Can you feel the Kenergy? Thanks to a frankly scene-stealing turn as Barbie’s existential crisis-ridden, beach-loving boyfriend in Greta Gerwig’s billion dollar movie, Ryan Gosling has once again proved that he’s one of the most versatile film stars around right now.
Heartbreaking leading man? Tap-dancing musical performer? Oscar-nominated indie star? A plastic doll who is convinced the patriarchy is all about riding horses (this one probably makes more sense if you’ve seen Barbie, which we implore you to do if you haven’t already)? The man can do it all.
And when it comes to hitting the red carpet, the chat show circuit or awards shows, he never seems to take himself (or his fame) too seriously.
Here are just some of our favourite Ryan Gosling moments…
1. When Alison Hammond made him crack up
If you’re ever in need of an instant pick-me-up, may I direct you to Alison Hammond’s legendary This Morning interview with Ryan and his Blade Runner 2049 co-star Harrison Ford?
Alison set the tone by admitting she’s never seen the original Blade Runner movie and then describing her interviewing technique as “bleak, dystopian, [and] an absolute nightmare to be honest with you”, before the whole thing got progressively more chaotic, with Ryan pouring out a miniature whiskey, collapsing into giggles and pretending to walk off camera in outrage.
2. When he organised a Ken flashmob for Greta Gerwig’s birthday
What better way to celebrate a milestone birthday and a huge box office success than with a themed flashmob, tbh?
When Barbie director Greta Gerwig turned 40 earlier this month, Ryan marked the occasion by sending a group of dancing Kens to turn up at her Pilates class to throw shapes to his song I’m Just Ken, who were later joined by a squad of Barbies to perform a routine to Dance The Night, another favourite from the film’s soundtrack.
By the end of this extravaganza, which was captured on film and shared on the Barbie movie’s Instagram account, Greta seems to be crying happy tears, and we don’t blame her one bit.
3. When he took his Kenergy to the Barbie red carpet
Any one of Ryan’s red carpet appearances during the Barbie press tour would be deserving of a spot on this list, like when he told reporters how to best channel their Kenergy and reminded them they are, in fact, “Kenough”.
But if we had to pick a favourite, it would be this run-in with reporter Amelia Dimoldenberg, who asked Ryan about the best way to find a Ken of her own. He then advised her to drop something, suggesting that a true Ken will pick it up before quickly moving on so as not to invade your space – which inevitably lead to Amelia dropping her notecards.
Proving he’s a true Ken at heart, he picked them up, saying: ‘Here, you dropped this’, before walking off.
4. When he paid tribute to Eva Mendes in his Golden Globes speech…
After picking up the Golden Globe trophy for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for his role in La La Land back in 2017, Ryan used his winner’s speech to shout out his partner Eva Mendes.
“I’d like to try and thank one person properly, and to say that while I was singing and dancing and playing piano and having one of the best experiences I’ve ever had on a film, my lady was raising our daughter, pregnant with our second and trying to help her brother fight his battle with cancer,” he said. “If she hadn’t taken all that on so that I could have this experience, it would surely be someone else up here other than me today.”
5. And at the Barbie premiere
OK, we said we’d only pick one Barbie red carpet moment, but this one is too sweet to skip over.
Ryan and Eva rarely attend high-profile events together, but at the film’s LA premiere, he found a way to pay tribute to his wife through his outfit, accessorising his pink suit with a chain necklace featuring a letter ‘E’ pendant (in the iconic Barbie font, of course).
6. When he brought his dog along for a chat show appearance
To be perfectly honest, sometimes the celebrity chat show circuit can get a little bit boring, with the same old backslapping between the host and the guests, the same softball questions and the same old relatable anecdotes being trotted out again and again. So when a star decides to do something a little bit different with their ten minutes on the chat show sofa, we’re all for it, like when Ryan decided to bring his dog George along to film an appearance on The Jimmy Fallon Show back in 2011.
“He’s more interesting than I am, so I just thought it would be helpful,” he said at the time.
7. When he had to mediate between some very cute puppies
We’ve seen Ryan’s love of dogs. So now it’s time to appreciate… Ryan stepping in to mediate between some puppies.
When he and Barbie co-star Margot Robbie sat down to film a Q&A with Buzzfeed, accompanied by a gang of extremely tiny, extremely adorable puppies, Ryan ended up getting sidetracked when he noticed that one dog in particular kept getting caught up in scraps with his fellow dogs.
Seeing Ryan very politely remonstrating with the puppy in question, calling him “my dude”, is something we didn’t know we needed.
8. When he was a tiny dance sensation
Back in the day, Ryan was an all-singing, all-dancing, metallic Hammer-pants wearing child star – a fact that talk show hosts just love to remind him of, as it gives them a good excuse to pull some video evidence from the archive.
And so during a 2017 appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Ryan was a pretty good sport when Graham’s producers dug out a clip showing him dancing to Cathy Dennis’s Touch Me, the only male performer in an otherwise all-girl troupe.
“They let me dance there for free because I was a guy, because if you had a guy, you would win,” he explained.
How old was he at the time of the performance? “Old enough to know better,” he sighed.
9. When he gifted us the sad banger of the summer
We’d heard him sing on The Mickey Mouse Club as a kid, and during his role as jazz pianist Sebastian in La La Land, but surely Ryan’s most groundbreaking contribution to the world of music came when he recorded I’m Just Ken.
The simultaneously hysterical and heartbreaking 80s-stye power ballad that crops up during the third act of the Barbie movie, and features the immortal rhyming couplet “I’m just Ken / Anywhere else I’d be a 10”, capturing the pathos of being Barbie’s essentially superfluous boyfriend.
We don’t know whether to laugh or cry when we hear it – although seeing Ryan emoting while wearing that ridiculous fur coat and headband combo nudges us towards the former.
10. When he poked fun at Avatar on Saturday Night Live
Ryan proves his low-key comedy genius in this Saturday Night Live sketch, in which he plays a man tortured by a great cinematic mystery of the modern age: why did Avatar director James Cameron use Papyrus font for the logo of his multi-billion dollar movie?
“He just highlighted Avatar, he clicked the drop-down menu and then he just randomly selected Papyrus, like a thoughtless child,” Ryan’s character tells his therapist (played by his future Barbie co-star Kate McKinnon) as he tries to get to the heart of his obsession. “Was it laziness, was it cruelty?” he asks, pondering Cameron’s motivation, before exploding into an Oscar clip-worthy meltdown when a well-meaning friend tells him that the film’s team “clearly modified” the original typeface.
“Whatever they did, it wasn’t enough,” he fumes. There’s also shades of self-pitying I’m Just Ken-energy at play here, which just makes it funnier.