‘They’re the heroes we’ll never know’: Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt celebrate stunt performers at Oscars

Gathered on stage at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles at the 96th Academy Awards, Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer) and Ryan Gosling (Barbie) came to pay tribute to cinema’s shadowy profession: stuntmen.

If the Oscars are going to honor casting directors with a new category, “Best Casting,” for the next ceremony in 2026, stuntmen and stuntmen are still not celebrating at the Oscars, much to the displeasure of Tom Cruise and Jason Statham, the kings. From action blockbusters, or even Chad Stahelski, director of John Wick.

He nodded slightly to Barbenheimer

Before celebrating the stuntmen and women, Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling took advantage, joking about the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, which last summer rivaled the films Barbie and Oppenheimer in which they star, but above all the record of the 2023 film event. Box office figures of both the feature films.

“I’m glad we can finally put the Barbenheimer rivalry behind us.” Ryan Gosling first chanted before Emily Blunt responded: “Given the awards season, I’d say no rivalry, no competition was possible.”.

After congratulating Ryan Gosling, he continued: “I think I see why we called her Barbenheimer and not Oppenberg. Because you really followed Barbie around all summer.”. To which Emily Blunt replied: “Thank you very much for complaining about all this to me.”.

“We’re here to celebrate the stunt community”

But the reunion of Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling also highlighted the stuntmen and women. And the two actors know something about that, as they will soon star in David Leitch’s The Fall Guy (Bullet Train), an action movie about a stuntman!

“We’re here to celebrate the stunt community, which has been a crucial part of our industry since the beginning of cinema. True, they’re the heroes we’ll never know, risking life and limb for cinema.

Chaplin, Lloyd, Keaton… all the stuntmen are really the oxygen of the story’s action. The Academy’s history is steeped in the fierce dedication of the stunt community. Every award season we see their work in this genre.

From Butch Cassidy to Black Panther, from the depths of space to battlefields and beyond, stunts and the action scenes they create are some of the most memorable moments in cinematic history..

And they do it from the beginning. To all the stunt performers and stunt coordinators who help make this movie magic, we salute you.”