Brief
VFX team details zero‑gravity tricks for Ryan Gosling’s ‘Project Hail Mary’
Supervisors Paul Lambert and Mag Sarnowska describe the practical and digital methods used to fake weightlessness in the film.
By Felo News Desk · Published
Oscar‑winning VFX supervisor Paul Lambert said creating convincing zero‑gravity was his biggest challenge on the Ryan Gosling space epic “Project Hail Mary,” according to his remarks at the View Conference in Turin.
What happened
Lambert and co‑supervisor Mag Sarnowska detailed a mix of practical rigs and digital tools used to make Gosling appear weightless. The actor performed on wire rigs, including a rotating harness, while the crew filmed him against a backdrop of burning fireballs, liquids, lasers and ferrofluid. When the wire‑suspended body still looked like it was hanging, artists adjusted limb positions and added drifting objects in post‑production.
What the reports add
Lambert explained that the production was urged to use the “vomit comet” – an aircraft that creates short periods of weightlessness – but the elaborate spacecraft sets made that impractical. Instead, the team used an infrared‑modified camera, programmable IR lights and water in front of the lens to capture unusual imagery, which Lambert called “a mad science lab.” The DP later collaborated with ILM’s Helios virtual‑camera system to track Gosling’s performance and place it in digital environments, allowing new camera angles without re‑shooting.
What was said
“Zero‑G was probably my personal biggest concern going into the movie,” Lambert told Variety.
“We tried very hard to convince the production to use the vomit comet,” he added.
“It was literally a mad science lab,” Lambert recalled of the infrared experiments.
How it came about
The visual effects approach was guided by a desire to keep the film’s physics recognizable. Lambert and Sarnowska used astronomical data from ESA’s Gaia mission and NASA footage to model the star field between Earth and Tau Ceti, 11.9 light‑years away. They found that real‑world exposure meant stars would be largely absent near the illuminated planet Adrian, shaping the final look of the sky.
Key facts
- VFX supervisor Paul Lambert said zero‑gravity was his biggest concern on the film. (variety.com)
- Ryan Gosling performed zero‑gravity scenes on wire rigs and a rotating harness. (variety.com)
- The team used infrared‑modified cameras, programmable IR lights and water to create unique visual effects. (variety.com)
- ILM’s Helios virtual‑camera system was used to track Gosling’s performance for digital environments. (variety.com)
- Astronomical data from ESA’s Gaia mission informed the star‑field background. (variety.com)
Sources
- [1] variety.com — originally reported as “Ryan Gosling’s Zero-G Stunts on ‘Project Hail Mary’ Broken Down by the Space Epic’s VFX Supervisors”
