Ryan Gosling has a new film dominating cinemas right now called The Fall Guy in which he plays a stuntman.
For the actor and his co-star, Emily Blunt, the film was an opportunity to showcase what goes on behind the scenes and the stunt people who make it happen.
And for Gosling, this feels like a role he's been training for his whole career, dating back to his first real action role as Young Hercules, a show he shot in New Zealand.
"It was one of my first experiences having a stunt double and having them do all the cool stuff and then disappear into the shadows and have me pretend like I did it," Gosling said.
The actor has made an Oscar-nominated Hollywood career out of pretending ever since, and both he and Blunt are delighted to have this opportunity to pull the curtain back on all the incredible work the stunt performers do on set.
"It feels incredible," Blunt confessed. "They are just the best people on a film set, so warm, they're so humble, so selfless and just so talented.
"They are the action heroes, they kind of make us out to be but yet we're not - we're terrified most of the time and they make everyone look so good."
Making everyone look good comes with some hefty life insurance premiums as the stunt crew risk life and limb - but in the case of The Fall Guy it was all worth it.
Stunt driver Logan Holladay has set a new Guinness World Record for the most number of 'cannon rolls' on camera.
The record was last set in 2006 on the set of Bond film Casino Royal - but Holladay dialled it up a notch from seven rolls to eight-and-a-half. That meant crashing the car and flipping it eight-and-a-half times, and living to tell the tale.
Gosling admitted he is in awe of them all.
"They risk more than anyone else, they risk their lives to create these moments," he stressed.
"Some of our favourite moments in films are created by and performed by stunt performers, and I think we don't realise what an art form it is".
Blunt couldn't agree more.
"Most of the most incredible scenes you remember from cinema have been performed by a stunt performer," she said.
"It's beautiful for us, it's a deep honour for us to give them the props they so richly deserve."
And they mean what they say. So much so, they're adding their voices to calls to give the stunt community their own category at the Oscars.
"We're working on it and we need your help," Gosling told Newshub. "Hopefully this film starts the conversation."
Blunt added: "We need to find more ways to springboard this conversation to the forefront of the academy's mind definitely.
"I think it is in the works, there's openness to it of course, I just think it's time these guys didn't live in the shadows and they got recognised like every other department in cinema gets recognised."
High-profile voices in an increasingly important conversation, one it's hoped is being heard by the Academy.
The Fall Guy has just opened in New Zealand cinemas.
