AND strange to think that, one Christmas, I built a Barbie house for my daughters and then found myself in it. On a trip to Barbieland, there and back.” It’s difficult to find yourself in front of Ryan Gosling, even though he’s back in jeans and a sweatshirt, without thinking of his Ken in Greta Gerwig’s film or on the last night of the Oscars where she sang and danced I’m Just Ken in a fuchsia sequinned suit amidst the laughter of his colleagues. Which other great actor would have lent himself to a pop star show, challenging the snobbery of arthouse cinema? George Clooney? Brad Pitt? As witty as they are, it’s hard to say. The beauty of Gosling is not – or at least not only – in his quality as a performer and in his attractiveness that makes fans scream like in the Beatles’ days. It is in the self-irony that grew up with him in a strange zigzag career, which began at a very young age in programs such as The Mickey Mouse Club of Disney Channel, which blossomed into indie cinema at the age of twenty ( The Believer, Half Nelson ), which reached 30 in titles for the general public ( La La Land, Blade Runner 2049) and then get to the turning point of 40 yearswhen in the suspended time of the pandemic he accepted the role that started his most “pop” phase.
In fact it is in cinemas with another company that aspires to hit the box office. The Fall Guy by David Leitch is the story of a budding director (Emily Blunt) and a stuntman – like Leitch himself before shooting Blonde atomic or Bullet Train – who fall in love on the set, amidst fake explosions and adventure scenarios. The 43-year-old Canadian actor plays Colt, a super-gym who finishes every stunt with a smile and thumbs up and, between a run in flames and a car rollover, he also makes the audience smile. She breaks windows, dusting off the shards as if they were dandruff but, off stage, she reveals herself to be fragile in body and feelings. «My favorite films are the ones that feel like real life even if what happens on the screen is extraordinary and unthinkable in everyday life” says he, enthusiastic about the story to the point of wanting to produce it. «Colt does not correspond to the cliché of the invincible man. If in front of others you can pretend that everything is fine, true courage is accepting your deep fears. Vulnerability, the fear of being rejected. Play them down, too: he is funny because he is a clumsy person, especially in his feelings, and reflects what we all feel in critical moments of married life. Together with Emily Blunt and the director we modified scenes and lines even during filming, to make them more real or add humor».
«ACTING WAS BEFORE
A THERAPEUTIC EXPERIENCE
AND I DID IT FOR ME.
TODAY I WORK FOR THE JOY OF THE PUBLIC
AND I LIKE IT MORE”
That sui generis humor that also shines through in the actor’s story, at times surreal, and above all in his way of telling it. Without omitting the difficulties linked to his humble origins. Son of a businessman and a secretary separated since he was 13 years oldboth Mormons, Ryan grows up in Cornwall, Ontario, and is an outsider at school, perhaps also due to an attention deficit never diagnosed. He is dragged onto the stage by Uncle Bill, an Elvis Presley impersonator. «I was 7 or 8 years old, he made me do banal things like handing him a teddy bear during the show. And even though I didn’t dream of being an actor then, one day he promised me that I would win an Oscar. It was the first time I heard about it.” In order not to disappoint his uncle, who had bought an expensive album to collect photos of his successes, Ryan starts singing at weddings and in shopping malls with his sister, and then goes on to auditions. He is taken in local programs like Say “cheese” and then you die, where he takes photos with a camera that shows the imminent bad end of whoever is immortalized. At 12 he gets a contract to The Mickey Mouse Club on Disney Channel together with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake. «All prodigies except me. I don’t know why they wanted me but they quickly regretted it: they dressed me as a hamster, put me in the background. And to think that my mother was with me in Florida for months and everyone looked down on us because we had a camper with wheels, while those who made it had them taken away.».
This is also why he identifies with characters like Colt or Ken and their desire for recognition: both tell of the roller coaster of the profession between moments of glory and failure. «Pride arrives before the fall and no one imagines that it remains afterwards» says the stunt man, after an accident that breaks his back and his self-esteem. When we ask Gosling if he remembers a setback in his career that has hurt him more than others, he says: «I’m trying to understand how to answer while remaining vague: I really don’t want to be the one to highlight them!» laughs. “After all, The Fall Guy It tells of that falling and getting back up that happens to everyone in life. The difficulties helped me understand who I was and what I could do.” Now he is even more aware of it. «I made independent and arthouse films, but I grew up watching blockbusters. Before, acting was a research that I did especially for myself and was also therapeutic. Today I work for the joy of the public and I am happy to make the type of cinema that inspired me as a boy. Made of fun, entertainment and strong emotions».
Unlike the protagonist, ready to express weaknesses and feelings as men rarely do even in fiction, the actor doesn’t open up so easily and seems to use his own sympathy as a screen. Ten years ago he made his directorial debut with a very personal filmThe Lost River, which seemed to enclose its ghosts in a black and violent story among the crumbling buildings of Detroit. Having set aside his directing projects, he said he found his family life more fulfilling, alongside his wife Eva Mendes and his two daughters, Esmeralda Amada and Amada Lee, aged 9 and 8, Ken’s two abusers who pushed him to accept the role. «One day I saw the doll thrown face down on the ground and I thought: “This guy’s story needs to be told”. From ballet he then moved on to the acrobatics of The Fall Guy where he played the stunt of a certain, very famous, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). A reference, or perhaps a challenge, to Tom Cruise? «Absolutely not, because Cruise is inimitable and then I suffer from vertigo: despite having shot some action without stunt doubles it was right to leave room for stunts. They are unknown athletes and yet they risk their lives and their every undertaking is physically painful: when they overturn the car, break windows or pretend to go up in flames. The film pays homage to them and the community of the set. I like seeing Colt jump from the sixth floor and go back to talking to his colleagues or chatting with his girlfriend among the fake bombs.” There is also a film within the film, the one that Emily Blunt’s character directs: the fantasy Metalstorm where the love of a cowboy for an alien is reminiscent of their relationship.
In the homage to the great Hollywood show, heart-pounding cannot be missing. «My favorite joke? “The greatest stunt of all is love”» Gosling tells us. «It is a powerful and pyrotechnic feeling but never idealized, we see it in all its contradictions. For example when she points a gun at me and immediately regrets it, a funny scene but so true in her strangeness. Often the protagonists of love stories are too perfect, they seem fake because the story is so glossy and decorated. Director David Leitch, on the other hand, is as courageous as a filmmaker as he was as a stuntman, because he photographed the insecurity and awkwardness of these two lovers. They are confused, clumsy and messed up, like all of us.” Hollywood’s Private Ryan doesn’t easily tell his love story, but the rare times it happened it painted a picture that was anything but confusing. And very romantic. He and Eva Mendes met in 2011 on the set of Like a thunder by Derek Cianfrance. At the time he never thought of starting a family. «Then my priorities changed. Today I want to spend as much time as possible with Eva and my daughters. Time flies and I don’t want to spend it in the wrong place.” So much so that Ken’s ballets, and the effects of the so-called Kenenergy, were experienced by his family.
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