A scene in ‘The Fall Guy’ showed Hannah Waddingham’s character walking into a trailer wrecked after a fight and joking, ‘it’s like Amber and Johnny were just in here.’ The line received backlash from viewers online for being ‘unpleasant.’
Writer Drew Pearce explained the context behind the joke in a recent chat with The Hollywood Reporter:
“No decent human being would ever make a joke about that subject, and Gail’s character is clearly not a decent human being. She’s our villain, and she says horrible things, and this is just one of them. But just like what I hope continues to happen in our industry and others, Gail is ultimately held accountable for her worldview and her behavior.”
He added:
“As with all of our characters, Gail included, we wanted them to feel authentic, warts and all. Sometimes sh*tty people say sh*tty things, but a character’s opinion in a movie is not the same as the perspective of either the film or the people making it. All of that being said, when a filmmaker puts a line in a movie, they have to anticipate how it will make the audience feel, so everybody is entitled to their reaction too.”
They Wanted To Break The ‘Algorithm’ With This Film
‘The Fall Guy’ was based on Glen A. Larson’s original TV show and followed a stuntman as he searched for a missing lead actress with his director ex-girlfriend. The film starred Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Teresa Palmer, Winston Duke, and Stephanie Hsu along with Waddingham.
Gosling also served as producer with director David Leitch, Kelly McCormick, and Guymon Casady. He mentioned wanting to break the Hollywood algorithm with the new action-comedy in a Vanity Fair Italy interview in late April:
“You can’t beat an algorithm at its job. And this, paradoxically, forces me to be more human, to choose ‘handmade’ projects like ‘The Fall Guy,’ which is based on personal experiences, our footprints and our stories, which we poured into the characters.”
The film saw release on May 3. It received generally positive reviews and made around $104 million worldwide against $125–150 million budget.
