The enjoyment you got while watching the Barbie trailer? That’s how Ryan Gosling felt once he tapped into his “Ken-ergy.”
While appearing at CinemaCon 2023 on Tuesday, the actor, who plays Ken to Margot Robbie’s Barbie in director Greta Gerwig’s colorful comedy, discussed his, uh, process for the role. “Up until this point, I only knew Ken from afar. I didn’t know Ken from within. I doubted my Ken-ergy. I didn’t see it. But Margot and Greta conjured this out of me,” he said. It’s a different kind of “Ken-ergy” than what Jeremy Strong brings to playing Ken(dall) on Succession.
Gosling showed his appreciation for Gerwig through his shirt.
Gosling compared stepping onto the Barbie set for the first time to The Wizard of Oz. “I think I finally know what Dorothy felt like,” he said. It’s a fitting comparison, as Gerwig was inspired by Technicolor musicals while making the film. Also, disco. “We had a bunch of references. Disco was a big part of this. This assumption is when people get together they want to dance,” she said.
Gerwig talked about writing the screenplay with her long-time partner Noah Baumbach. “We were making each other laugh and then we got to the end and we started to make each other cry. He thought it was very good and was maybe wanting to direct it,” she told the crowd. “And I said, ‘Step aside.’ There was a point I was so in love with it that I couldn’t imagine anyone else doing it.”
Barbie opens on July 21st.
(Via Variety)