‘Gray Man’ Composer Henry Jackman Scored Film’s Music Without Seeing a Single Frame
variety.comJon Burlingame editorHenry Jackman’s music for “The Gray Man,” the spy thriller debuting Friday on Netflix, is as cutting-edge and exciting as any score you’ll hear all year.
Yet he wrote all of the film’s key musical elements without ever seeing a frame of film.It’s what happens when real life collides with a movie career.Jackman, the London-born, L.A.-based composer of the last three movies by “Gray Man” directors Joe and Anthony Russo (including two “Captain America” films and “Cherry”), became a father for the first time in March 2021.
He planned to take nine months off work in order, he says, “to be the perfect dad.”The Russos had alerted him before they started shooting their $200-million action film in which Ryan Gosling plays a CIA agent (nicknamed “Six”) targeted by an insane ex-colleague played by Chris Evans.
But they weren’t going to need him to begin writing before December 2021, when editing would be well under way. “We had a discussion about Six’s internal trauma, and how he’s got a bit of a ‘ghost in the machine’ issue that won’t go away,” Jackman tells Variety. “I thought, well, I can’t just sit here dealing with my son peeing on me and screaming all day long, so I’ll quickly knock out this piano idea.”So in his non-dad hours, Jackman went into his home studio and began putting down musical ideas.
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