First Man: Ryan Gosling awestruck as he talks Neil Armstrong ‘He was a different breed’

The biographical drama has had a phenomenal reception at the Venice Film Festival, ahead of its wider release in the US in October.

Armstrong was, of course, the astronaut who became the first man to walk on the moon during Apollo 11.

“Neil was someone who was extremely humble, as were many of these astronauts,” Gosling said at a press conference.

“He time and time again deferred the focus from himself to the 400,000 people who made the mission possible.”

He went on: “Neil started as a test pilot before he was in the air force, and it’s the kind of person who will get into a plane that hasn’t been flown and will intentionally push it to its breaking point for the sole reason of pushing aeronautics forward.

“It’s a different breed of person and it’s different for me, and I had to recognise that difference in order to play it.”

First Man is directed by Damien Chazelle, with whom Gosling recently worked on the hugely well-received musical La La Land – which famously was falsely declared Best Picture at the 2017 Academy Awards instead of actual winner Moonlight.

“We met about this film initially and there was the issue of him having to make a musical first,” Gosling quipped.

“But even though the films are wildly different, they were in his head at the same time.

“They’re both films that lend themselves very well to the big screen.”

First Man also stars Jason Clarke, Claire Foy, Kyle Chandler and Corey Stoll; and could now emerge as a very strong Oscars contender.

The movie has a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes as things stand, with The Independent awarding five stars out of five.

“This is a human story, remarkably well told,” they said.

In a four-star verdict, The Guardian beamed: “Chazelle tells Armstrong’s story with certainty and verve.”

And in their four-star critique, The Telegraph reacted: “Wisely, Chazelle has opted to leave spectacle to the blockbusters and instead aims for awe – which is related, but different, and harder to pull off.”

First Man is out on October 12.