Being a movie-spy looks like hard work. Sure, James Bond lives a glamorous jet-setting life and Jason Bourne presumably gets some time to read those magazines before using them to beat people up, but there’s also all that running, shooting, and jumping to contend with – an exhausting sense of day-to-day peril. In The Gray Man – the new action-packed espionage thriller directed by the Russo Brothers (the guys behind a few films you might have heard of, like Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame), coming to Netflix this summer – Ryan Gosling’s hero Courtland Gentry (aka Sierra Six) is a spy out of obligation rather than a sense of duty or patriotism. Plucked out of prison and into the pocket of the CIA, he’s a guy who’d rather be living a normal life. But with Chris Evans’ sociopathic manhunter Lloyd Hansen on his trail, that won’t come easy.
“What I liked about this character is that he wants something that most of us want, which is just to be free,” Gosling tells Empire about his first major role in years, in our upcoming exclusiveThe Gray Mancover feature. “His goals aren’t monetary, it’s not about treasure, it’s not revenge. He just wants to have the right to sit on the couch and watch Netflix like the rest of us.” He’s also, it should be said, a guy with a dry, sardonic wit – one that he weaponises as much as his actual weapons. “In almost every scene we tried to set it up so that he was at a disadvantage,” explains Gosling. “And it becomes about watching him use whatever is in his environment to gain leverage. And what he uses most consistently is a sense of humour. It’s a survival tool. If he can find what’s funny about the absurdity of the situation, he can distance himself from the danger of it.”
Promising expansive action, considered character beats, and an undercurrent of humour, The Gray Man is one of the summer’s most anticipated adventures – and if Gosling has his way, it won’t be the last time he plays Gentry. “I loved making this film,” he tells Empire. “I’d love to do it again. I’m hoping we can bump Six up to a name status at some point, just for his own sanity.” Maybe he’ll even get some time to watch some Netflix first – we know an explosive spy movie that might just be his bag.
Read Empire’s full The Gray Man feature – talking to Gosling, Chris Evans, the Russo Brothers and more about the making of their relentless action blockbuster – in our upcoming Summer Preview issue, on sale Thursday 12 May and available to pre-order online here. The Gray Man comes to UK cinemas from 15 July, and streams on Netflix from 22 July.