Action film, romance, musicals… Ryan Gosling has done it all and is now a respected actor in Hollywood. But his most difficult role to play may not be the one you might expect.
For a long time, Ryan Gosling was unfairly reduced to his good looks or his silent roles in Drive. Yet he is one of the most diverse actors of his generation. Be convincing with very few lines of dialogue and carry an action film on your shoulders? It takes more talent than it seems to get there. Tap dancing, singing, dancing, playing the piano? It is also not within everyone’s reach. To be sometimes moving in romantic dramas or to have impeccable timing in crazy comedies without being afraid of ridicule? Once again, success depends on the quality of the actor or actress who takes on the roles.
Through hard work, Ryan Gosling has definitively established himself as a jack-of-all-trades actor in Hollywood. However, he himself admits, the roles are not always easy to carry or embody. In an interview with W magazine, the actor confided what was the most complicated role of his career. And it wasn’t the taciturn man in Drive, the pianist in La La Land, Neil Armstrong in First Man, the replicant in Blade Runner 2049 nor any of the action roles of his career.
Ryan Gosling admitted to immediately thinking that the role of Ken in Barbie, for which he was unanimously acclaimed to the point of setting the Oscar stage on fire, was going to be “the most difficult to play of [his] career.” In the interview, he explains his thought process when he was asked to play this atypical character who discovers the patriarchy after years of being the second role in Barbie’s life: “how to play a crotchless doll aged 70 years old? You can’t do research to study this role. There’s no one you can imitate, no documentary to watch, no book has ever been written about Ken. You’re on your own.” . Moreover, when it was announced that Ryan Gosling would play this role, this decision was surprisingly criticized by Internet users who considered the forty-year-old “too old” to play the doll.
Difficult for an actor to play a character without a story and without personality. But Ryan Gosling also had what few actors can enjoy in their career: all the freedom of interpretation possible. And it paid off, since the actor is hilarious in Barbie, revealing an aspect of his talents already explored, but too little exploited: his sense of comic timing and his legendary self-deprecation. For the role of Ken, the 43-year-old actor was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2024, which he certainly didn’t win, but his revival of “I’m Just Ken” performed for the occasion was the best moment of the ceremony. Like what !