Early in The Gray Man, Sierra Six (Ryan Gosling) has to make a costume change. A shadow assassin for the CIA, the very people who hired him, are now hunting him down, which in the spy world apparently means new clothes — STAT. With few options, he turns to the nearest source of apparel: a man on the street wearing a navy-and-red tracksuit. But, reader, this is no ordinary tracksuit: It survives car chases, multiple shootings and a leap out of an airplane. It is, plainly, the true star of this action-packed film — just ask Gosling himself. Speaking to Krista Smith in a new episode of the podcast Skip Intro, he gushes over the costume, which actually made its way into the film by unconventional means. 

“I love that tracksuit,” Gosling said. “It was this tracksuit that my stunt team was wearing. Danny Hernandez has a martial arts school in Orange County. And that’s his school jacket. So I asked him if I could put it in the movie.”

So did that one tracksuit really make it through all those stunts? Well, not exactly. “There [were], like, 30 of them or something at one point,” Gosling said. (Hey, tracksuits also deserve to rest.)

Airplane Fight Scene | The Gray ManSierra Six, played by Ryan Gosling, finds trouble in the skies.

The Gray Man marks Gosling’s foray into the world of blockbuster action movies, although he did have some, let’s say, amateur stunt experience. “When I was a kid, I used to dance; I thought I wanted to be a dancer,” he said. “I think I would’ve done better in school if I could’ve moved around and didn’t have to sit still. I think it’s why I loved watching action movies, and it’s why I loved making them. It was great to be able to tell the story and communicate your character physically. Because I’ve never done this before, [what] I was really struck by was how many people it takes to make an action hero.”

Two of those people are of course the Russo brothers, who directed the movie. Working with them was a big draw for Gosling, who was also compelled by the idea of a hero who simply would rather not be one. “I couldn’t be in better hands, but it was this character that I really wanted to play,” he said. “I did think he was different than a lot of the other action heroes — he is not really a hero. He’s like a spy who doesn’t want to be a spy. He would much rather be chilling at home watching Netflix. He doesn’t want to be in this movie. He doesn’t want to have anything.” That explains the tracksuit. 

For more great celebrity interviews, check out Skip Intro on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.