in the movie business, and the decision wasn't a slight on Ryan personally.

"It happens, do you know what I mean?" she noted. "It's not personal, necessarily. It's just sometimes you're not on the same page."

And, ultimately, Mark—who shares kids Ella, 21, Michael, 18, Brendan, 16, and Grace, 14, with wife Rhea Durham—brought real life experience to the role of Saoirse's character Susie's father that Ryan didn't have at the time. (The La La Land star is now dad to daughters Esmeralda Amada, 10, and Amada Lee, 8, with longtime partner Eva Mendes.) 

"It meant then that Mark was able to step in, and he was a father," Saoirse explained. "He was a father to three kids [at the time], and he probably had an experience with that that Ryan felt like he didn't.

She added, "Ryan was like 27. He was young."

Luckily for Saoirse, she got to work with Ryan five years later on Lost River, his 2014 directorial debut.

"It was great then to work with him later," she gushed. "He's just the same. He doesn't change."

Ryan shared his side of the Lovely Bones casting ordeal in 2010, a year after the film was released, owing the change-up to a misinterpretation of the role on his part.

"We had a different idea of how the character should look," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "I really believed he should be 210 pounds."

"We didn’t talk very much during the preproduction process, which was the problem," Ryan went on. "It was a huge movie, and there’s so many things to deal with, and he couldn’t deal with the actors individually. I just showed up on set, and I had gotten it wrong."