Ryan Gosling is full of surprises, as Barbie co-star Margot Robbie and director Greta Gerwig have recently discovered.
For GQ magazine’s “Wet Hot” summer cover, after posing in a neon pink button-down and flattering leather, Gosling speaks to GQ‘s Zach Baron in regards to his career thus far and once-in-a-lifetime role as Ken. Similarly, Greta Gerwig, director of WB’s upcoming Barbie movie, shared some anecdotes about her male lead. The below snippet is in context with a sleepover hosted for all the Barbie actors, including Gosling, who couldn’t make it.
Even though he couldn’t be in attendance, Gerwig assures that Gosling was there in spirit — in the most unpredictable way possible. Assuming Gosling hadn’t met a large number of the cast members prior, it’s rather amusing to know that this might have very well been many actors’ first impression of him.
“On the phone one day, Greta Gerwig tells me a story. This takes place before Barbie begins shooting, when she and Robbie are hosting a sleepover for the actors who play the different Barbies in the cast. The Kens are also invited to stop by, but Gosling can’t make it. Midway through there’s a knock at the door. ‘And this man, this Scottish man, in a full kilt, showed up and played the bagpipes,’ Gerwig says. He says that Gosling had sent him. ‘And then he read a speech from Braveheart. And then he left.
When I ask Gosling why Braveheart, and specifically why the moment when Mel Gibson tells a bunch of sons of Scotland that the English may take our lives but they’ll never take our freedom, he says, ‘Well, sometimes, you just need to hear it.’ Gerwig says that Gosling ‘always can sense very quickly what would be the most delightfully funny thing to do next. And then he does it.'”
Not the most conventional way to introduce oneself, is it? But Gosling doesn’t seem too fazed. If nothing else, it’ll give the Barbie actors a story to spin to their children or grandchildren, as well as an unforgettable experience working on a movie that might change the Hollywood agenda as we know it.
Barbie arrives in theaters on July 21, 2023.