Today, Project Hail Mary officially launched in theaters everywhere. All I can say after seeing it is this is hands down one of the best films of the 2020s. The film is a dazzling sci-fi adventure about sacrifice, loneliness, survival, and friendship. We were recently able to speak to stars Ryan Gosling and Sandra Hüller about these themes during the film’s press junket. However, you simply cannot speak about the idea of friendship in the movie, without talking to Ryland Grace’s buddy on Earth, Carl — played by Emmy nominee Lionel Boyce!
Though large stretches of Project Hail Mary center on Gosling’s character, Grace, either isolated from other people, or in the company of a rock-like extraterrestrial, much of the film explores his life on Earth, and the origins of how he got involved in the mission. During those scenes, we are introduced to Carl (Boyce), a top-level security officer for Project Hail Mary. Over the years that Grace helps get Project Hail Mary off the ground, he befriends Carl, wearing down the agent’s tough surface level exterior with humor and wonder, as they team up to make some of the most significant discoveries of a lifetime!
Bringing pathos and emotion to a character like Carl would be a daunting task for most. However, the film finds itself fortunate to have discovered the perfect actor for the character. Boyce, who earned an Emmy nomination for his work as Marcus Brooks, a talented pastry chef in The Bear, imbues Carl with a gentleness that feeds into the electric bromance that forms between himself and Gosling’s character. As such, the chemistry we see between them during their scenes together is simply…out of this world!
We were lucky enough to chat about Project Hail Mary with Boyce, during an exclusive interview. Here’s what he had to share with us:
NOC: Lionel, it is an honor. I’m actually a huge fan. I’ve loved seeing you in The Bear, and seeing your career just take off. Now you are in, what I consider to be probably the best movie of the year. Right now for me, it is the best movie of the year… Do you know what the current Rotten Tomato score is for the movie right now?
Boyce: The last time I saw it, it was like 93%, like a couple of days ago. And I haven’t looked since. So I’m not really sure.
Buddy, it went up.
Whoa!
That rarely ever happens!
That’s crazy!
You don’t ever see that. It’s at 95% with 131 reviews. One of those is mine… because to me, this is a classic. So is The Bear. So are your performances in both of these. So I have to ask, what’s it like to be the good luck charm on every project that you touch?
I’m glad you see it that way. Maybe other people who watch this interview will say that and that’ll bring more jobs. I don’t know. I think it’s cool. I don’t take any credit for it. I think it’s the projects themselves. I’ve been fortunate to be in a position where the project I’m a part of is aligned with something that I feel is special. And the world seems to agree with me. So that’s really cool.
Absolutely. I think it speaks to tthe kind of taste that you have, honestly. You pick good projects that are character driven, where you’re playing a really interesting and complex characters. We saw that in The Bear. We’re seeing that here with Carl as well. Carl is actually put into kind of these sort of tough decisions. You see this, this relationship developing between him and Grace. They’re kind of buddies. And then Carl has to make some pretty difficult decisions because Grace is put in a situation that’s pretty dire. Was that something that was difficult for you to accept as well for your character? That this buddy friendship is going to be tested since the lives of everyone all over the world is on the line?
No, I feel like a lot of the time this movie is bittersweet. It’s like a call to duty that’s bigger than you, and I feel like it is a tough decision because I think Carl starts off not caring about this person. And Grace with, this ability to unlock everyone around him and tear down walls; just keeping at it until they break down – He forces a friendship on Carl. And I think that it just puts Carl in a place where he has to contradict himself. Where he has feelings of camaraderie for this person, but he also understands the situation itself is black and white. There’s no sun, so there’s nothing that exists if you don’t go. And I do feel for him. I do think the other thing of it is, it’s because he believes in him. He believes he can do this. I think Carl starts off not really believing in him. Being unsure and learning and seeing how this person thinks and is breaking things down. And he gets it done. What wins him over, aside from Grace’s unwilling charm, is his talent and ability. So he’s like, “I believe in you. So that’s the only reason why I am pushing you to do this thing.” It’s a tough push. It’s tough love. It’s extreme tough love.
It definitely is, but you’re right. It shows that he has every bit of confidence in this man that he’s, he’s gotten to know over the past couple of years. And it ends up being right. Grace does become the man for the job. And I think Carl recognizes that. that’s really cool. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is the Home Depot scene. Carl comes up like a complete badass, and he just drops the card, and he’s like, ‘we got unlimited budget on anything, so we’re going to get a bunch of Skittles and everything that you want.’ If you were in that position and had the unlimited card with unlimited resources, what would you be spending it on?
That’s so hard to answer because I am like a 6-year-old where I just think of the most absurd things that I want to do. I think I would spend a lot of time trying to find a jetpack. That would be like my first order of business: the jetpack. Can I get a jetpack? Can you get one? Can we build it? I would be wasting the money on frivolous 6-year-old dreams. I would make all the kids in the world jealous of me.
I would be jealous of you too, and I would be doing the same thing, honestly. Who wouldn’t want a jet pack? If you’ve got the NASA scientists on it, you know, and you’ve got unlimited resources. Yeah, just build a jet pack, man!
Yeah, it’s just like making all these things that are wild… I’ll probably be thinking about it for like the next two hours and be sad that I don’t have an unlimited card. So thank you for that!
HA! Sorry! I made a world that was way too magical for us to live in! I just love that scene.
I love that scene too. Yeah, it’s fun because… we’ve all been two kids in a Home Depot. You’ve been there with your parents and your friend or your sibling. And you get shut down by your parents when you throw stuff in the back. It’s just like, if the kid had the card, and I think I credit Chris Miller and Phil Lord, because they bring like this camaraderie and looseness along with Ryan to making that just feel like their kind of movie. They bring it to their world.
It’s something that speaks volumes to the fact that they brought you on board as well. Because if you think about it, Project Hail Mary is one of those really rare movies, where tonally, you can have a really funny moment, like the Home Depot scene. But then very dramatic moments at the drop of a hat. And none of it feels out of place. I think that it also speaks volumes to you as an actor because you’re used to that. We have that in The Bear. There are moments that are darkly funny and that are kind of silly here and there. But then it can go dramatic and it can go really dark. Or really light in a dramatic way. You’re able to blend those balances as an actor. So can you speak to how you find the balance between the lighter tones and sometimes the darker tones as an actor?
I think it’s just us being human. We have in the real world, a tendency to want to hide things. And as actors, you want to show the things that you hide because that’s what makes us connect. That’s what true vulnerability is. It’s not the things that you think you should show. It’s the things that you either think are mundane or that you are ashamed. That makes someone go from two-dimensional to three-dimensional full human being. And I think The Bear and Project Hail Mary are projects that seek a human experience. And by giving them these experiences — yes you can laugh and you can cry within the same breath — that’s what being human is. That’s what it’s about. To be human.
It’s what makes the best movies, in my opinion. The movies that make you smile one minute, and then break your heart the next. Then make you smile, again. My last question to you is that Carl is instrumental in the discovery that astrophage multiplies on its own. It spontaneously reproduces. And I have to wonder — how does it feel to be a proud papa of astrophage alongside Grace?
Well, I gotta say, it feels good because the world is safe. Who wouldn’t feel good? If I did it in real life, I’m walking around my hometown telling everyone I saved the world! That’s all I’m doing. Like I’m retiring. Nothing better. It’s like you got to help somebody. Everyone wants to make an impact on the world. And these people, all through pushing Grace to go out on this mission, have all effectively saved the world. So I think there’s nothing better than that.
Absolutely. I couldn’t agree with you more. And quite frankly, that really is what this movie’s all about. It’s everybody getting together, and doing something good and something positive for the rest of the world, in the most dire of circumstances. I am so grateful to have gotten to talk to you, Lionel, and I’m so grateful that you’re part of this amazing movie. Congratulations!
See Boyce eat Skittles and create astrophage in the best movie of the year so far! Project Hail Mary is now playing in theaters everywhere!
