Though Barbie hasn't even premiered yet, Ryan Gosling has already excelled at his role as Ken, with co-star Margot Robbie telling Vogue it's "the greatest version of Ryan Gosling ever put on screen," and he has given it his all to fully embody "Kenergy."
Still, while he has the full confidence of his co-star plus his director Greta Gerwig, he still has the very high expectations of his two daughters, who seem to be Barbie fanatics.
The actor has two daughters, Esmeralda Amada, eight, and Amada Lee, seven, with Eva Mendes, who he has been with since 2011.
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Speaking with Entertainment Tonight Canada ahead of the highly-anticipated film's July 21 premiere, Ryan revealed that he hasn't exactly gotten the most approval from his daughters when it comes to Barbie playing time.
"My kids, their Barbies aren't even named 'Barbie,'" he explained, adding: "They all have their own names [and] very complicated lives, backstories, interrelationships, history – you gotta know it all." And good luck if you don't!
He added: "If you are playing with the two that are estranged now for some reason [and you did not know that], it's like, 'Get out of here.'" He further joked: "[The dolls] don't even talk!" continuing: "And by the way, [Ken] works at a grocery store, he's not a fireman. You gotta know [the story lines]."
Not only do Esmeralda and Amada have a lot of say when it comes to their Barbies and their dad, but they also have a lot to do with the roles Ryan chooses to do.
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Since his break-out role in 2004's The Notebook opposite Rachel McAdams, Ryan worked on several movies a year until 2014, the year he welcomed his first daughter, and he had an Oscar-nominated role in La La Land the same year. But after 2018, he didn't work on anything for four years, until 2022's The Gray Man.
"I wanted to spend as much time as I could with them," he explained to GQ, and now that he is deep into his acting comeback, he's trying his best to still keep it that way. Today he has found a better work-life balance and intends to be both a present dad and a working actor, and it's exactly why he has chosen to work on only one movie a year, because each time he's filming on location, it means a move away from that family's California home for everyone.
While working on The Gray Man, which filmed in Los Angeles, Paris, and Prague, Eva, Esmeralda, and Amada all tagged along.
Though the couple do prefer their quiet California life, Ryan did previously admit that he felt more encouraged to take his role in the Netflix action movie because of the opportunity it would give him to expose his girls to different countries and their cultures.
During an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon back in October of 2022, he told the late night host: "I'm like a dad first, and part of the reason for doing the film was this opportunity for us to go to these interesting places and be there with my kids."
Barbie was filmed both in California and Hertfordshire, so the Gosling-Mendes bunch spent some time living in London last year.
Ryan also recently worked on The Fall Guy, which temporarily relocated his family to Sydney. With its plot remains under wraps, the film – presumably based on a popular 1980s TV series starring Lee Majors about a stuntman-turned-bounty-hunter – also stars Hannah Waddingham, Emily Blunt, Stephani Hsu, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Filming wrapped in March 2023, and a premiere is slated for spring 2024.