Ryan Gosling had a “funny” response to critics who believe he’s “too old” to portray Ken in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.
In the film, Gosling plays Ken, the boyfriend of Margot Robbie’s titular Barbie, who travels to the human world in search of true happiness after being kicked out of Barbie’s land.
Since the first trailer featuring the 42-year-old actor came out, people have been commenting on how Gosling appeared to be “too old” to play Ken.
The La La Land star responded to the comments on Wednesday (May 31).
“If people don’t want to play with my Ken, there are many other Kens to play with,” he explained to British GQ.
“It is funny,” he said. “This kind of clutching-your-pearls idea of, like, #notmyken. Like you ever thought about Ken before this?” given that “for 60 years, (Ken’s) job has been beach” and that “everyone was fine with that, for him to have a job that is nothing”.
“But suddenly, it’s like, ‘No, we’ve cared about Ken this whole time.’ No, you didn’t. You never did. You never cared,” he said. “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.”
“I care about this dude now,” Gosling admitted.
“I’m like his representative.” ‘Ken couldn’t make it to take this honor, so I’m here to accept it for him,’ he explained.
Earlier in the interview, Gosling stated that Ken’s “job has been beach” since the doll was originally launched decades ago by toy giant Mattel, a point he returned to while expressing his interest in the character’s story within Barbie.
Elsewhere in the interview, Gosling also discussed the acting technique he finds most effective.
The Nice Guys star compared his preferred method to that of an “escape room,” referring to the popular game in which participants are imprisoned in a room and given a series of clues and puzzles to complete in order to escape.
Gosling’s promotional appearances for the upcoming film, which purportedly follows Barbie (Margot Robbie) and Ken as they journey from Barbie Land to the real world, have been notable, including his famous use of the phrase “Ken-ergy.”
“I only knew Ken from afar. I didn’t know Ken from within, and if I’m being really honest I doubted my Ken-ergy,” the actor told an audience during a Warner Bros. presentation at CinemaCon 2023 in April. “I didn’t see it, but Margot and Greta, they conjured this out of me somehow.”
In other Barbie news, the highly anticipated film’s production designer claims that the Barbie movie set used so much pink that “the world ran out of [it].”
According to Architectural Digest, director Greta Gerwig wanted to create ‘genuine artificiality’ for the Margot Robbie-led film, so she demanded that everything be hand-painted rather than using CGI.
Greta outlined her ambitions early as the architect behind bringing Barbie’s world to screens, telling the publication: ‘Maintaining the “kid-ness” was key.
‘I wanted the pinks to be incredibly vivid and everything to be almost too much. ‘I didn’t want to forget what made me love Barbie as a child.’
‘You have a painted sky in a soundstage, which is an illusion, but it’s also there,’ she continued. ‘The painted backdrop is real.’
Barbie, according to the director, must be experienced through your senses, as ‘everything has to be tactile, because toys are, after all, things you touch.’
Greta wanted Barbie’s world to come to life physically, rather than only digitally, and that it be a totally immersive experience.
Getting the pink color ‘correct’ was a significant undertaking, and selecting the particular hue that would represent Barbie was a lengthy procedure.
The signature pink of Barbie’s world was developed by Rosco’s team of painters, who began with 100 different shades of pink.
They reduced it down to 10 pinks after blending the tones to produce the ultimate Barbie palette.
The voyage was influenced not just by the chosen color, but also by how the paint changed colours when mixed with furniture or fabric.
Sarah Greenwood, who works as a production designer, stated that reaching a conclusion was a recurrent obstacle.
Barbie will be released in cinemas on July 21.
You’re right, Ryan! What are your thoughts on the world-building process of the upcoming Barbie movie? Go ahead and leave your comments down below. You may support us by clicking Signing-up for our newsletter. Thanks for reading!
