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While I thought Ryan Gosling was great in Barbie, I’ve been annoyed for months that Gosling has gotten so much attention for playing Ken and that so many people are acting like the movie was mostly about Ken. And then Oscar voters nominated Ken and not Barbie or Barbie’s director and I guess it all made sense. Oscar voters watched Barbie and they thought it was all about Ken too. Well, Gosling is currently Oscar-campaigning and he’s striking just the right balance between “being happy/grateful/wanting it” and “still being cool.” Gosling covers the current issue of Variety and this piece is very long and detailed, especially about Ryan’s background as a child actor/performer. Some highlights:

Ken was his hardest role: “It’s the hardest role I’ve ever had to play. It was like a high-wire act — in tiny shorts and no shirt — with no net. I wanted to make sure if I was going to do it — I was like, ‘I can’t mess this up. I can’t be the guy that messed up the Barbie movie.’ So if I’m going to do it, I have to do more than I know that I’m even capable of.”

On his statement about Margot Robbie & Greta Gerwig’s Oscar snubs: “Look, I heavily edited that statement. 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 references the themes of Gerwig’s script: The Barbie characters live in a feminist paradise and are shocked when, in the real world, they encounter systemic sexism at every level. “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. But it’s yet another reason that proves it’s more than a summer blockbuster. It’s a great work of art. That’s what Greta and Margot created.”

How he figured out how to play Ken: While preparing for the character, “so many times, I would come home and say, ‘What am I doing?’ And I would overthink it.” His wife would tell him, “Just make it about Barbie,” he says. “And so every take became an opportunity to get Barbie to notice me.”

Moving to LA as a teen: “Thank God for West Hollywood. This director I had worked with told me when I was a kid, ‘If you ever come to L.A., you can sleep on my couch.’ I had an amazing experience. I did my homework at the Abbey. My next-door neighbor was named Mocha Cream. It was an amazing place to land: Somebody had showed me the movie ‘Auntie Mame,’ and I felt like the kid in ‘Auntie Mame,’ who was like, ‘Only yesterday, he was in short pants.’ Everyone was just so accepting and living their dreams. It was very supportive and creative.”

Taking four years off to focus on fatherhood. “Just to be with my family. I didn’t want to miss anything. My priorities changed, and I wanted to be with my kids. It’s going super fast. I hear the clock ticking. I don’t know how much time I’m going to get, and I don’t want to spend it in the wrong place. I know I’m not spending it in the wrong place if I’m with my family.”

Barbie is a continuation of all of his big dramatic work: “In some way, everything I’ve done led to it. And I can’t believe I’m saying that. There were moments when I would do it where I’d think, ‘I haven’t felt like I’ve worked this hard since “Blue Valentine.”’ There were moments when I left ‘Blue Valentine’ just completely emotionally spent, laying on the floor of the car on the ride home just done — empty. And it was even harder to play Ken. And I thought, ‘How am I feeling that on this film?’”

He turned down Ken several times: “Eventually, I thought, ‘Who am I to argue with Greta Gerwig and Margot?’ They had a vision for it. They believed it. And they believed I should do it more than I believed I shouldn’t. At a certain point, I thought, ‘They see something that I don’t see.’ I thought it was such a great part that anyone could play it. I understand now, but it took me a while.”

Whether he’ll perform at the Oscars: “I still have not been asked. It might be too much of a risk to have me do it. I don’t know how that would work. But I’m open to it.”

[From Variety]

I kind of hope he does perform at the Oscars and does it really seriously, like in a tuxedo, standing beside a grand piano, delivering a heart-wrenching performance of “I’m Just Ken.” That’s obviously what Oscar voters want. The Variety piece is full of quotes from Gerwig and Robbie too, how much they wanted him for the role, to the point where Gerwig had no backup plan for who she would cast if he kept saying no. I like what he says about how hard it was, the hard work of playing Ken, because I keep getting the feeling that people think Barbie was “easy” to make because the actors made it look easy. Anyway, I kind of love everything he said here. It would be hilarious if he ended up winning the Oscar for it.

Cover courtesy of Variety, additional photos courtesy of Avalon Red.