Ryan Gosling’s daughters inspired him to play Ken in the new Barbie movie
"This guy’s story does need to be told, you know?”
We have Ryan Gosling’s daughters to thank for the 42-year-old actor agreeing to sign up to star opposite Australia’s Margot Robbie in the highly anticipated Barbie movie.
Ryan, who shares Esmeralda (9) and Amada (7) with actress Eva Mendes, says he was convinced to take on the role of Ken after seeing his daughters play with their dolls in the backyard.
“I did see him, like, face down in the mud outside one day, next to a squished lemon,” says The Notebook star, “and it was like, This guy’s story does need to be told, you know?”
Ryan Gosling’s two daughters inspired him to take on the role of Ken in the new Barbie movie.
During the interview with GQ magazine, Ryan also hilariously hit back at comments from millennials who thought he was “too old” to play Ken.
“I would say, you know, if people don’t want to play with my Ken, there are many other Kens to play with.” “It is funny,” he continues, “this kind of clutching-your-pearls idea of, like, #notmyken. Like you ever thought about Ken before this?”
“If you ever really cared about Ken, you would know that nobody cared about Ken. So your hypocrisy is exposed. This is why his story must be told.”
“If you ever really cared about Ken, you would know that nobody cared about Ken.”
Ryan and Eva Mendes (49) met on the set of the 2012 crime flick The Place Beyond the Pines.
The Crazy Stupid Love star credits Eva for changing the direction of his life and turning him into a family man.
“I wasn’t thinking about kids before I met her, but after I met Eva, I realised that I just didn’t want to have kids without her,” he explains.
“And there were moments on The Place Beyond the Pines where we were pretending to be a family, and I didn’t really want it to be pretend anymore. I realised that this would be a life I would be really lucky to have.”
“I wasn’t thinking about kids before I met her, but after I met Eva, I realised that I just didn’t want to have kids without her.”
The couple welcomed their first child, Esmeralda Amada Gosling in 2014 and their second daughter, Amada Lee Gosling in 2016.
Notoriously private, the couple keep their family out of the spotlight and choose not to share any images of their two children on social media.
In 2014, Eva shared the reasons behind her and Ryan’s decision to keep their family life private.
“Whether we like it or not, privacy is going to be very difficult for Esmeralda. I think it’s unfair but that’s our reality. So Ryan and I decided early on to give her as much privacy as we could. And my pregnancy was the first opportunity to give her that,” she said.
After welcoming her two girls, Eva made the decision to step away from acting and focus on motherhood.
However, in 2021 she did take on one role which was close to her heart: Eva voiced a yoga instructor in the season three, Bluey episode, Born Yesterday.
“I’ll do anything for Bluey. I’ll do anything,” she said at the time. “We watch it in our house and it’s just such a beautiful show. It’s actually so deep. We were quite touched by it… The girls and the parents!”
