Ryan Gosling pretended Harrison Ford was watching him act on the set of the 'Blade Runner' sequel.

Ryan Gosling

Ryan Gosling

The two actors take the lead roles in the sci-fi sequel - the follow-up to Sir Ridley Scott's 1982 cult classic - as LAPD Officer K (Gosling) and Rick Deckard (Ford).

And to make it less intimidating to be acting with the Hollywood legend and to get the best out of his cast, the movie's director Denis Villeneuve suggested the 'La La Land' hunk should just imagine Ford was in the "shadows".

Speaking during a Facebook Live chat conducted by Warner Bros. Pictures, Gosling explained: "When we first started shooting he would sometimes remind me when we we were shooting a scene, he'd say, 'Let's just imagine that Harrison is sitting in the corner watching this. Would he be happy or not?'"

And it worked as the 36-year-old star felt "relieved" when he arrived on set.

He added: "Most of the time in my imagination he was just sitting in the corner ... and then when he finally arrived (on set) it was such a relief because he just rolled up his sleeves and got right into work."

On top of that, Villeneuve arranged for the entire cast to have a "meet and greet" with the 'Star Wars' icon and Gosling says it was like the movie had "began" when he was present.

Gosling said: "We all just sat around a table pretty soon after (Ford) arrived and just started working together.

"It was such a relief and he was such a wonderful partner and he was so gracious with us. I really felt that the movie finally began when Harrison arrived."

However, the 'Notebook' actor needn't have worried about what Ford thought of his acting as he was full of praise of his co-star and his "emotional intelligence".

He said: "He (Gosling) has an original intelligence, emotional intelligence ... It was really a pleasure to work with him. I never knew what I was gonna get, which is a good thing because your instinct goes towards what you've seen, what you have an expectation of and it was always a pleasure to weave our stuff together. I really did enjoy that."