Ryan Gosling's newest co-star in Project Hail Mary is a dog-sized, five-legged alien who looks like he's made of rocks. Naturally, audiences have fallen head over heels for Rocky. But directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller want you to understand something crucial about the film's scene-stealing alien: he's nobody's pet.
During the movie's Los Angeles press day, the filmmaking duo revealed they had to actively work against the audience's natural impulse to see Rocky as a lovable sidekick rather than what he truly is — Ryland Grace's intellectual equal.
Miller explained the challenge perfectly: "You know, there's something about... you can't help when something is that size; we want to turn it into a pet. But that's what's great about Rocky is that he doesn't let you treat him like a pet. He's an equal. And these are two equal beings that have to work together and be the peanut butter and chocolate to solve this problem."
Rocky is Grace's equal
The movie treats Rocky as an equal throughout the story. And one of the clearest ways it does this is through Rocky's personality, which puppeteer and voice actor James Ortiz described as having some serious attitude.
Director Phil Lord revealed that the creative team had very specific conversations with Ortiz about Rocky's mindset: "One of the things we talked about with James Ortiz, who plays Rocky, 'You think you're superior to Ryan. You're 500 years old, you have 300 kids. You're a grown up and you have pity on him.' And so it was like, we all had to shake off the idea that he was little and cute."
Ortiz leaned into this dynamic hard, pulling from his own experiences: "There's something very bossy, a little bit of a bully, but with love. Because his brain moves so much faster than Grace's, there's a little bit of impatience there."
That impatience shows up in iconic moments. Rocky barrels through the Hail Mary in his protective ball spacesuit like he owns the place, immediately passing judgment on what he sees. "Dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty… This room for garbage?" He is skeptical of Grace's pilot skills and there are moments where he outright calls Grace dumb and stupid.
Throughout the film, he has some really iconic lines. From "I go home six years slow" to "Grace Rocky save stars," his personality comes through with the unfiltered honesty of a good friend and the emotional core of a genuinely selfless individual who is equal parts curious, sassy and brave.
Rocky is at times the intellectually superior
In many instances, Rocky is the intellectual superior of the two, not even considering the mad math he is capable of pulling off in his head. It is Rocky who figures out that the life on Adrian is the reason for the astrophage imbalance, the reason Tau Ceti isn't affected by astrophage.
It is also he who devises the plan that, instead of landing on Adrian, which the Hail Mary isn't designed for, they use the planet's gravity to rest in the planet's orbit and then lower the sample collector from the ship using a six-mile-long chain (which he also builds himself). In so many ways, he complements Grace as the engineer, while Grace is the scientist. They are indeed the perfect team, the space bros.
Bottom line, Rocky is nobody's pet. He's Grace's partner, his equal, his friend and sometimes, his better. And that's exactly what makes him so unforgettable.
Project Hail Mary is now playing in theaters.