Who Is Behind the Voice of Rocky in 'Project Hail Mary,' and How Did They Get the Role?
"'Project Hail Mary' was the first time in my career where 100 percent of me was invited to work every day."
Published March 23 2026, 9:45 a.m. ET
Voice acting is an incredibly underrated skill that can’t be asked of just anyone. That's why any time a movie requires a voice actor, getting the right person is such a daunting task. In fact, some films, such as Her, Paddington, and Chicken Little, all notoriously replaced the actors for major characters’ voices in post-production.
Pair the desire to avoid a post-production swap with the fact that Amazon Studios' Project Hail Mary is a highly anticipated book-film adaptation, and the movie’s producers knew that the pressure was high to find the perfect voice for Rocky. What they didn’t realize was that instead of going out to find Rocky, Rocky would find them.
'Project Hail Mary’s' voice of Rocky choice was meant to be.
At the end of the day, production wanted the voice of Rocky to be someone Project Hail Mary star, Ryan Gosling, would feel comfortable with, as the duo needed to have on-screen camaraderie. Given that Ryan — who plays Ryland Grace — worked so closely with the lead Rocky puppeteer, James Ortiz, it made perfect sense that James would voice the beloved character.
As Ryan and James were practicing and improvising on set together, it became clear that James’s puppeteering was shaping Rocky’s personality, and he had a natural chemistry with Ryan. In fact, the movie star stated, “James was Rocky and James is Rocky now, and you can't imagine it any other way.”
No one could have predicted this.
It just goes to show that sometimes things fall into place, as James was never the intended voice for Rocky. He was only on set to help Ryan practice his lines and get comfortable working with the puppet, but something between them simply clicked.
In fact, producers were going to cast an actual voice actor to play Rocky later in production, but when everyone saw how deeply James understood the character, the puppeteer became the obvious choice.
James wore multiple hats on set.
Being the puppeteer and voice actor for one of the main characters, James had to wear a multitude of hats while working on Project Hail Mary. Far from resentful about his workload, James gushed, “Project Hail Mary was the first time in my career where 100 percent of me was invited to work every day. Me as sort of a sci-fi nerd, me as a cinephile, but also me as an improviser and a puppeteer and sort of a team leader.”
James explained that his main goal was to ensure Ryan always had some form of a Rocky stand-in to work with, so the actor wasn’t left interacting with an empty space on set. The pair also went off script often and followed each other’s dialogue into uncharted territory. All in all, the duo shared a natural chemistry and positive working relationship, which is apparent in their characters’ friendship in the film. It seems that in a surprising turn of events, Rocky’s maker became Rocky himself.