A music video from the Barbie movie, which features Ryan Gosling as Ken singing a solo and Slash from Guns N’ Roses on guitar, has been released. The film about the famous American fashion doll has its UK premiere on July 21.
At the beginning of the Ken music video, Gosling tearfully states: “It’s Barbie and Ken...there is no ‘just Ken’”.
Several Kens and Barbies on pastel backgrounds undertake an array of adventure activities in the video.
The song is about being stuck in the friend-zone by Barbie and the state of his “blonde fragility”.
Gosling, who co-stars in Barbie with Margot Robbie, sings: “I’m just Ken. Where I see love, she sees a friend.”
The song was co-written by the renowned British music producer Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt.
Ronson told Variety how his “all-time hero” Slash came to work on the song. “I sent him the song, and he was like, ‘This is a good song… cool, I’ll play on it.’ He kills it, he plays the solo at the end and the rhythm parts. It’s wonderful,” Ronson said.
“I’m so psyched. We worked on it for about a year after he did the vocals. After I sent him the final version, with Slash on it, he was psyched and satisfied, which is what you want to do when you’re making a sound for someone.”
Aside from Gosling, Simu Liu, Scott Evans, John Cena, Ncuti Gatwa and Kingsley Ben-Adir play different versions of Ken.
Some Barbie fans have mocked Gosling, 42, for being too old to play Ken. The Canadian has playfully defended his casting, however.
“I would say, you know, if people don’t want to play with my Ken, there are many other Kens to play with,” he told GQ magazine.
“It is funny, this kind of clutching-your-pearls idea of, like, #notmyken. Like you ever thought about Ken before this?…suddenly, it’s like, ‘No, we’ve cared about Ken this whole time.
“No, you didn’t. You never did. You never cared. Barbie never f***** with Ken. That’s the point. If you ever really cared about Ken, you would know that nobody cared about Ken. So your hypocrisy is exposed. This is why his story must be told.”
Director Greta Gerwig and Robbie said Gosling was the only choice for the role.
