Ryan Gosling had to 'make peace' with his Mouseketeer past to play singing-and-dancing Ken in Barbie
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Ryan Gosling admittedly does not remember much about his experience playing Ken in Greta Gerwig's Barbie.
"It was like, at one moment I was a human male in my backyard picking up a Ken doll, and then somehow magically I had become that doll and I was being picked up by Greta Gerwig, and the only way to become human again was to just follow her very specific directions," the actor says during EW's Around the Table with the cast (above), drawing laughs from the director and his costars Margot Robbie, Issa Rae, America Ferrera, Kate McKinnon, and Michael Cera.
Warner Bros. Pictures Ryan Gosling in 'Barbie'
Gosling fully leans into his Kenergy in the movie, in theaters July 21: The comedy follows Robbie's central Barbie, known as Stereotypical Barbie, living an idyllic life in the cotton candy-pink world of Barbie Land, where fellow Barbies govern in the highest court and every day is the best day ever. During a giant blowout party with planned choreography and bespoke song, however, she presents a peculiar thought to the group: "Do you guys ever think about dying?"
Strange things happen thereafter — cold showers, lingering thoughts of mortality, and perhaps more dire, FLAT FEET! — that send Barbie to the doorsteps of Weird Barbie, played to kooky perfection by McKinnon. To discover the truth about the universe and the occurrences, per Weird Barbie, Stereotypical Barbie must embark on a trip to the real world. Unbeknownst to her, Ken has snuck into the back seat of her pink convertible for the journey, and the two get into some hijinks when they arrive in the real world (or, more specifically, Los Angeles), where Ken comes to a realization that wreaks havoc on Barbie Land.
Though centered on Barbie's journey of self-discovery, Ken also grapples with existentialism and self-actualization, which comes to a head in a big musical number to the original song, "I'm Just Ken." In it, Gosling — whose musical prowess was last displayed on the big screen in 2016's La La Land — performs a bombastic '80s-inspired pop-rock ballad. The actor says he evoked his child-actor roots to fully embody Ken and master those musical sequences, nodding to his Mouseketeer past as a 12-year-old. (Gosling was a cast member on Disney Channel's The All New Mickey Mouse Club in the early '90s, performing alongside the likes of pre-pop stars Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and Christina Aguilera.)
"At a certain point I thought I had left that kid behind, and I realized that I needed his help to make this movie," Gosling says. "So I had to go back and make peace with him and ask for his help. It was good for me."
Warner Bros. Pictures Kingsley Ben-Adir, Ryan Gosling, and Ncuti Gatwa in 'Barbie'
Watch Gosling discuss making peace with his former child actor self in EW's Around the Table above (starting around the 4-minute mark), where the cast also discusses those dance sequences, Barbie Land's joyful set production, and more. Barbie and her pink convertible cruises into theaters July 21.
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