Global Courant
As he made his way down the candy pink carpet ahead of the Toronto premiere of Barbie, Ryan Gosling reflected on his younger self – the hip-hop-dancing, silky shirt-sporting, wearing hammer pants Canadian kid whose energy permeates the actor’s final performance, if there is one movie trailers its only indication.
“That kid had his hustle and he brought me here and I owe him everything. But I wanted to retire him, to relieve myself,” Gosling joked to CBC’s Eli Glasner.
“I thought I should pull him out of retirement one more time for one last heist, and we made this movie together.”
The movie in question stars Margot Robbie and Gosling as the famous doll couple Barbie and Ken, directed by Lady Bird and Little Women filmmaker Greta Gerwig. Gerwig co-wrote the script with her partner, filmmaker Noah Baumbach, while Robbie is a producer.
While little is known about the plot of the Mattel-produced comedy—Barbie is banished from Barbieland and embarks on a real-world exploration—the marketing team invested heavily in a wide-ranging publicity campaign ahead of its July 21 release.
Canadian Ryan Gosling stars alongside Margot Robbie in the upcoming Barbie movie. The film is directed by Greta Gerwig, who co-wrote the script with her partner, filmmaker Noah Baumbach. (Michael Cole/CBC)
Barbie was a special experience, says Gosling
“I think I’ve seen a lot of movies at this point,” said Gosling, adding just a few that made for an unforgettable experience. He made sure not to spoil the star-studded film, which stars Will Ferrell, Simu Liu, Issa Rae, Dua Lipa, and Kate McKinnon, among others.
“Sometimes there are moments, there are scenes, there are performances, there are details, but where the whole experience of seeing the movie is unforgettable… (Barbie) is definitely one of them,” said Gosling.
Barbie is Gosling’s second film since 2018, when the actor took a break from Hollywood. When he signed on to play a version of Ken, who is on the brink of an existential crisis, he has to leave his comfort zone. It was “an opportunity to shave my legs, dye my hair, bleach it and just wear neon roller skates, learn how to skate,” he joked.
As for Gerwig, who received two Oscar nominations in 2018 and another in 2020, the London, Ont., born actor believes “she’s at the peak of her abilities. It’s just exciting for an audience, I think, because them in for a great ride.”
“Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, they are just incredible leaders and performers and it’s been so much fun working with them.”
Canadian actor Simu Liu told CBC that the script for Barbie was “the best script I’ve ever read.” (Michael Cole/CBC)
“The best script I’ve ever read,” says Simu Liu
Simu Liu, the film’s other Canadian star, plays a different version of Ken than Gosling’s. “The Kenergy is strong,” he told Glasner, decked out in a pastel green blazer and pink shirt.
The actor said a version of Ken from Mississauga, Ontario, where Liu grew up, would likely come with a gift card to Eastside Mario’s, a bag of popcorn from Kernels, a Jamaican patty and a Laura Secord ice cream cone.
“We’re starting in a place where Kens isn’t necessarily an empowered group of people,” he said. The Kens don’t have a job; all they do is “beach” — a verb in Barbieland — and “get really competitive with each other over really stupid stuff.”
“I think this is the kind of journey that my Ken and all the Kens are on in this movie, like trying to find some kind of existential purpose in the madness that is just beach. Like, what is beach? Is there more to life than just beach?”
Liu, who starred in Kim’s Convenience and Marvel’s Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings before landing the Barbie role, said it was hard to quantify how much Gerwig brought to the table.
“I can say that the script – before any of the sets were built, before this movie ever came out – the script was the best script I’ve ever read,” he said.
“It was so amazing and spectacular and heartbreaking and poignant at the same time.”
