Ryan Gosling has addressed the backlash he received when his casting in the highly anticipated film, Barbie, was revealed.
At the time, younger fans weren’t convinced by his involvement and claimed the 42-year-old actor was “too old” to play Ken opposite Margot Robbie’s Barbie.
Now in a new interview with British GQ, the Oscar-nominated actor laughed off the social media outrage, joking that “nobody cared about Ken” until his casting.
The Hollywood star shared: “I would say, you know, if people don’t want to play with my Ken, there are many other Kens to play with.
“It is funny… this kind of clutching-your-pearls idea of, like, #notmyken. Like you ever thought about Ken before this?... But 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***ed 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.”
While Gosling made light of the social media commentary, he said he was inspired to take on the role after watching his daughters with partner Eva Mendes play with their own Barbie and Ken.
He quipped: “I did see him, like, face down in the mud outside one day, next to a squished lemon and it was like, ‘This guy’s story does need to be told’, you know?”
Aside from poking fun at Ken ahead of Barbie’s release, he earnestly admitted that he found a connection between his childhood self and Ken’s “no-thoughts-just-vibes” character.
The Canadian actor shared: “There’s something about this Ken that really, I think, relates to that version of myself.
“Just, like, the guy that was putting on Hammer pants and dancing at the mall and smelling like Drakkar Noir and Aqua Net-ing bangs. I owe that kid a lot. I feel like I was very quick to distance myself from him when I started making more serious films.
“But the reality is that, like, he’s the reason I have everything I have.”
