Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong in "First Man." (Photo: Daniel McFadden/Universal Studios)
Spoiler alert: The following post contains information about the plot of the movie “First Man.”
WASHINGTON – Neil Armstrong’s sons, Rick and Mark, confirmed their father talked with them before he went to space and ultimately became the first man to walk on the moon, warning them of the mission’s danger.
Rick said the two collaborated on the Damien Chazelle-directed “First Man” for two-and-a-half years.
“That scene came from us,” he said. “So what Ryan (Gosling, who plays Neil) says is pretty much exactly what I remember from that meeting.
“And (my dad) said, ‘Do you have any questions?’ And I know we had some, but I can’t remember what they were,” Rick added. There’s also a moment where Neil’s older son shakes his dad’s hand at the end of their conversation, which Rick was also a bit hazy on. “The handshake, I’m not sure about,” he explained. “It could’ve happened, maybe I hugged him. I don’t know, but the gist of it where Ryan was saying, ‘We think we’re coming back, but there is some risk,’ is pretty much what he said.”
Gosling, center, with Rick Armstrong, left, and Mark Armstrong. (Photo: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
For Mark, Gosling’s portrayal of his father is just how he’d like the astronaut, who died in 2012, to be remembered.
“He could be intense, but he could also be fun,” Mark recalled. “There’s scenes like where he’s trying to stuff little Rick into a freezer. He was fun-loving in that way.
“He also had a great sense of humor and people don’t know that,” Mark continued, “and we want people to know that.”
As for their memory of witnessing the 1969 moon landing, Rick predicts it’s similar to others.
“I just watched it on TV like everybody else,” said Rick, who was 12 in 1969. “Just in our living room with a bunch of people around, trying to figure out exactly what we were looking at, because it was not the clearest image in the world.”
“It was very grainy,” added Mark, who was 6 at the time.
But their experience must’ve differed from the average viewer, right? It was their dad on the moon, after all.
“We were excited, but in an amazing way, our parents, after they talked to us about what was happening, we weren’t scared,” said Mark. “We didn’t have nightmares or anything like that. We were just excited like the rest of the world.”
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