Ryan Gosling on Why He Originally Turned Down “I’m Just Ken” Oscars Performance

Despite Ryan Gosling’s Oscars performance of “I’m Just Ken” being a highlight of the 2024 show, the actor admits he originally did not want to perform the nominated song.

During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, the Barbie actor said his answer was “100 percent no” when he was first asked to perform the film’s hit song.

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“There’s a lot of ways that could go wrong,” he explained.

Though initially hesitant, Gosling ended up performing the number after, in a bright pink bedazzled suit and cowboy hat along with an army of 62 Kens, as well as his fellow Barbie movie Kens — Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Kingsley Ben-Adir and Scott Evans — as well as Mark Ronson and Slash.

After Fallon read positive reviews about Gosling’s performance, Gosling quipped of the late-night talk show’s house band, “Imagine the reviews I would have had if I’d have The Roots.”

Prior to the film’s release, Gosling had candidly explained how his daughters’ disinterest in the Ken doll originally sparked his interest in the role. When asked what his daughters’ reaction to his performance was he joked, “Dad’s Kenning again.”

“It was their interest in Barbie and their disinterest in Ken that sort of started all of this,” he added.

Gosling shared that his Ken role and performance has been “a team effort” especially given his daughters, whom he shares with longtime partner Eva Mendes, came to the Barbie set when he filmed the “I’m Just Ken” performance. However, he noted that “a lot of this has no context for them.”

“You know it’s just like a lot of fake tan stains around the house, bleached hair,” Gosling added about his role. “So I wanted to them to come to the dress rehearsal just to give it some kind of context for what had been going on.”

When watching the performance, Gosling joked of his daughters, “They knew all the choreography better than I do. And the songs, oh my God, they’re backstage kind of like showing me that you know,” he said while reenacting jazz hands.

Gosling is set to host Saturday Night Live this weekend for the third time. When Fallon brought up the fact that it was one of Gosling’s SNL sketches that caught the attention of Barbie director Greta Gerwig, the actor recalled the sketch and dialogue he had to say.

“Alex Moffat wrote this sketch called, ‘Guy Who Just Joined Soho House’ or something. The first line was like, ‘Sergeant Blackout reporting for booty,'” Gosling recalled before joking, “Who would’ve thought that Greta Gerwig was watching that going like ‘That’s my Ken.'”

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