The Academy Awards are over and the Barbie movie hype is finally fading… or is it? When Ryan Gosling stopped by The Tonight Show on Thursday night, he shared some rare intel about just how involved his daughters were in the development of his Ken character — and in his Oscar night performance of “I’m Just Ken”— and it was hard not to hang on every word.
Host Jimmy Fallon asked if the kids liked the movie and if they got to go behind the scenes, and Gosling shared just how involved they were in the process.
“It was their interest in Barbie and their disinterest in Ken that started all of this,” he said to laughter. “It’s really been a team effort. They were on the film, and they were on the set on the number.”
But while they were an important part of him even taking the role, he continued to involve them simply because it was a big part of his life, and he wanted them to understand.
“A lot of this has had no context for them,” he said. “It’s just a lot of fake tan stains around the house. So I wanted them to come to the dress rehearsal so that they had some sort of context for what was going on.”
By the end, they were Kenning it up just as much as their dad, if not more.
“They know all of the choreography better than I do. And the songs. They’re backstage, showing me,” he laughed.
Gosling shares his two daughters, Esmeralda, 9, and Amada, 7, with actor Eva Mendes. The superstar pair keep their lives comparatively private — and even moved their girls outside of Hollywood recently in order to keep them out of the limelight in an effort to give them a more normal childhood. But it sounds like they still got to enjoy the amazing ride their dad went on playing Ken.
Many people agree that Barbie was snubbed at the Oscars, and while the movie did win Best Song, it was for Finneas and Billie Eilish’s song “What Was I Made For?” and not “I’m Just Ken.” Still… it’s clear that the live performance of “I’m Just Ken” was a highlight of Oscar night, and Gosling’s portrayal of Ken will live on for a long time.
Fallon also spoke to Gosling about how he’ll be hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend for the third time in his career — and that one of his last appearances was how he landed his role in Barbie in the first place. Writer and director Greta Gerwig apparently saw him in a sketch and knew he was right for the role.
Watch the interview in full below.
