Award-winning actor Ryan Gosling is opening up about the inspiration behind a key character in one of his upcoming films.
During a Q&A segment following the SXSW premiere of Gosling's new movie, The Fall Guy, the Barbie star revealed that his canine costar and sidekick is actually an homage to his wife Eva Mendes' late dog, Hugo.
“Eva used to have a dog named Hugo who was a Belgian Malinois who was an attack dog," Gosling said, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. "He only spoke French. He’s passed now, so this is my homage to him."
In the film, Gosling's character brings dog Jean Claude with him on an action-packed adventure as they search for a missing movie star (played by Aaron-Taylor Johnson). In the movie, the dog only responds to French commands.
“We wanted to bring this additional character into the mix,” director David Leitch said during the same Q&A segment. “When you are in an action scene you are always trying to give yourself problems to make things fresh. Rain is good. Ice is good. And then adding an animal on set is always great.”
In a previous interview with People, Mendes discussed her late dog, Hugo, telling the outlet at the time that he "was so special."
“I would just talk to him and I would treat him like a person, like, I think, most dog lovers do," she said at the time. "I just have that bond that will be there … He may be gone, but that feeling has never left me. It is one of the most special presences in my life.”
The actress also revealed that her late pup helped prepare her for motherhood.
"The love that you have for your dog, and how you are with your dog, I think, is really similar to how you are with your children," she told People in the same 2018 interview. “I really feel that, and people will probably get really mad with me for feeling that way, (but) it's just so beautiful."
Gosling and Mendes met while filming the 2012 movie The Place Beyond the Pines and only confirmed they are in fact married fairly recently, in 2022.
The couple share two daughters: Esmeralda, 9, and Amada, 7.
In 2017, Gosling thanked Mendes for making his successful career possible in a moving acceptance speech after winning a Golden Globe for his performance in the hit movie La La Land.
“I just would like to try and thank one person properly and say that, while I was singing and dancing and playing piano and having one of the best experiences I’ve ever had on a film, my lady was raising our daughter, pregnant with our second, and trying to help her brother fight his battle with cancer,” he said at the time. “If she hadn’t taken all that on so I could have this experience, it would surely be someone else up here other than me. So sweetheart, thank you.”
