column | Ryan Gosling is searching for his inner Ken

Could Ryan Gosling, 42, play Kane in the camp spectacle barbie, That’s the gist of #NotMyKen, one of those troll hashtags that has become news. Like being 42 years old for a plastic doll. But it hits the actor, explains his big comeback interview in GQ. The hashtag is hypocritical, according to Gosling, because no one really cares about Kane. If you care about Ken like he does, you’ll know it.

barbie Five years after his final role as astronaut Neil Armstrong in The Block, Ryan Gosling is back in cinema first man, He was already back in action film on Netflix last year the gray manAnd that’s his plan: one movie a year from now, followed by an action movie. the fall guy, After two Oscar nominations, Gosling seems to be done with his introverted, artistic bachelor self. Like Tom Cruise, he opts for action in his forties.

After his years as a homebody with wife Eva Mendes — his last role dates from 2014 — and their two daughters, Gosling no longer views acting as therapy but as work, he says in GQ. This is his second acting break. In 2004, the dreamily aloof Gosling broke down as an unexpected heartthrob. NotebookThen he chose risky roles, such as the persuasive teacher in Crackdown. half Nelson which earned him his first Oscar nomination.

Afterwards lars and the real girl (Young Man Fall for Sex Doll) In 2007 he devoted himself to children’s music, dance and furniture design for two years. When I saw him in Cannes in 2011 with his film To drive There was a Gosling promotion on the way. That year he declined the title of ‘Sexiest Man Alive’, but Clooney was the only young actor with the allure, Pitt and Cruise. absent glance, crooked smile, sly humor; Don’t ask me questions like you’re my psychiatrist, she warned. He has professional confidentiality, while you want to share my secrets with the whole world. We avoided sticky questions, Gosling didn’t say much. “Ryan is a star whether he likes it or not,” director friend Nicolas Winding Refn later said.

But did he want to be a star? Gosling cast more insiders in quality films like the Ides of March And the place Beyond the Pinesand directed the arthouse film in 2014 lost river, mercilessly thrashed by the film press at Cannes. big movies like The Nice Guys, Blade Runner 2049 And first man Despite positive reviews, it did not become a hit. Only La la Land In fact.

Actress Margot Robbie says she begins to worry. Gosling once fled through Disney to his Canadian town of Cornwall, which smelled like rotten eggs because of a paper mill. His inspiration was his uncle, a factory worker and Elvis impersonator: funny, but infectious. However, when Disney cast her in The Mickey Mouse Club, she starred alongside Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera. Next to him, Gosling looked pale; She distanced herself from the goofy, provincial teen dancing in the mall. Now he says that he is again looking for that spirited fool. “Because I owe everything to him.”

So his inner Kane? Ryan Gosling is finally set to be a movie star. It’s a pity that the new, ingenuous Gosling will probably turn out to be such an ironic action hero of about forty, of whom there are already too many. And the film has suffered a lot.

koen van zwolle Film editor.