While the action in *Project Hail Mary* is closely adapted from Weir’s bestselling novel, Gosling reveals that the looseness normally associated with improv comedy was a vital part of the process for directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and that improv kept him from getting lonely while he was sealed into a small, narrow spaceship set for a long shoot.

He and co-star Sandra Hüller (*Anatomy of a Fall*) both tell Polygon they used a unique way of working with actors for improvised sequences — having them wear earpieces so Lord and Miller could quietly give them private notes on different options to try mid-scene.