Why Ryan Gosling is haunted by the La La Land poster

City of stars, there’s so much that I can’t see…But unfortunately for Ryan Gosling, there’s one thing he can’t unsee from La La Land: his hand. No matter how much 2016’s La La Land did for Gosling’s reputation and awards prestige, he is forever embarrassed by one frame from the near-Best Picture winner; and unfortunately, that image became the most famous from the movie, even being selected for the poster.

As Ryan Gosling recently revealed, his hand positioning in the “A Lovely Night” sequence – in which Sebastian (Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) dance at the Griffith Observatory in an enchanting single shot – has haunted him ever since the movie’s marketing campaign. “There’s a moment that haunts me where we’re dancing, Emma and I. I didn’t know this would become the poster for the movie. But I thought we were supposed to have our hands up and I thought it’d be cool to put my hand like that.” At the time of filming, he thought it all looked so classy but “now when I look at it — and I have to see it all the time — you know what would have been cooler than this?” The answer? The more elegant positioning of Emma Stone’s hand. “It just killed the energy that way. It was sort of like, all leading to what? Just like a lazy…I call it La La Hand.” Poor Ryan Gosling: all those good looks ruined by a wayward hand!

For his turn as Sebastian in La La Land, Gosling earned his second Oscar nomination for Best Actor (after Half Nelson; he’d get a supporting nod for Barbie). That helped La La Land earn a total of 14 nods, tying it with prestige All About Eve and Titanic. Unlike those films, however, La La Land did not end up taking home Best Picture, although it did get a couple minutes to celebrate before Moonlight was crowned the ultimate winner. Even still, it would be that night’s big winner with six Oscars.

While Gosling continues to be ashamed of his pose on the La La Land poster, in complete honesty, I never noticed anything strange about it. It just seemed like a still shot of a beautiful scene. Of course, now it’s almost impossible to look away!

Did you notice Ryan Gosling’s weird hand on the La La Land poster?