Why Ryan Gosling's Mickey Mouse Club Audition Was a 'Hail Mary' That Changed Everything (Exclusive)
Why Ryan Gosling's Mickey Mouse Club Audition Was a 'Hail Mary' That Changed Everything (Exclusive)
Jack SmartMon, March 23, 2026 at 4:21 PM UTC
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Ryan Gosling on March 9Credit: Gareth Cattermole/Getty -
Ryan Gosling speaks to PEOPLE about starring in Project Hail Mary, now in theaters
The biggest Hail Mary of his own life, he says, was taking the leap to an acting career when he was cast in The All-New Mickey Mouse Club in 1993
“The girls in my dance class were going to audition and I thought, ‘What do I have to lose?’” he says
Ryan Gosling has made some big swings throughout his career.
Getting his start as a star of The All-New Mickey Mouse Club at age 13, the Project Hail Mary star tells PEOPLE, still counts as his biggest personal Hail Mary.
“Probably the first [Hail Mary] was when I auditioned for the Mickey Mouse Club when I was a kid,” the actor-producer, now 45, tells PEOPLE. “I'm from a small town where that sort of thing doesn't — it hadn't happened to anyone I knew and felt impossible.”
Before starring in some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters and earning three Oscar nominations, Gosling joined fellow triple threats Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Keri Russell, Justin Timberlake and more in the Disney Channel’s revival of the hit 1950s variety show.
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Gosling, who grew up in Ontario, Canada, has spoken in the past about struggling in school and being inspired to perform after joining his uncle, an Elvis Presley impersonator, onstage. As he tells PEOPLE, booking The All-New Mickey Mouse Club and moving to film in Orlando, Fla. from 1993 to 1995 was just about the unlikeliest path for a kid like him.
Ryan Gosling in 'The All-New Mickey Mouse Club'Credit: Walt Disney Co./Everett
“The girls in my dance class were going to audition and I thought, ‘What do I have to lose?’” he recalls. “And it changed my life.”
In Project Hail Mary, from directors Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, Gosling plays a character undertaking the ultimate long shot. His scientist-turned-astronaut Dr. Ryland Grace finds himself alone in deep space on a mission to save Earth after its sun begins dying. The epic adaptation of Andy Weir's novel sees Gosling’s character teaming up with an extraterrestrial buddy he names Rocky.
Ryan Gosling in 'Project Hail Mary'Credit: Amazon MGM Studios
Would Gosling take on such a self-sacrificing act himself? “I'd like to pretend to go” to space, quips the Barbie star. “I don't really want to go.”
Project Hail Mary, adapted by Drew Goddard and costarring Sandra Hüller, James Ortiz and Lionel Boyce, is in theaters now.
on People
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