Ryan Goslingbrought Barbie's boyfriend, Ken, to the big screen in the 2023 hit, Barbie.
While Gosling's live-action version of the doll ended up getting acclaim, he originally wasn't all that interested in taking on the role. During a March 2026 interview with Fuera de Foco, Gosling was asked if he ever thought about saying no or had to be convinced to join a project that ended up being transformative.
"I think maybe Barbie," replied Gosling.
He explained that he didn't believe his "first instinct was to do" Barbie, directed and co-written by Greta Gerwig. Gosling said, however, that he felt inspired to accept the role of Ken after he saw his and his wife, Eva Mendes' two daughters, play with Barbie dolls.
"I could see how much playing with Barbies was doing for my kids, you know, because they were able to act out such was going in a larger world with their dolls, so it ended up being a way to process the world," said the Project Hail Mary star in the March 2026 interview. "And I think that's what Greta was doing in the script. She was trying to take some of these larger ideas and use dolls to tell the story. And I just thought there was such an interesting marriage there."
He then said he eventually realized that while playing Ken was "going to be hard to do," he wanted to be a part of the movie.
"Maybe my instinct was to say no, but I thought this is a good challenge," continued the 45-year-old actor.
Gosling mentioned his daughters' Barbies served as inspiration for him to take on the role of Ken in a 2023 interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. He said after he read the Barbie script, he "walked out in the backyard" and realized his children's Ken doll was facedown in the mud next to a squished lemon." According to Gosling, he immediately contacted Gerwig to let her know he wanted to play Ken.
"I texted [the photo] to Greta and I said, 'I shall be your Ken. For his story must be told,'" quipped the Notebook star.
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