Ryan Gosling’s job is just Dad when he’s not making blockbuster movies like Barbie.
“Just to be with my family. I didn’t want to miss anything,” Gosling, 43, told Variety in an interview published on Wednesday, February 7, when asked about taking a break from the spotlight in 2018. “My priorities changed, and I wanted to be with my kids. It’s going super fast. I hear the clock ticking.”
Gosling shares daughters Esmeralda, 9, and Amada, 7, with Eva Mendes, whom he started dating after costarring in 2012’s The Place Beyond the Pines.
“I don’t know how much time I’m going to get, and I don’t want to spend it in the wrong place,” Gosling gushed to the outlet. “I know I’m not spending it in the wrong place if I’m with my family.”
The actor even entrusted his family to help him become Kenough to play the iconic doll in 2023’s Barbie movie. According to Variety, Esmeralda and Amada helped Gosling learn his “I’m Just Ken” choreography — Ken’s musical soliloquy that earned both a Grammy and an Oscar nomination — while Mendes, 49, helped him run lines.
When Gosling initially got the call from director Greta Gerwig to join the now-acclaimed picture, he was home with his kids. After hanging up the phone, he walked outside to find a Ken doll lying naked, face down in the dirt. As Gosling filmed Barbie, Esmeralda and Amada continued to play with their own Ken doll but gave him a unique, complicated backstory.
“He was wearing a tuxedo, albeit a sleeveless one,” Gosling recalled. “And I asked my daughters, ‘What happened?’ And they said, ‘Oh, he died of armpit arthritis. Ken’s dead!’ And I was like, ‘Well, at least he’s face up and wearing clothes.’ I feel like he was a little better off than where I found him.”
While Esmeralda and Amada continue to keep their dad humble, he also said that Ken was “the hardest role [he’s] ever had to play.”
“It was like a high-wire act — in tiny shorts and no shirt — with no net,” Gosling added to the outlet.
Gosling’s portrayal of Ken earned him a Best Supporting Actor nod at the Academy Awards in March. His costar America Ferrera was also recognized, as were Gerwig, 40, and husband Noah Baumbach for their script. Gerwig and star Margot Robbie, the titular character, however, did not receive respective directing or leading actress nominations. Gosling was admittedly disheartened by the Oscar snubs.
“I think if I say any more about it, I’m going to basically put on a mink and start challenging people to a beach-off on Malibu Beach,” he told Variety, referring to the Kens’ method of fighting in the film. “In terms of people’s reactions, the film continues to provoke conversation in every incarnation. It keeps provoking this dialogue. It’s the power of this movie. I struggle to compare it to anything.”
