When Barbie film posters were released in June depicting Ryan Gosling’s Ken as a bare-chested, spray-tanned heartthrob, fans were so excited that, as Jimmy Fallon declared, it “broke the Internet.” When a clip was released this month of Gosling singing a heartrending ballad about his relationship with Barbie, some suggested Gosling deserved a Grammy Award.
During test screenings for Greta Gerwig’s upcoming tongue-in-cheek film about the legendary fashion doll, audiences have consistently said that Gosling “steals the show” as Barbie’s sexy and stylish boyfriend. But Gosling wasn’t always sure the part was right for him, and it took serious effort by Gerwig and Barbie star Margot Robbie to convince him otherwise.
“It was only ever Ryan Gosling, and it was a long journey,” Gerwig told Rolling Stone. “Margot and I just wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
Being Bombarded with Texts and Gifts
Barbie, which is now in theaters, features Robbie and Gosling as two of several variations of Barbie and Ken dolls living in the utopian Barbie Land. When casting her leading man, Gerwig knew Gosling was perfect for the role, even though she had never worked with him nor even met him before.
“I just was sure, and as soon as I thought of it, it made me so happy,” Gerwig said. “Who else could do this? It’s some combination of Marlon Brando meets Gene Wilder meets John Barrymore meets John Travolta.”
Robbie was equally insistent that Gosling was right for the part. She and Gerwig bombarded him with unanswered text messages trying to win him over. “Margot was like, ‘Is it weird if I go to his house?’” Gerwig said on SiriusXM. “I was like, ‘Don’t go to his house! Stay put!’”
Robbie promised Gosling a present every day of filming if he accepted the role, which proved to be a challenge when he did: “I was like, ‘Oh, s––. I’ve got to get so many presents.’” She kept her word, however, gifting him “Ken-related things” each day, from a puka shell necklace to a horse-themed lunch box.
“A lot of things you’d find at a Tommy Bahama store,” Gosling said on SiriusXM, “and then it sort of turned into Sharper Image kind of objects... I thought there was no way she could keep it up. I mean, it was a long shoot. But every day, from Barbie, [there was] a pink present to Ken to sort of stoke his ‘Ken-ergy.’”
Finding His ‘Ken-ergy’
Gosling wasn’t initially sold on the role, in part, due to his busy work schedule, and in part, because he felt he lacked the “Ken-ergy” to play the character. While thinking over whether to accept the role, the father of two young daughters walked into his backyard, where he found a Ken doll lying facedown in the mud next to a squashed lemon, he said on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Taking it as a sign, Gosling took a photo of the discarded toy.
“I texted it to Greta, and I said, ‘I shall be your Ken, for his story must be told,’” he said.
Even after accepting the part, Gosling felt slightly mystified to be playing Ken but said he was drawn toward the chance to work with Gerwig and Robbie, as well as the script and how it empowered female characters. In approaching the role, Gosling said he evoked his child-actor roots, recalling his time as a 12-year-old playing a Mouseketeer on the Disney Channel’s The All New Mickey Mouse Club. They were especially helpful for Ken’s musical numbers featured in Barbie.
“At a certain point I thought I had left that kid behind, and I realized that I needed his help to make this movie,” Gosling told Entertainment Weekly. “So I had to go back and make peace with him and ask for his help. It was good for me.”
Taking Comedy Seriously
Gerwig said believes Gosling has suceeded as Ken because he is a “secretly comedic actor,” with his comedy stems from how seriously he takes his acting. She told Rolling Stone that the discussions about Ken were “as in-depth character work as I’ve ever done with anyone about anything.”
“There is a quality to Ryan’s acting, even when he is hilarious, it’s never the actor standing outside of the role commenting on or judging this person,” Gerwig said. “He doesn’t try and make you know that Ryan Gosling knows that this is silly. He does it in a way that takes on all of the potential humiliations of the character as his own.”
When Barbie trailers were first released, some fans questioned whether Gosling, 42, was too old for the part, prompting the actor to joke about the other actors playing Ken in the movie: “I would say, you know, if people don’t want to play with my Ken, there are many other Kens to play with.”
Since then, however, public opinion has turned decidedly in favor of Gosling’s “Ken-ergy,” which Gerwig described as a vindication of her vision for the character: “I’m thrilled, because that is how I felt and how Margot felt, and I’m thrilled that everyone shares that feeling.”
Watch Barbie in Theaters Now
Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, is now in theaters. The film stars Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, and Will Ferrell.
Colin McEvoy joined the Biography.com staff in 2023, and before that had spent 16 years as a journalist, writer, and communications professional. He is the author of two true crime books: Love Me or Else and Fatal Jealousy. He is also an avid film buff, reader, and lover of great stories.
