Mark Ronson, the producer behind the Barbie movie soundtrack, is now opening up about the film in a new interview with Vanity Fair. Specifically, he speaks to Ryan Gosling’s performance as Ken, as a scene of the actor singing “I’m Just Ken” surfaced this week.
“I’m just Ken,” Gosling sings to Margot Robbie’s Barbie character. “Where I see love, she sees a friend. What will it take for her to see the man behind the tan and fight for me?”
Ronson is amused by it all, saying, “You really fall in love with this hapless but immediately sympathetic figure.”
As the brains behind the words of the song, Ronson also laughed upon coming up with the “I’m just Ken / Anywhere else, I’d be a ten” line that didn’t take long to think of.
“It felt a little bit emo, like, ‘This poor guy. He’s so hot, but can’t get the time of day,’” he shared.
“He really got [that] it had to walk this line of not being funny or parody,” Ronson added. “But obviously, the song is also kind of ridiculous at times. So he was really amazing, and when he really did start hitting the big notes, I was like, ‘This dude is a vocal powerhouse!’”
As an early preview from Barbie, check out Ryan Gosling performing “I’m Just Ken” above.