Ryan Gosling has played many important characters throughout his time in the entertainment industry, wowing us with his talent, passion, and the depth he brings to any role he steps into. However, his upcoming performance in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie might be his most multifaceted character to date — and it solidified to us that we’ll be seeing Barbie before we theater hop to catch Oppenheimer.
Now, hear us out; you might think Gosling is just playing Ken, right? It’s a movie about a fantastically plastic existence, and what is so moving about that? The thing is, it’s that very idea that undeniably spurred Gosling forward in his every move, breath, and scene as the character.
Let’s get it out of the way right now; Gosling is a vision. Looking at him is like seeing that perfectly drizzled caramel macchiato coming to you from your favorite Starbucks barista. Seeing him in any film elicits that same magic that happens when you walk into Magic Kingdom and see the castle for the first time, but he’s a lot more than just a perfectly chiseled body and a painfully handsome face.
That, our friends, is precisely what he’s singing about in a new video for his character’s theme song in Barbie, and it’s an emotional plea as much as it is a song about vulnerability.
Ken doesn’t just want Barbie to notice him; he needs it — without her, he feels like just Ken.
“Cause I’m just Ken
Anywhere else I’d be a ten
Is it my destiny to live and die a life of blonde fragility?
I’m just Ken
Where I see love, she sees a friend
What will it take for her to see the man behind the ten and fight for me?”
A few undeniable things happen when you hear Gosling’s voice in “Just Ken,” one of which is the realization that you could keep listening to him all day. His performance in Barbie isn’t his first musical role; he played the incredible Sebastian in La La Land, so we know he has a set of pipes on him, but this is different.
Gosling is taking something that could be laughed off (you know, the way most people laugh at Barbie and Ken in their yellow skates as they pass them in toy aisles) and making it something relatable. Haven’t we all felt like just Ken at some point?
No matter how hard we try or how long our accolade list, something is missing — maybe it’s someone, perhaps it’s confidence, it might even be recognition, but something in our lives has caused us to want to belt out lyrics a lot like “Just Ken,” in our own sad monologue moment.
We might not sound as great as Gosling (or have his stellar abs), but it’s the vulnerability and the heartache as he sings those words that remind us all that Barbie isn’t just a movie about plastic wonder and perfection; it’s about what happens when the facade breaks — it’s about what you cling to when your feet hit the ground, instead of remaining at a perfectly high arch.
You can see Gosling’s emotional, layered, and (if we may be so frank) scorching performance as Ken when Barbie hits theaters on July 21, and like we said above, you’re not wrong for seeing this one first. Oppenheimer will be there waiting for you, we promise!
