Ryan Gosling says Burt Reynolds had a crush on his mom while they were filming 1996's “Frankenstein and Me”

"Stop looking at my mom. I'm right here."

Ryan Gosling has revealed that his Frankenstein and Me costar Burt Reynolds may have been auditioning for a second role when they were shooting: his stepdad.

The Fall Guy actor said on Wednesday's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live that Reynolds, who died in 2018, had a crush on his mom, Donna, during production of his 1996 feature-film debut.

“It’s complicated, because I thought he took a shine to me. I thought he thought there was something special about me,” Gosling told host Jimmy Kimmel. “And then I realized that I have a really beautiful mom.”

The Oscar-nominated actor explained that his mother quickly captured Reynolds’ attention on set and eclipsed his spotlight. "He was just kind of interested. It was like I was getting, like, a secondary shine. The real shine was for my mom."

When Kimmel asked how long it took Gosling to understand what was happening, the actor joked that he wished he’d “found out sooner,” before noting that his mom “loved” the attention and that “nothing happened” between her and Reynolds.

Kimmel then astutely pointed out that, as a result, Gosling ended up missing one pretty big golden opportunity: “You could have been Ryan Reynolds had that worked out!” he said.

A laughing Gosling then held up his thumb and forefinger before replying, “This close!”

Gosling confirmed that Reynolds was always kind to him when they were filming but that “we know why he was being friendly” now.

“He would sign stuff all the time — he would sign a Mean Machine shirt,” he added, a nod to Reynolds’ 1974 film The Longest Yard, which had a different title in the U.K. and South Africa. “He told us not to see [his 1972 film] Deliverance — all the kids — which is, of course, the first thing we did. We should’ve listened to him.”

He also gave Gosling an "odd piece of advice" that has stuck with him to this day.

"He was like, 'Let me tell you something kid: Don't spend your whole life stepping over diamonds to live with a cubic zirconia,'" Gosling recalled. "I was like, 'I'm 13. I don't know what any of those things are. I don't know what any of that is. Stop looking at my mom. I'm right here.'"

Watch Gosling fondly remember Reynolds' crush on his mom in the clip above.

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