Ryan Gosling Nearly Turned Down His Oscar-Nominated Ken Role In Barbie
Ryan Gosling has opened up about his initial reluctance to take on the role of Ken in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie in a new Variety profile. Despite the enthusiastic anticipation that built considerable momentum before the film’s release in July 2023, Gosling found the process of preparing for the role–and accepting it in the first place–much more harrowing.
Gosling told Variety that Ken was “the hardest role I’ve ever had to play,” and that he initially turned it down due to scheduling conflicts and “some trepidation about embodying what was a punchline in pop culture.”
An additional challenge to the role was the lack of substantial material to draw from for Ken’s character. But once he came around to the idea, Gosling said finding out who Ken was “was like a high-wire act–in tiny shorts and no shirt–with no net… I wanted to make sure if I was going to do it–I was like, ‘I can’t mess this up. I can’t be the guy that messed up the Barbie movie. So if I’m going to do it, I have to do more than I know that I’m even capable of.'”