When Ryan Gosling agreed to take on the role of Ken in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, it was largely due to the way that his daughters treated their Ken dolls.
The actor shares 9-year-old Esmerelda and 7-year-old Amada with his wife, Eva Mendes, and has been open about the influence that the little girls had on his latest movie project.
Speaking on The Tonight Show back in 2022, Ryan recalled the pivotal thing that happened right after he read Greta’s script that made him accept the part.
“I walk out in the backyard and you know where I find Ken? Face down in the mud next to a squished lemon,” he told host Jimmy Fallon. “I texted it to Greta and I said: ‘I shall be your Ken, for his story must be told.”
The star later told People that his daughters were his “introduction” to Barbie, and were a huge support after he was cast in the movie — even though they didn’t really understand why he wanted to be involved.
“I think they’re confused as to why I would want to play Ken,” Ryan explained at the time. “They have no use for Ken.”
He later detailed the intricate way that his kids play with their dolls, telling ET Canada ahead of the movie’s release: “My kids, their Barbies aren’t even named ‘Barbie.’ They all have their own names and very complicated lives, backstories, interrelationships, history — you gotta know it all.”
“If you are playing with the two that are estranged now for some reason, it’s like: ‘Get out of here!’” Ryan added, going on to admit that he struggles to keep up with the rules of the game.
But despite Esmerelda and Amada’s obvious enthusiasm for all things Barbie, Ryan recently revealed that he still hasn’t let them watch the global blockbuster that he stars in.
Six months after the movie’s record-breaking release, Ryan has admitted that he doesn’t even know when they will be allowed to watch it — even though they are arguably Barbie’s core demographic.
And when E! News asked what his reason behind this decision is, Ryan simply explained: “I don’t know if you should watch your father as Ken.”
Referencing how wild Ken’s storyline becomes in the film, he added: “I don’t know what age is a good age to see your father do that. It gets pretty crazy.”
While the girls haven’t yet seen the final version of Barbie, Ryan said that they did visit him on set during filming, and were present when he performed his iconic song, “I’m Just Ken.”
“They’ve seen little parts of it,” he said. “They came to set one day when I did the big musical number.”
