James Ortiz on Playing Rocky in Project Hail Mary — the Performance Behind the Puppet | Red Carpet

James Ortiz, the voice and puppeteer behind Rocky in Project Hail Mary, joins HeyUGuys at the world premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square for a fascinating insight into one of cinema's most extraordinary performances of the year. Ortiz explains how Rocky's character emerged from the outside in — the puppet's physical tendency to rock and sway informing an anxious, endearing quality that made him impossible not to love. He describes the daily ritual of rehearsing scenes with Ryan Gosling without the puppet, crawling on the floor as Rocky to find the dynamic between the two characters, and the quietly heroic challenge of watching Gosling's most emotional close-ups from just five feet away — without letting Rocky betray a single feeling. Interviews for Project Hail Mary starring Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, Lionel Boyce, Ken Leung and Milana Vayntrub, written by Drew Goddard and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller Colin Hart and Madison Hart ask the questions. Plot: Astronaut Ryland Grace awakens alone on a spacecraft with no memory of himself or his mission. He deduces he is the sole survivor of a crew sent to the Tau Ceti system to save Earth from a mysterious substance killing the sun. Armed with scientific knowledge and sheer ingenuity, Grace discovers he is not alone — aided by an alien he dubs Rocky, who is on a mission to save his own world from the very same fate. Project Hail Mary will be released on March 20, 2026 #ProjectHailMary #JamesOrtiz #Rocky #RyanGosling #HeyUGuys #WorldPremiere #SciFiMovie --------------------- For syndication or usage opportunities please contact [email protected]. --------------------- More from HeyUGuys: Website ► http://HeyUGuys.com Follow us on Twitter ►   / heyuguys   Subscribe here! ► http://bit.ly/HeyUGuysYTSub Facebook ►   / heyuguys   Instagram ►   / heyuguysofficial   TikTok ►   / heyuguysofficial   ---------------------