Movie fans have eagerly awaited this moment, andBarbieis finally in theaters. Between all the different Barbies and other characters, the movie is filled with great acting, fromMargot Robbie’s charisma toAmerica Ferrera’s honesty, but one that is just as great isRyan Goslingas Ken. He plays the part of a perfect goofball, one that we can’t help but like as he follows Barbie around trying to impress her. After years of seeing him play more serious roles in big productions, it’s quite refreshing to be able to laugh at silly stuff with him.
Switching between the dramatic and comedic is not an easy thing, and usually, we see actors devote themselves to specializing in one aspect of their craft. It takes a truly great artist to be able to walk all the different worlds that truly great acting requires, and Ryan Gosling has been able to do it quite effortlessly — and we don’t give him enough credit for that. When talking about him, movies likeLa La LandandThe Notebookmay come to mind first, and those are not comedies per se, but even then he manages to imprint some comedic qualities to his roles.
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What Is It That Makes Ryan Gosling Such a Good Comedic Actor?
There are plenty of examples in the industry of actors that are specialized comedians who also turn out to be great at drama.Jim Carrey,Jennifer Aniston, andRobin Williams, just to name a few. But the other way around is not something we see as often, and they are usually seen as godlike outliers, likeTom HanksandMeryl Streep. But Ryan Gosling is up there among them,having starred in comedies, romances, and dramaswithout leaving anything to be desired in any of them, so how come he’s not seen as one of the greats?
Maybe because Gosling is a product of an era that’s closer to us, one that’s more difficult to romanticize. He started out as a boy inThe All-New Mickey Mouse Clubwhen television was already a thing. While most actors usually go through the theater first, he went straight to television and the entertainment industry itself. Versatility is key in this business, and kids' shows usually demand performances that are more lighthearted, sassier, and even sillier than dramatic. It’s the same background that makesJustin Timberlakesuch a versatile entertainer, but,while Gosling can also sing and dance very well, he stuck to acting.
Learning comedic chops at such a young age is likely what helped him develop his more dramatic skills later on, not the other way around. Comedic roles often bring actors too close to the emotion, and that’s what makes it a good starting point, as comedy evokes one of the purest and simplest emotions we have, which is joy. If you may make someone laugh, you probably can make them cry, too, be it either out of positive or negative emotions, and there’s no better time to learn and retain skills than when we’re young.
Comedy Is Context, and Ryan Gosling Perfectly Captures This Notion
One of Ryan Gosling’s funniest bits is in the iconicSaturday Night Livesketch, “Papyrus.” He plays a guy who finally gets that the Papyrus font is one of the biggest clichés in Hollywood and obsesses over it. That’s ridiculous, but he plays it so dramatically, that’s what makes it funny. That’s because comedy is not just cracking jokes, a great deal of it is about context. What makes “Papyrus” funny isn’t necessarily the jokes, but Gosling’s performance and the absurdity of the story. He did it so well, theAvatarPR team actually changed the font for the re-release of the movie and its sequel,The Way of Water— yes, we all saw what you did,James Cameron.
Evenhis most serious roleshave funny contexts.La La Landis a romance musical, but when Mia (Emma Stone) finds Sebastian (Gosling) playing keyboards for an ’80s cover band at a party, that’s comedy. Their first dance number together also starts because of their constant picking on one another, turning their animosity into identification. Another example of an even more serious role that does carry some funny undertones is inDrive, where Gosling plays an unnamed getaway driver that seldom speaks. Right in the beginning, he goes to Shannon’s (Bryan Cranston) chop shop to pick up a car for his next mission. Shannon is super talkative and offers Driver all the pills a person can imagine, but Driver is silent the whole time. It may not be a laugh-out-loud kind of moment, but it certainly is amusing.
When he does more comedy-oriented roles, that’s when we get to see how truly funny he can be. Rom-comCrazy, Stupid, Loveis definitely one of his best comedic roles, one that has him play it the other way around: a genuinely funny person that sees himself as serious. He plays Jacob, who’s coaching Cal (Steve Carrell) in the ways of single life, with a sequence in the mall that’s incredible because Jacob is being dead serious when telling him he’ll never wear New Balance shoes again. Or maybe when Cal pulls out his wallet and Jacob is disgusted at the object. At that moment, the character is wearing sunglasses, so Gosling pulls out a reaction of disgust without with his eyes covered. Truly one of the greatest comedic reactions of our era.
So even in comedy movies, what makes Gosling such a great actor is how nuanced he can perform his characters. Sure, Jacob can be somewhat slapstick, but that only works because he takes himself seriously. Sebastian playing in a 80s cover band inLa La Landis the same. In fact, even his over-the-top reactions inBlade Runner 2049are funny to a point, becoming memes and stickers, as well as the whole ofLars and the Real Girl, in which he plays a man who’s in love with a sex doll — but for real. The absurdity in situations such as these makes them go full-circle, becoming amusing despite being totally serious.
What Makes Ryan Gosling the Perfect Ken?
Ken is different from all the roles Ryan Gosling had to play before, both dramatic and comedic. He has to be artificial, but full of purpose at the same time. It also takes a lot of not taking one’s self too seriously, which is another requirement for being good at comedy, and Gosling nails all of these aspects on-screen. This can be attested bythe very way in which he agreed to the part, after finding a Ken doll face-down in the mud next to a squished lemon. He tells this in a very dramatic way, but it’s all about the funnier undertones.
InBarbie, Ken’s sole purpose in life is to impress Margot Robbie’s character, but he also has a pretty deep journey of self-discovery. This poses a challenge for actors not as well-versed in comedy as Gosling, because one of Ken’s key traits is being childish and overly exaggerated. He’s a toy made for children, so he can’t be serious, even though he thinks he is. Also,it combines comedy, drama, singing and dancing, all of which we know him to be perfect at.
Never mind about his age, this is a role that requires someone to be like a kid in the body of a man, and Gosling has got both the looks and the comedic chops for it. As one of the most complete actors of his generation, we remember him too much for the action roles or the dramatic ones, butcomedy is definitely where he shines the brightest, and Ken’s the ultimate proof.
