Project Hail Mary's Directors Shot Down A Cameo Rumor, But Also Revealed Another

In the months leading up to the release of Project Hail Mary, many questions were asked about the voice of the alien hero Rocky – and that really only intensified with the release of the final trailer last month, which features a scene where the character is given the chance to select what he wants to sound like. There has been much speculation about cameos in the movie (with Emma Stone being a name that's been thrown out on social media), but we got some clarity on the situation recently speaking with directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

Rocky is ultimately voiced in the 2026 movie by James Ortiz, who was also the character's lead puppeteer during production, but CinemaBlend's Jeff McCobb asked the filmmakers about other familiar folks audiences should try and listen for in the aforementioned voice selection scene. They had not personally heard the rumor about Emma Stone, but they did namedrop a talent that should excite fans of the book. Discussing talk about the multi Oscar-winner being in the film, they said,

• Phil Lord: Oh, I have not [heard about that]. Have you heard this?
• Chris Miller: I have not heard this, but do you want us to tell you if that's true or not?... It's not true. But there is... But Ray Porter is one of them, I can tell you that.

Ray Porter is a veteran actor with credits that go back to the 1990s in shows like Murphy Brown, ER, and Frasier, but he is specifically well-known to many Project Hail Mary fans because he does the narration for the audiobook, and he does an absolutely phenomenal job – with proof being that the book won the Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year in 2022.

The Project Hail Mary directors didn't discuss the major A-lister who is directly identified as one of the voices in the film (I won't name them here in an effort to maintain the surprise for audiences during opening weekend), but Phil Lord and Chris Miller did reveal some other names who participated in the Rocky voice process and discussed a fun game they played with Ryan Gosling on set:

• Phil Lord: Stunt coordinator, Eunice Houghton [is one of the voices].
• Chris Miller: One of the fun things we did was we had, we had people from the crew, and secret people would say the line in Ryan's ear so that he could hear different versions and react to them naturally. And we had a whole lineup of people, including, it wasn't in the film, but his daughter, who was visiting set that day. We had her secretly say the line and got him to really crack up.

That story very much represents the general fun energy of Project Hail Mary, and everyone will be able to experience it themselves this weekend with the critically acclaimed film's arrival in theaters everywhere.