Ryan Gosling: I'm Just Ken

What a great video. Gosling singing and dancing, always with a smirk on his face like he is trying not to laugh at himself. I think that his appearances on SNL, mainly the ones with Amy Poehler giving their different versions of being kidnapped by the aliens, have given me (and I'm sure others) a greater appreciation of his acting and not taking himself too seriously.

Funny video, Slash too!

Born Ryan Thomas Gosling on November 12, 1980, in London, Ontario, Canada, he is the son of Donna (Wilson), a secretary, and Thomas Ray Gosling, a traveling salesman. Ryan was the second of their two children, with an older sister, Mandi. His ancestry is French-Canadian, as well as English, Scottish, and Irish. The Gosling family moved to Cornwall, Ontario, where Ryan grew up and was home-schooled by his mother. He also attended Gladstone Public School, Cornwall Collegiate, and Vocational High School in Cornwall, where he excelled in Drama and Fine Arts. The family then relocated to Burlington, Ontario, where Ryan attended Lester B. Pearson High School.

Ryan first performed as a singer at talent contests with Mandi. He attended an open audition in Montreal for the TV series "The Mickey Mouse Club" (The All New Mickey Mouse Club (1989)) in January 1993 and beat out 17,000 other aspiring actors for a a spot on the show. While appearing on "MMC" for two years, he lived with co-star Justin Timberlake's family.

Though he received no formal acting training, after "MMC," Gosling segued into an acting career, appearing on the TV series Young Hercules (1998) and Breaker High (1997), as well as the films The Slaughter Rule (2002), Murder by Numbers (2002), and Remember the Titans (2000). He first attracted serious critical attention with his performance as the Jewish neo-Nazi in the controversial film The Believer (2001), which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. He was cast in the part by writer-director Henry Bean, who believed that Gosling's strict upbringing gave him the insight to understand the character Danny, whose obsessiveness with the Judaism he was born into turns to hatred. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award as Best Male Lead in 2002 for the role and won the Golden Aries award from the Russian Guild of Film Critics.

After appearing in the sleeper The Notebook (2004) in 2004, Gosling won the dubious honor of being named one of the 50 Hottest Bachelors by People Magazine. More significantly, he was named the Male Star of Tomorrow at the 2004 Show West convention of movie exhibitors.

Gosling reached a summit of his profession with his performance in Half Nelson (2006), which garnered him an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor. In a short time, he has established himself as one of the finest actors of his generation. Throughout the subsequent decade, he has become all three of an internet fixation, a box office star, and a critical darling, having headlined Blue Valentine (2010), Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011), Drive (2011), The Ides of March (2011), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), The Nice Guys (2016), and La La Land (2016). In 2017, he starred in the long-awaited science fiction sequel Blade Runner 2049 (2017), with Harrison Ford.

Ryan has two children with his partner, actress Eva Mendes.

In the biggest cinematic hit of 2023 "Barbie", Ryan Gosling hilarious performance as Ken, the hunky doll companion of the title character, was the one that caught the full attention of audiences as he was one of those selective few actors who could pull it off playing the perfect man for the perfect Barbie girl. A great looking guy who can do anything, both for the several musical numbers, comedic moments and a couple of dramatic sequences as well such as his heart-pouring sequences where he performs this song, showing that there's a human heart behind the great facade and slightly erratic behavior.

The official music video presents bits from the sequence along with behind the scenes moments of cast, crew and director Greta Gerwig having a fun time on the set, as the full single is played in the background. The whole number by itself is impressive, so what's added to become a little more interesting is seeing how some of those moments were filmed and everybody's fully committed with their routines and they're having a great time.

It's contagious, and always great to see how talented a performed Gosling is and it's also the best song in the whole movie. 10/10.