Ryan Gosling fell 12 stories in 'The Fall Guy' stunt and lived to tell about it at SXSW

"Name a stunt man, bet you can't," "The Fall Guy," which premiered at South by Southwest Tuesday night, seems to plead.

The stunt performers behind the movie stars are at the center of "The Fall Guy," starring Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Winston Duke, Hannah Waddingham and Stephanie Hsu. The movie, which is derived from the 1980s television show "The Fall Guy" starring Lee Majors, is directed by David Leitch, who also directed "John Wick" and "Deadpool 2."

"The Fall Guy" is equal parts comedy and action film with a romance between stunt man Colt Seavers, played by Gosling and director Jody Banks, played by Blunt, woven in. The television show followed stunt men who moonlighted as bounty hunters, but the movie takes on a different story — Gosling's Colt returns to a film set 18 months after being injured in a stunt and ends up dispatched to find a missing lead actor.

If you're buying a ticket to this movie because of Gosling, you won't be disappointed. "The Fall Guy" is the "Barbie" actor at his best. He plays Colt dopey and sweet and gives a couple genuinely moving dramatic moments. He had the SXSW audience laughing and cheering throughout every action sequence. We're going to keep it vague, but here are some things to look forward to: Gosling and unicorns, Gosling as an alien, Gosling on drugs, and Gosling on a boat, a helicopter and a garbage truck.

The action sequences are a great time and done for real — Leitch said the goal going in to the movie was to use no CGI.

"It was a love letter to stunts," Leitch said. "This was a movie where we had to be really true to the roots of stunts."

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Colt becomes entangled in a crime and this is where the question of respect for stunt performers really comes in. At one point, a bad guy (we won't reveal who) says "He's just a stunt man!" as Colt's life literally hangs in the balance. Colt is expected to take the fall in both movies and in his life, because he's just the fall guy.

'(Stunt men) do all the cool stuff. They risk everything.'

Gosling at SXSW talked about the importance of stunt performers and the insanity of their near invisibility in the industry.

"I'm Ryan Gosling and I did almost none of my own stunts for this movie," he told the SXSW crowd.

He explained that in one scene, a real-life stunt man buckled him into a car as if Gosling's character would be performing the stunt himself. The professional did the stunt and came back into the frame to pat Gosling's character on the back.

"How (messed) up is that?" Gosling said, before shouting out the men who did his stunts in the movie — Logan Holladay and Ben Jenkin.

When we caught up with Gosling ahead of the premiere, he told us he's had a stunt double nearly his whole life. He had one as early as his stint as Hercules on the 1990s series "Young Hercules."

"There's always this weird dynamic where they come in, they do all the cool stuff, they risk everything and then they leave and you pretend like you did it all. It's very strange and I don't know why. In any other department in a film, people get credit for what they do but for some reason stunt people are supposed to hide their face and hide that they were even there. It's so fun to be part of something that finally shines a light," he told the American-Statesman.

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"The Fall Guy" accomplished its goal — we walked away with a bigger respect for stunt performers. Around every corner of "The Fall Guy," you'll remember that actual, real people had to jump and roll and get lit on fire to get those wonderful action scenes.

In one of the action scenes, the stunt team falls into line like a squad of superheroes. They punch and kick and make sure the bigger stars have a safe place to land, just like real-life stunt performers do.

In showing audiences the work of stunt performers, the movie also shines a spotlight on movie-making. Blunt's Jody is directing a film about aliens and cowboys, which feels like a classic movie to make. Dozens of crew members and camera operators bring the movie within the movie to life.

Overall, "The Fall Guy" is a movie-lover's delight.

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'The Fall Guy' is coming to theaters on May 3.

Some movie notes from 'The Fall Guy':

• Blunt told the American-Statesman she nearly broke her thumb while throwing a bad punch during filming.
• A dog in the movie is based off a dog Eva Mendes (Gosling's partner) had who knew French.
• Gosling did a stunt where he fell 12 stories. "I have a fear of heights," he told us.
• Make sure you stay after the credits. Insert wink here.