Barbie: Ryan Gosling was not confident in his “Ken-ergy” before accepting the role

Last Updated on April 28, 2023

CinemaCon continues this week, and yesterday brought the ironically and unironically anticipated movie Barbie to the stage. While the property had already found its way onto different mediums in the past, a live-action adaptation was never out of the question. However with Greta Gerwig, the director of acclaimed films such as Lady Bird and Little Women, and co-writer Noah Baumbach, writer of Marriage Story and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou being driving forces behind the film, there may be more than meets the eye with this movie.

For the iconic characters of the toy line, the casting is pretty spot on. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling are picturesque and deadpan enough to be appropriate eye candy while delivering some off-kilter humor. The CinemaCon panel for Barbie featured appearances by Robbie, Gosling, America Ferrera, and Greta Gerwig. Gerwig had always envisioned Gosling as Ken, and he luckily accepted, but according to THR, the actor doubted his “Ken-ergy” to take on such a role.

Gosling cheekily explained, “I have to be honest, I had up until this point, I only knew Ken from afar. I didn’t know Ken from within. If I’m being really honest, I doubted my Ken-ergy. I didn’t see it. Margot and Greta, I feel like they conjured this out of me somewhere.” He emphasized that one day, he was just living his life, then “one day, I was bleaching my hair and shaving my legs and wearing bespoke neon outfits and rollerblading down Venice Beach. It came on like a fever, like a Scarlet fever.” He continued, “Why is there fake tanner on my sheets? Why am I wearing jackets without shirts? What just happened.”

When stepping on the set of the Barbie world, Gosling noted how it felt like entering the world of Oz, “I think I finally knew what Dorothy felt like.” Robbie would point out how surreal it was to have the action movie Fast X filming on the set next to the Barbie world, “You’ve never seen so many grown men find excuses to come to set. It was like a dopamine hit. You were instantly happy, and we felt that every day.”

Gerwig talked about putting the script together with writing partner Baumbach, “When I was writing with Noah, there was a point when we were making each other laugh all the time, and when it ended, we were making each other cry.”