One of the annoying things about Barbie’s promotion is that people are going to keep trying to get Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling to explain their “characters” and their “motivations.” There will be analysis of what Barbie means and what the film says. When really, Barbie is the kind of film which should wash over you and we should just acknowledge that the actors signed on to it because they wanted to have a good time and they wanted to work with Greta Gerwig. It really wasn’t a complicated thing. All of that comes up in Ryan Gosling’s GQ interview, where the GQ writer basically spends ten pages interviewing Gosling, all for Gosling to basically say that he didn’t go through some torturous Method acting to play Ken, he just thought it would be fun. Of course, Gosling says a lot of other stuff too. Some highlights:
His four-year absence from films: Gosling’s explanation for his absence from Hollywood is straightforward: He and Mendes had recently had their second kid, “and I wanted to spend as much time as I could with them.” Gosling is not one of those people who pictured himself as a parent—the moment he first imagined himself as a father, he says, was the moment immediately before he became one: “Eva said she was pregnant… I would never want to go back, you know? I’m glad I didn’t have control over my destiny in that way, because it was so much better than I ever had dreamed for myself.”
Fatherhood changed his approach to acting: “I treat it more like work now, and not like it’s, you know, therapy. It’s a job, and I think in a way that allows me to be better at it because there’s less interference.”
Playing Ken: “Ken, his job is beach. For 60 years, his job has been beach. What the f–k does that even mean?” So why did he sign on? Part of it, Gosling says, was simply about the chance to work with a bunch of women on a project that puts the female characters forward—“I kind of respond to scripts, I guess, or characters, where there’s that kind of dynamic. I recognize it.” Part of it, Gosling says, actually relates to the kids’ toy thing: His daughters play with Barbies and Ken, sort of. “I did see him, like, face down in the mud outside one day, next to a squished lemon and it was like, This guy’s story does need to be told, you know?”
Ken is no-thoughts-just-vibes: “There’s something about this Ken that really, I think, relates to that version of myself. Just, like, the guy that was putting on Hammer pants and dancing at the mall and smelling like Drakkar Noir and Aqua Net-ing bangs. I owe that kid a lot. I feel like I was very quick to distance myself from him when I started making more serious films. But the reality is that, like, he’s the reason I have everything I have.” Gosling says he’s been thinking about that kid a lot recently: “He didn’t know what he was doing or why he was doing it, he was just doing it, and it’s like, I owe my whole life to him. And I wish I had been more grateful at the time, you know?” He says he spent a lot of time on the Barbie set communing with this younger version of himself, who didn’t have a clue, but who did everything in total earnestness. “I really had to go back and touch base with that little dude and say thank you, and ask for his help.”
His home life: These days Gosling lives in a quiet town in the southern half of California. Because he brings his family to the location of each movie he shoots, he aims to do only one or so per year. Most of the time, he says, he’s simply at home. Relatives come around, Gosling says, but he and Mendes don’t have a nanny; whatever they do, they do it themselves. Gosling is frankly romantic about his life with his daughters and Mendes. He says things were one way, then they were another. “I was looking for her, you know?” Were you conscious of that? “No. But it all makes sense now.”
When he doesn’t know what to do: “I just lean on Eva. She knows what’s important, always. She just somehow knows. So if ever I’m in my head about it, I just ask her.”
The “backlash” against his casting as Ken: “I would say, you know, if people don’t want to play with my Ken, there are many other Kens to play with. It is funny this kind of clutching-your-pearls idea of, like, #notmyken. Like you ever thought about Ken before this? And everyone was fine with that, for him to have a job that is nothing. But suddenly, it’s like, ‘No, we’ve cared about Ken this whole time.’ No, you didn’t. You never did. You never cared. Barbie never f–ked with Ken. That’s the point. If you ever really cared about Ken, you would know that nobody cared about Ken. So your hypocrisy is exposed. This is why his story must be told.”
Correcting his earlier statement about when he knew he wanted kids: “When you asked me about Eva and kids. I think I said, I didn’t think about kids until she told me she was pregnant. That’s not really true. I didn’t want to overshare, but now I also don’t want to misrepresent. I mean, it’s true that I wasn’t thinking about kids before I met her, but after I met Eva, I realized that I just didn’t want to have kids without her. And there were moments on The Place Beyond the Pines where we were pretending to be a family, and I didn’t really want it to be pretend anymore. I realized that this would be a life I would be really lucky to have.”
I am laughing my ass off at “But suddenly, it’s like, ‘No, we’ve cared about Ken this whole time.’ No, you didn’t. You never did. You never cared. Barbie never f–ked with Ken. That’s the point. If you ever really cared about Ken, you would know that nobody cared about Ken. So your hypocrisy is exposed.” Ryan Gosling is HEATED!! He’s also spitting facts – it’s the truth, Barbie never f–ked with Ken, no one cared about Ken and Ryan didn’t feel the need to do a deep dive on why Ken exists. Ryan just showed up and did the Work of Ken: Just Beach.
As for what he says about Eva and their family… it’s really sweet. While I was suspicious of their whole deal in the beginning, I love how much they adore each other and how they manage to keep their family life totally off the radar. This is the most he’s ever talked about Eva and their life together. It’s so sweet.
Cover & IG courtesy of GQ.
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