Actor Ryan Gosling plays a skillful yet unwilling assassin in the new Netflix original by superstar directorial team Russo brothers.

As a production company, you have to be daring (and a bit mad) to spend US$200 million for a movie during the pandemic, especially when it means that it will be your most expensive movie ever made.

The Gray Man is a product of that “madness”. A product of the Marvel director-duo Joe and Anthony Russo, this newest action-thriller from Netflix involves over seven locations across the globe from Los Angeles in the United States to Prague and a star-studded cast including Chris Evans, Ana de Armas and lead actor Ryan Gosling.

“It seemed sort of impossible what [the Russo brothers] were trying to do,” Gosling chuckled during a media roundtable on July 12. 

“Because when I got the script, we were in the middle of the pandemic. Movie theaters, film productions were closing down, and they sent me this script asking me if I wanted to make this globe-trotting, giant blockbuster,” he added.

The famed actor, prominent in both independent and Hollywood movies, gets to fight Chris Evans, who sheds his Avengers’ hero persona for a sociopathic, Harvard-graduate assassin in this movie.

“I think we all found it good, wicked fun to try to come up with a character that was the polar opposite of what Captain America was,” Anthony Russo said. “Lloyd Hansen really couldn’t get further from what Captain America is.”

Star-studded cast: Hollywood actors Ryan Gosling (left), Ana de Armas (center) and Chris Evans (right) pose during the Los Angeles premiere of their latest film 'The Gray Man' on July 13. (Courtesy of Netflix) (Courtesy of Netflix/Courtesy of Netflix)

The man in the shadow

Adapted from a bestselling novel series of the same name, The Gray Man involves then-prisoner Court Gentry (Gosling), who was recruited from the Florida state prison to be a nameless mercenary sent whenever the CIA could not officially send anyone else – the men who work in the morally-gray area.

Gosling is not new to the action genre, but he found Gentry’s character an interesting one.

“I liked his sense of humor, I thought that made him different than a lot of the characters I had played in action films,” he said to The Jakarta Post. “It was more like the kind of characters I liked growing up.”

With action experiences in dramas like Drive and comedies like The Nice Guys, Gosling is known for his ability to imbue humor even in the most dreadful of situations.

“I also just liked the fact that he’s a character that doesn’t wanna be a spy, you know? He doesn’t wanna be James Bond, he just wants to be home watching Netflix like the rest of us,” Gosling assessed. “But he has to do this, and it’s this or death.”

Gentry, now merely called “Six”, did his duty for years until he uncovers a deep secret about the new CIA chief Denny Carmichael during a mission, which leads him to be hunted by the agency.

Family above all: Ryan Gosling's character Six (right) takes care of his boss' niece Claire, played by Julia Butters, in 'The Gray Man'. (Netflix/Courtesy of Paul Abell) (Netflix/Courtesy of Paul Abell)

If “Captain America” turning evil is not enough, who better to play a highly punchable CIA chief than Regé-Jean Page from the beloved Netflix drama Bridgerton?

“I think highly punchable is a great adjective to shoot for in antagonists,” Page laughed with the Post. “I think this is why I find antagonists particularly fun. Protagonists have a lot of limits to their actions,” he said.

Being the mastermind behind all hell that would strike Gosling’s character who goes rogue, Page dived deep into Carmichael’s psyche in preparation.

“The biggest challenge for myself was quite how far into being gross that Denny Carmichael could go. It was very fun releasing into the almost immature power-plays that he could do, like inviting you into the bathroom for a meeting just to make you uncomfortable,” he shared.

CIA deputy chief Suzanne Brewer, played by Iron Fist and The Matrix Resurrections actress Jessica Henwick, is the subject of Carmichael’s power plays.

“I just loved how rich the Suzanne-Denny relationship particularly was. We have history, we have bad blood. And so we’re starting the scene already with a tension between us,” Henwick said.

Family first

As a possible new franchise that will be compared with the likes of James Bond, Bourne and Mission Impossible, The Gray Man does well in maximizing its thrills, with propulsive action sequences that never seem to end, even until the last seconds.

“We wanted a breakneck film that when you sat down, it didn’t stop until it finished, so it was bursting out of the gates from the go,” Joe Russo said to the Post.

A whole tramcar chase scene also required a portion of Prague’s Old Town to be shut down for days.

“I know it was the toughest [scene to shoot] because they left it for the last. Because I think they thought if anything happened to me, it might be the last thing I ever shoot,” Gosling joked.

The movie also captures the speed of the moment with intense aerial drone shots that even circle the actors when they are fighting.

“We needed dynamic camerawork to support the pace and energy of the story, one that was very kinetic,” Joe continued. The Russos then settled on a speed drone, which can travel at incredibly high speed and can get very close to any object thanks to its small size.

Marvel duo: Anthony (left) and Joe Russo, known as the director-duo of the Russo brothers, are pictured during the Los Angeles premiere of their latest film 'The Gray Man' on July 13. (Courtesy of Netflix) (Courtesy of Netflix/Courtesy of Netflix)

“We thought it was an interesting, new visual language that captured shots that I haven't seen any other tools be able to capture. And it seemed to have the right energy for what we’re looking for,” he added.

But regardless of the CIA’s dark secrets story or the global manhunt for Six, the movie centers heavily on family matters – something that becomes the heart of the story.

“These are characters all from fractured families. I mean, Six has no family,” Joe said.

Despite his knack for humor, Gosling’s expression shows nothing more than the hollow emptiness of his character’s life. Six’s only connection is with his former boss, Fitzroy, and eventually, Fitzroy's niece Claire, who has lost her parents.

“So these are all broken people who come together as a surrogate family. And as cynical and as hard as the world is in this story, the characters who do connect with each other have a heart and do care for each other,” Joe concluded.

The Gray Man is now showing in select theaters and will hit Netflix on July 22.