Ryan Gosling's NASA Training for a Movie Went Horribly Wrong as He Got Brain Damage and Started Going Insane
Astronaut training is brutal, and Ryan Gosling learned it the hard way: after damaging his head at NASA, he temporarily became obsessed with a donut conspiracy.
Whenever there’s a Hollywood movie set in space, directors try to reach out to NASA for help. The advice and equipment the Agency can provide is invaluable, and they’re generally happy to lend a hand to moviemakers — so it’s a common practice. That’s why for 2018’s First Man, Ryan Gosling wanted help from them, too.
The actor had to undergo serious astronaut training to be ready for the movie: he had a scene where his character used the NASA multi-axis trainer. This tough machine was only used by the astronauts for up to 20 minutes — but Gosling was stuck in it for 6 or 8 hours because the movie needed a bunch of different shots!
That’s when it happened: brain damage.
“Getting banged around in the capsules and hitting my head, [after] that something might be wrong. I went home one night, and I called Eva [Mendes, my wife], and I was just hell-bent on this idea that there were people in donut stores all around the world, you know, trying to charm their way into getting free donuts,” Gosling shared on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Fortunately for the actor, his wife reacted with great care and understanding… Not the care for his bizarre donut conspiracy, of course — care for his well-being.
“She was so patient and listening, you know, and then she was saying, ‘I think you might have “drain bamage.”’ And I was like ‘No, there’s donut charmers everywhere, and it’s a problem, and no one’s doing anything about it.’ And she was like, ‘I’ve been saying you have “drain bamage” as a joke. But I think you might have brain damage, you should go to the hospital,’” the actor further explained.
After Eva Mendes managed to convince her husband that he needed a check-up, he went to the hospital and found out he had a concussion. Some treatment later, Ryan Gosling was back on track — and didn’t care about those pesky donut charmers anymore…which effectively allowed their tyranny to continue to this day, unfortunately.
Source: Jimmy Kimmel Live via YouTube