The Fall Guy's Winston Duke grew up watching Ryan Gosling in Young Hercules

Watch: The Fall Guy star Winston Duke talks about working with Ryan Gosling

Winston Duke was delighted to get to work with Ryan Gosling in The Fall Guy because he has admired him for decades he tells Yahoo UK because he grew up watching the Barbie star's Fox Kids series Young Hercules.

The actor, who plays stunt coordinator Dan Tucker, used to watch Gosling's 1998 series "every afternoon after school" and so he felt a great friendship with the actor even before they met to start filming the action epic. The Fall Guy follows Gosling's stuntman Colt, who is thrust back into the movie industry a year after a life-changing injury in order to help find the actor he used to double for, and Dan is an integral part of this mission.

What this meant was Gosling and Duke share a lot of scenes together, something that the latter was delighted by after having enjoyed his co-stars work for so long: "I've had this bromance with Ryan even before we met, right? So I grew up watching a lot of his movies, watching him as Young Hercules back in the day on his TV show.

"I was a big fan of that. I watched that every afternoon, every afternoon after school, so I remember growing up with him and watching him and his career evolve. The Notebook, [The Place] Beyond the Pines, all these incredible movies, so I came in really, really respectful."

Read more: What we know about Ryan Gosling’s new movie The Fall Guy

Their first encounter took an amusing turn though, as Duke explains: "The first thing I did was we're talking, talking about character, and I looked in his eyes [and said] 'you're so good looking man', he's like 'Get out of here, shut up. Get out of here, ohh man, you're crazy', and then the kismet was just [there], like that from day one.

"That was like 30 minutes in, and then everything else kind of just snowballed from there. Because there was a lot of improv there needs to be a lot of trust, and he knew immediately that he found a friend.

"I was there to support him, and I would say that too. Like, 'how was that for you? I'm here to support you, whatever you need. Are you good? You're getting everything that you need from me?' And I would check in with him often because I looked at him as a bit of an upperclassman on set.

"He was also producing, so it was like this is his baby. So it was really an honour to be able to be in proximity to watch how he carries himself as a leading man, because I also want that for myself in the future. So it was really great."

A lot of the banter between their characters stems from Dan's enjoyment of quoting movies at Colt, which his friend then tries to guess correctly. It's a fun game to play for both the characters and viewers watching, and it was something Duke enjoyed bringing to the film as well.

Watch the trailer for The Fall Guy:

"We used a lot of movie quotes and I think what ended up staying in the film was a lot of the Universal properties because I think that was the easiest to clear," he explains. "But we threw so many out there. We had so many that were like some old Fox titles, Paramount titles, and it was a lot of fun.

"We were all the time thinking as well about the audience, like what are the things that they're going to recognise before Colt says the name. They were going to be like, 'that's it, it's Fast and the Furious, it's Last of the Mohicans!'

"So we wanted those ones, and there are tonnes that didn't make him into the movie, but we kept throwing them out there."

Being a movie about stunt performers, Duke worked with his a double to create the action-packed fight scenes and execute the intricate stunts that the movie called for. The actor spoke fondly of his double, and the tireless work that went into the part: "My stunt double's name was Eric Mbanda, and he was incredible.

"So he was there advocating for me before I even got on, there's a scene where I do this double front drop kick and you fall on your back, and you have to do it from different angles, so you end up doing any stunt multiple times, just for coverage.

"And this man was falling on his back just with a small, thin back protector on dirt, and every time I was like 'Oh, that's just so crazy' as I ate my chocolate bar.

"They sacrifice themselves for the aesthetic, for the benefit of the narrative, and I was so appreciative of him and I would work with him 100 times more. He was the consummate professional and just kept giving for the project, so yeah, loved him."

The Fall Guy premieres in cinemas and IMAX on Friday, 2 May.