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Ryan Gosling graces the cover of the September issue of Esquire. In the accompanying interview, he takes journalist Tom Chiarella on a road trip to Coney Island, tells him ghost stories and enthuses about his love of candy. Chiarella is the same author who was dismissive and judgmental in profiles of Brooklyn Decker and Matthew McConaughey. Esquire has a history of writing critical pieces on celebrities, with other journalists portraying Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper negatively when their actions and words didn’t seem to warrant it. (We should talk, right?)
In this Gosling story, Chiarella is more generous to his subject and Gosling comes across as a genuinely nice guy, if a bit eccentric. Gosling is recognized constantly during their outing and he’s game for taking pictures with fans. Not one person knows his actual name though, just that he’s a movie star and looks familiar. Even when people call him Paul Bettany or Ryan Reynolds, Gosling just rolls with it and grants signatures and photos. Here are some highlights from the article, which is worth reading just to imagine walking around and shooting the sh*t with Gosling. He sounds exhausting, but I would love to eat some candy with him.
Gosling loves candy
Five stops at bodegas, and one at this 7-Eleven, and in each case Ryan Gosling sniffs out the florid Japanese gelatin as if he lived on the block, as if he shopped there every damned day. Its very presence seems to comfort him. “This is the stuff,” he says, in aisle two of four. Then he piles them on the countertop. Kazoozles atop Nerds Ropes, twin packs of Hi-Chews, green apple and grape. He also feels strongly about Haribos, especially the multiflavored bag. “I like to call this the next level of candy,” he says, with a thready graveness in his voice, either mocking seriousness or giving, in fact, a serious mocking. Over and over again, he uses his eyes to say: Are you with me? More enthusiasm, even as he goes on. “Hi-Chews! Look at these! It’s the candy that never quits on you. This candy is always worth the price. There used to be a candy called Bonkers, which I believe to be the greatest candy of all time.” He pours coffee for both of us, with as much sugar as he can get in, and turns to the register before he continues. A girl stands at one end of the aisle, holding her phone up for a photo of him unaware. “For some reason, they discontinued Bonkers. These are good, you’ll see,” he says, holding up the Hi-Chews. Then he hands me my coffee and says with a smile, “Sugar till you die.”Everyone recognizes Gosling, but no one knows his name
The girl moves the camera from in front of her face. “Can I take a picture of you?” she asks.Gosling finishes his thought: “But that fact alone doesn’t really justify the end of Bonkers.” Then he turns back to the girl, who gropes for his name and hands me her camera. Gosling stands with his arm around her. “I know your name,” she says, tilting her head in defeat. “I really do.”
Gosling turns back to me. “Sometimes I think that the one thing I love most about being an adult is the right to buy candy whenever and wherever I want,” he says. Then he asks the girl, “Which way to Coney Island?”
Her hand drops to her side, and she smiles and says, “Oh, I know! You’re Paul Bettany.”…
At Coney — and that’s what they call it, the kids who work there, sixteen-, seventeen-, eighteen-year-old black kids in matching polo shirts and cheap baseball hats, working their summers, leaning into long nights in sight of the ocean, nagging out time until school starts again — just plain Coney, as in “You! What you doing at Coney? You. I know you. Who are you? Let me think. Damn. Tariq, who is he? I know you, right? You a movie star, right? I just can’t. What movie you in? Damn. What is your name? Why you at Coney all the sudden?”
Through all this, Gosling smiles and nods. He’s got some bits, some automatic responses: I just have one of those faces, or People say that all the time. But he never says his name, never gives it away. Not that he’s being difficult. He seems to enjoy passing through this world as a vaguer representation of himself. But he’s not diffident or deceptive. He signs autographs freely, doles out hugs, poses for more phone photos in one visit to the amusement park than most people do in a year. He’s affable about being recognized but not named. He really does have one of those faces. “It’s like being in a dream. You don’t know anybody, but everybody knows you, everybody reacts to you. You can be walking along in a dream, through a pretty normal world, and then bam, everything seems to be a response to your presence. Everything seems to be driven by you. And that’s notable at first, and you deal with it. And then — and it happens every time — you become aware it’s a dream. Right about then, when you think you have it figured, and that acknowledging that will make it easier, it inevitably becomes a nightmare.”
This thing, this event at Coney, is nowhere near that stage. These kids are giving him plenty of room, killing time chatting it up with the movie star they can’t name. Mention of Blue Valentine does them no good. Half Nelson? The Believer? None of that works. The best hint involves one little finger tap on the spiral ring of a sketchpad, to a kid begging for a hint. “Notebook? What’s that mean? Notebook. What’s … notebook! Notebook! I know him. He’s from The Notebook!”
Everyone knows The Notebook. Every teenager on the midway has seen it, a movie that is half as old now as they are, a gauzy fable about the fated love of two white people in North Carolina sixty-five years ago. They all tell him, too: “That’s a good movie.”
Tariq comes over from his position at the Whac-A-Mole stand, takes a long look at Gosling, and says, “That’s Ryan Reynolds.”…
“I think I was always bound to become two selves, if I wasn’t already,” he says. “Now there’s this me, this public me, and I know that I have become two people. This is what I told the photographer before he took those photographs. Even my own name sounds like just someone I know.”
[From Esquire]
We can’t really feature the photos from the interview, as they involve a nude model painted over to look like a skeleton. Ryan is seen clutching her while another Ryan looks on. The article notes that Ryan collaborated on the photos, which seem to be some kind of commentary on his relationship with fame, as if it’s a fickle mistress and he feels like an observer of his own, scary life. He also has skeletons all over his apartment, he tells the interviewer, so he seems to be fascinated by them.
It’s hard to believe that Gosling pops candy like that when he remains so buff, but it’s better than drinking I guess. He’s an interesting guy, and it won’t be long before everyone everywhere knows his name. Will that be more of a nightmare for him?
Written by Celebitchy
Posted in Ryan Gosling
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32 Responses to “Ryan Gosling on fame: ‘You don’t know anybody, but everybody knows you’”
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Welcome to Hollywood buttmunch!
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OMG People thought he was Ryan Reynolds or Paul Bettnay. How the hell do people know Paul Bettnay better than Ryan Gosling? Let me tell you I would have had a f*cking heart attack if I saw Gosling walking around Chicago, eating candy. I would have made a plump ass of myself. I am really surprised no body recognized him. Man Ryan is so hawt. Man people are so crazy. Ryan Reynolds…OMG…
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Ahh, I would never confuse the Gosdong with Ryan Reynolds or Paul Bettany.
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@ Really:
Word. I’ve been trying really hard to understand people’s obsession with this guy but have been failing miserably. Weird eyes, underbite…not the characteristics I associate with hot.
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Seriously, from Donald Sutherland to THIS? Combined with the Beebs our talent is now clearly substandard.
When we talk about Canadian softwood lumber exports are these two heads included?
(And here I thought Tom Green was our apex of shame…)
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@Eve: Watch “The Notebook” and then get back to us….
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whitedaisy – I’ll one up your Notebook with Lars and Half Nelson. Gos is dreamy. *sigh*
Eve – just give in… give in to the Gosling. Let the Gos love wash over you.
Love Angelina – I’d be too shy to say anything I think. I’d be an ogler. Love Chicago btw. My favorite destination city.
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@ Whitedaisy:
I have watched it already (also Half Nelson, that one with Sandra Bullock and another one I can’t remember). Sorry, I don’t mean to disrespect anyone’s taste…I just don’t get it.
@ Turtle Dove:
LOL! No, my dear. But hey!, try to take my opinion in a positive way: there’s more Gosdong for you guys!
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I really liked him in Crazy Stupid Love, and pretty much everything else I’ve seen him in. In photos, I find him underwhelming. However, when he’s on film, I start off being underwhelmed and end up thinking he’s incredibly hot. There’s something about him..
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Eve… it’s now my mission to make you love the Gosling…. and, unlike Lucky on the Boobsy-Legsy thread, I won’t tell you that your opinion is wrong.
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@ Turtle Dove:
Awwwww, it’s a mission destined for failure but if you feel like doing it…like, it’s been almost twenty years since I saw Brad Pitt for the first time and I still don’t get his appeal. But I insist it’s a good thing for you (that I “don’t get” Gosling): the more I dislike him, the more Gosdong is left for you guys.
I’ll take Evansdong instead — who I saw yesterday in Captain America (which I LOVED). You should give it a shot: it’s a surprisingly solid movie (and Tommy Lee Jones’s lines are priceless).
P.S.: I don’t mind people thinking my opinion is wrong. I just don’t like being called liar — which I am not: I could, for instance, come up with a completely different appearance for myself, like saying I’m tall and have long legs and that’s why I don’t envy Boobs Legsy…but, as I said many times before, I’m a hobbit. However, that doesn’t change the fact that I think she’s nothing more than a hustling, nice pair of legs who’s more famous for her love life than for her “acting” skills.
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I’m ok with Eve not liking Gosdong. More for me as she says!
I love him, i admit to loving him on Young Hercules BEFORE he got hot. yes, i am a gosdong fanchick. *sigh*
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@Turtle Dove I don’t think I would walk up to him either or any famous person for that matter. I did go to a premiere once in Chicago. I was surrounded by people and I did manage to get an autograph from George Clooney but like, if he was like walking around like shopping or something, I would never approach him.
You know I never hear people say they love coming to Chicago for vacations. Thats really cool you like coming here…heck only people from Chicago that don’t live here anymore like coming back. LOL
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I think this is how James Franco thinks he sounds when he’s trying to express the depths of his artistic life and the innate complexities of living a seemingly double life. Or some-such idea.
But I still don’t get the Gosdong haze that everyone is infected with. Maybe I should see him in motion.
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Love must be blind because some of the reactions to him are baffling. Eccentric? Really? The guy has skeletons lined up in his apartment, as well as the sex doll from his Lars movie. If he wasn’t an actor and you walked into his apartment, I bet most of you would be running out of there within seconds and calling him a freak. Get real.
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@Eve: Fair enough, the rest of us will share Gosling.
But would you please share Chris Evans with me?
So disarming and genuine in his interviews and WOW on screen. (Haven’t seen Cap’n America yet….)
P.S. I agree with you on Lively; in fact, too many of the young women in Hollywood today cannot act.
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Experiencing this guys acting (in the movies I’ve seen him in) is transforming. Have you ever gone to a comedy club or some other event and began to watch someone (who isn’t a Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp) and they were SO GOOD at what they did, you ended up having a crush on them. They BECAME beautiful because of their talent, personality, character. That’s called the “Ryan Gosling effect”.
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Blue Valentine….i’ve never seen a movie where the theatre was as quiet as this…he was riveting. You wanted SO Much for Michelle Williams to just love him..faults and all. Love him!
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@ Whitedaisy:
But would you please share Chris Evans with me?
Hmmm, let me see…I’ll “lend” him to you for a couple of days (I’m too busy with Eisenberg right now). But that’s it.
So disarming and genuine in his interviews and WOW on screen. (Haven’t seen Cap’n America yet….)
Oh, please do! The movie is worth the admission price — and he’s perfect as Steve Rogers/Captain America (I now think this role suits him a lot more than the Human Torch one). In fact, I’m planning to watch it again because the screen room where I saw it yesterday had a terrible sound system (or maybe there was a problem with the copy’s audio, I don’t know).
P.S. I agree with you on Lively; in fact, too many of the young women in Hollywood today cannot act.
Thanks!
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I love him! He is such a talented actor and he seems like a really nice guy too.
@almond You HAVE to see him in motion. Pics don’t do him justice.
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I love this guy so much, he is such a huge talent. For all the doubters check out “Half Nelson” or for that matter any movie he has been in.
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I was on the Gosling Doubter Train for a long time. Then I saw the trailer for Blue Valentine. And I only saw the TRAILER!!!!
I’m now in love. And he even likes candy!!! I love candy!!
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It’s all about his acting talent, to me. Lars and the real girl- wow that film was amazing, and his performance made it such. He seems to pick/win interesting roles more often than not, and props for him for not being typecast.
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I love him.
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Ryan Gosling, I don’t have any quarrel with the guy, He seems cool, down to earth and aware of being an actor vs celebrity, I’m going to see Crazy,Stupid, Love on Saturday!
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Ryan Gosling, I don’t have any quarrel with the guy, He seems cool, down to earth and aware of being an actor vs celebrity, I’m going to see Crazy,Stupid, Love on Saturday!
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He’s so pretty!
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I fell so hard for Gosling when i saw the Notebook and have loved him ever since. He is a real talent which seems to be rare in Hollywood these days
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Not sure about you, but I am getting so tired of the interview schtick: getting hammered and going clubbing, popping pills at a bar at 2am, being a sugar fiend. It’s like they actually don’t have anything at all to say so they use these props which, to me, make them so much less genuine than if they had just sat down at a coffee shop and focused on an interview.
Bitch, please. Like you have that physique from eating candy all the time.
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Judging from this interview, he seems like a bit of an oddball. It would be fun to go out on a date with him though.
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I want to bury my face in his pubic area.
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