Quick summary
- Half Nelson, the 2006 drama that earned Ryan Gosling his first Oscar nomination, turns 20 this year.
- The film cost $700,000 to make and took $4.9 million worldwide, according to IndieWire.
- Gosling was nominated for Best Actor in 2007 and lost to Forest Whitaker.
- Yardbarker reports that Project Hail Mary, now past $684 million worldwide, has put him in early Best Actor talk.
Ryan Gosling has spent the past few years headlining some of the biggest films in the world, but his first Oscar nomination came from a film that cost just $700,000. As Half Nelson marks its 20th anniversary, IndieWire has spoken to its directors about how the small Brooklyn drama came together. So how does a film with that budget end up in the Best Actor race?
How Ryan Gosling’s Half Nelson got made
The directors are Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, who met on a summer filmmaking course at NYU and made Half Nelson as their first feature. They began writing it in 2002 or 2003. With a finished script and nobody willing to back it, they made a short instead.
That short, Gowanus, Brooklyn, used non-professional actors and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2004, according to IndieWire. The win got them an agent and industry contacts, and the script reached Gosling through those contacts.
Persuading him was not simple. Fleck told IndieWire that Gosling said the pair talked about the script as if they were plotting to build a bomb. Boden said they had done little else for years but try to make the film, and joked that he may have decided to throw them a bone. Yardbarker reports he took the job for about $1,000 a week.
The casting still gave them pause. The role had been written for someone older, Boden said, and Gosling was 24 when he first met them. He had grown out his chin hair for the meeting, she recalled.
The role that changed how critics saw him
Gosling played Dan Dunne, a Brooklyn teacher who hides a crack-cocaine habit behind an idealistic classroom manner. His student Drey, played by Shareeka Epps, discovers the secret.
Fleck described the character to IndieWire as someone who understands how history, politics and change work outside himself but cannot get them under control within. Boden said the story came from a feeling shared by many young people in the early 2000s, with energy to spare and no clear way to affect the world, as the war in Afghanistan unfolded.
The film did not go for a tidy, inspirational teacher story. Yardbarker describes a performance built on contradiction, vulnerability and uncomfortable silences. That is a long way from the Ken of Barbie, the role it credits with turning him into a cultural phenomenon.
The numbers behind the nomination
Gosling was 26 when the nomination came in 2007, a Best Actor nod that Yardbarker calls remarkable for a film made so cheaply. IndieWire says the limited release returned $4.9 million globally, about seven times the budget. Forest Whitaker took the Best Actor Oscar that year for The Last King of Scotland.
Gosling lost, but Yardbarker argues the nomination changed how critics viewed him. The same piece says a new nomination would be his fourth. Our Ryan Gosling archive has more on his recent run.
Could Project Hail Mary bring a fourth?
Yardbarker says Gosling’s work in Project Hail Mary, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, has made him an awards talking point. The film opened to $80 million domestically and has earned more than $684 million worldwide.
He plays Ryland Grace, a schoolteacher who wakes alone on a spacecraft with no memory of how he got there. Yardbarker says he has reached the top five in early Best Actor predictions. Early predictions are only that, and nothing is confirmed until nominations are announced.
Both roles put Gosling in front of a classroom, though the distance between them is considerable. One is a $700,000 drama about addiction in Brooklyn. The other is a space adventure that has taken hundreds of millions of dollars. More of his recent work is on our Movies page.
What happens next
The Academy has not announced nominations for this awards season, so a fourth Gosling nomination remains a prediction. Yardbarker also mentions a return of his band, though it gives no date. Until the shortlist arrives, the Half Nelson anniversary is a reminder of where his Oscar run began.
Frequently asked questions
How much did Half Nelson cost to make?
Half Nelson was made for $700,000, according to IndieWire. It earned $4.9 million worldwide.
Did Ryan Gosling win an Oscar for Half Nelson?
No. Ryan Gosling was nominated for Best Actor in 2007, but Forest Whitaker won for The Last King of Scotland.
Who directed Half Nelson?
Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden directed it as their first feature, after their short Gowanus, Brooklyn won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2004.
Is Ryan Gosling tipped for an Oscar for Project Hail Mary?
Yardbarker reports he is in the top five of early Best Actor predictions. These are predictions only, not nominations.
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