Ryan Gosling: “I owe Ken a lot”

Ryan Gosling never imagined that a character could mark him so much. The actor, who these months ago has been immersed in the filming of Barbie, a film in which he stars with Margot Robbie, has acknowledged that “I owe a lot to Ken. It’s the reason I have everything I have.” In an interview with GQ, the interpreter has confessed that his new role has allowed him to reconnect with another version of himself. “There’s something about this Ken that I really think relates to that version of myself. The guy who would wear Hammer pants, dance in the mall, smell Drakkar Noir (a fragrance) and do bangs with Aqua Net glitter.”

Gosling, who has just turned 42, has made it clear that age is not a problem in giving life to Barbie’s eternal boyfriend and has lamented the “hypocritical” criticism that some followers have made of his character who, until the time of the film , considers that it had been little relevant in the story of the plastic doll: “Had anyone ever thought of Ken before this? We haven’t worried about him all this time. If you ever cared about him, you would know that no one cares. That is why the story of him must be told ”.

The Canadian actor, protagonist of La La Land (2016) or El diario de Noa (2004), accepted the character, among other things, because of the opportunity that the project offered to promote female roles and talent. In turn, it was a way of connecting with his youth, which he had to put aside when he entered professional acting.

In his early films, Gosling treated acting like therapy, a way “to be able to learn more about himself,” he confesses in the interview. He was looking for more independent films, to be able to capture a mood or a feeling. Over time this vision has changed, “I treat it more like a job now, and not as if it were a therapy.”

On July 21, Gosling can be seen in theaters together with Margot Robbie, transformed into the new Barbie by Greta Gerwig. An ambitious film, which has been talked about since the announcement of the start of filming and which has left remarkable images, in its first trailer, as the homage to the opening of Kubrick’s 2001.