Ryan Gosling just wanted to sing, everybody! Mark Ronson, the music producer of the song “I’m Just Ken” from the upcoming Barbie movie, revealed, per People, that the idea to do the ballad performance was Gosling’s, and that director Greta Gerwig rewrote an entire scene so “vocal powerhouse” Gosling could perform the song.
“You really fall in love with this hapless, but immediately sympathetic, figure,” Ronson told Vanity Fair.
Ronson’s inability to find a Ken doll in a sea of Barbies at a toy store is what inspired him to write the power ballad “I’m Just Ken” in the first place. Ronson, who is also the executive producer for the Barbie soundtrack, told Vanity Fair that one of the song’s lyrics, “I’m just Ken / Anywhere else I’d be a 10” came to him instantly.
“It just seemed funny,” he said. “It felt a little bit emo, like, ‘This poor guy. He’s so hot but can’t get the time of day.'"
When Gosling first heard the demo of the song, he was such a fan that he not only agreed to sing the track for the soundtrack but wanted to perform it on film. Ronson said he was worried about how Gerwig might react, but she agreed with Gosling, and liked the ballad so much that she rewrote a pivotal scene in the movie so that Gosling could belt to his heart’s content in the film.
Ronson called Gosling a “vocal powerhouse”: “He really got [that] it had to walk the line of not being funny or parody,” he said. “But obviously, the song is also kind of ridiculous at times. So he was really amazing, and when he really did start hitting the big notes, I was like, ‘This dude is a vocal powerhouse!’”
If you’re dying to see Gosling perform the tune, you’re in luck—it is featured in a new sneak peek from the movie, which is out July 21.
