15 Years Ago Today, Nicolas Winding Refn — Who Failed His Driving Test 8 Times — Convinced Ryan Gosling to Make Drive by Crying to REO Speedwagon

Fifteen years ago, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn gave us a contemporary neo-noir masterpiece, Drive: An action drama that pays homage to Walter Hill’s The Driver (1978) and William Friedkin’s To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) with a distinctly European arthouse sensibility. Drive also boasts pitch-perfect casting of Ryan Gosling, echoing the same stoicism and laconic personality of a nameless protagonist seen in Ryan O’Neal’s character in The Driver.

Ryan Gosling Spoke Only 116 Lines in Drive’s Entire Runtime

Credited as Driver, Gosling relies heavily on expressive eyes and telling gestures to embody a man with few words. For the record, he only speaks 116 lines throughout the movie’s 100-minute runtime – a less-is-more, minimalist acting style that earned him several accolades on the awards circuit, namely the Critics’ Choice Awards and Film Independent Spirit Awards. He also went full Method, going so far as to nearly strip and restore a 1973 Chevrolet Malibu by himself since his role happens to be a mechanic, a stunt driver, and a getaway driver.

The movie is notable for its car chase set pieces, beginning with the opening nine-minute stretch highlighting the Driver’s strict, meticulous work ethic as a professional getaway driver-for-hire. This includes a cutoff window for his clients to commit whatever activities and get back in the car – a silver 2010 Chevrolet Impala, to be exact – before time’s up, or he will drive off.

The whole scene moves like clockwork, culminating in a tactical game of strategically evading squad cars and police helicopters. The fact that Gosling insisted on performing his own driving stunts, which reportedly took two months to master certain techniques, from drifting to a 180-degree reverse spin and high-speed maneuvers, helps to add a sense of authenticity to the action scenes.

Drive Almost Starred Hugh Jackman in a $60 Million Action Movie

Drive was a hit both critically and financially, with Refn taking home the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival, and it amassed an impressive $81.4 million at the worldwide box office on a $15 million budget. But the budget was initially granted a higher price tag at $60 million when the project was originally set up as a large-scale action movie at Universal Pictures, with Hugh Jackman attached to play the lead role and Neil Marshall, best known for Dog Soldiers and The Descent, tapped to direct between 2008 and 2010.

But both actor and director left the project in 2010, and the book rights to James Sallis’s novel of the same name, which the movie was based on, subsequently went over to FilmDistrict. The studio significantly slashed the budget, forcing screenwriter Hossein Amini, who’s been attached to the project since the beginning, to do extensive rewrites.

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Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling’s Disastrous First Meeting — and the REO Speedwagon Song That Saved It

Interestingly, for a movie that’s impeccable in its car-chase staging, Refn didn’t have a driver’s license, making him an odd choice to direct Drive in the first place. If that’s not enough, he reportedly failed his driving test not once but eight times, and even had no interest in cars. And yet, it was Gosling, impressed by Refn’s work in Valhalla Rising, who handpicked the director to helm the movie.

However, their first meeting at a restaurant turned disastrous when Refn not only arrived late but also heavily medicated after catching the flu. The director looked sluggish and showed a lack of enthusiasm throughout their conversation. Then, when Gosling reluctantly agreed to drive Refn back to the hotel in Santa Monica because the latter couldn’t drive, the ride was filled with an uncomfortable silence.

According to Gosling via The New York Times, Refn wouldn’t talk to him, and the actor ended up turning on the radio. A song from REO Speedwagon, Can’t Fight This Feeling, was playing, which made Refn feel deeply emotional before he cranked up the volume and started to sing along. He then turned to Gosling and said, “I know what this movie is, it’s a movie about a guy who drives around listening to pop music because it’s the only way he can feel.”

Two years after the success of Drive, Gosling and Refn collaborated for the second time in the Bangkok-set crime drama Only God Forgives to largely mixed reviews. The two were originally set to reunite for the third time in a big-budget remake of the 1976 sci-fi classic Logan’s Run for Warner Bros., but things didn’t work out as planned.

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Where to Stream Drive: As of publication, Drive is streaming free with ads on Xumo Play, and available to rent or buy on Amazon Video, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.