'Ryan Gosling Won't Eat His Cereal' meme: Interview with Ryan McHenry
Hey girl: Even if you think you’ve hit Ryan Gosling Meme exhaustion (the cure? Watch Drive, then you’re good to go again) you’re going to want to check out what the entire Internet has been obsessing about for the past 24 hours: Ryan Gosling Won’t Eat His Cereal Vines. The Vines (which, for the Internet clueless, are six-second looping videos) are exactly what they sound like: Just a spoonful of cereal slowing inching towards Gosling’s beautiful – but also sometimes tortured, angry, bloodied, hurt – face on a television screen.
Below, check out one of our favorites and then read EW’s email Q&A with creator Ryan McHenry.
Entertainment Weekly: What was your inspiration for this? Obviously Ryan Gosling memes are already a popular thing on the Internet — what made you land on cereal?
Ryan McHenry: I had downloaded the app Vine and used it a couple of times but only to gather around 8 followers, mainly friends. I had been checking out all the popular accounts…I really wanted to try make a Vine which would make people laugh. So I was watching Drive and eating cereal one day, and it kind of looked like Ryan Gosling was staring at my cereal. So I brought out my Vine and had a few attempts and created ‘Ryan Gosling won’t eat his cereal part 1.‘
How did you go about creating the Vines? Was it just you or did some friends help?
It was just me for most of them, I took a bit of time trying to line up the spoon so it looked a part of the scene, making sure there was no reflections, light glare etc. One part I had my girlfriend hold the spoon as it was at quite an odd angle (part 7).
Your knowledge of exactly what Gosling film moments to use is impressive! Were you a massive fan?
I think everyone on earth loves Ryan Gosling! After seeing Blue Valentine and Drive I was ready to watch whatever he released. So after the first two cereal parts, I started watching through ALL of his films and taking notes of when the best time to use the cereal spoon would be.
What’s been your reaction to the worldwide pick up of these Vines? (‘Ryan Gosling’ is currently the top trending topic on Twitter.)
It’s been really crazy, especially today now that the whole world seems to be watching them. Part one and two were liked by friends but part 3 made it to the popular page on Vine, that’s when my followers jumped from 8 – 180. Then every video I released afterwards made the popular page and began building towards 10,000 followers. I’m just really happy that people around the world are laughing at them. I would always text them to [a friend] before I uploaded them just to see if they were funny. He loved them.
What is your background? Do you work in film?
I have wanted to be a filmmaker from a young age. I studied film for four years and made a few short films. One of my short films, Zombie Musical, won a BAFTA New Talent award and was picked up by Scottish Production Company Black Camel Pictures. The feature version is about to go into pre-production. I think the film-making scene in Scotland [where I live] is great [and filled] with some very talented people!
Want more? Note to McHenry: Gosling has a new film coming out this July.
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