Ryan Gosling Says His Kids Were “Confused” About Why He’d Want to Play Ken in ‘Barbie’

While Ryan Gosling never had any reservations about tackling the role of Ken in the highly anticipated Barbie film (as the actor once said, “His story must be told”), it seems his children didn’t always feel the same way. 

In fact, during a recent interview with People, the A-lister revealed that his daughters Esmeralda and Amada (who he shares with wife Eva Mendes) were actually “confused” about why he would want to play Barbie’s sidekick-slash-companion in the upcoming Greta Gerwig project. 

“My kids were my introduction to [Barbie],” he told the outlet. “I think they're confused as to why I would want to play Ken. They have no use for Ken.”

Ryan then explained that although his kids may have not initially been totally behind the role, they eventually helped him prepare for an especially difficult scene (even if they didn’t realize it). “My kids were around for the months at home, as I was prepping for it, so they, inadvertently, were prepping for it too,” he said. “And they came to set that day and were a huge sense of support and doing it with me off-camera.”

This isn’t the first time that Gosling has had to defend his decision to play Ken when making the publicity rounds. Earlier this summer, he addressed criticisms that he was “too old” to play the iconic doll (in the most hilariously candid way) when sitting down for an interview and cowboy-themed shoot with GQ.

“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 the outlet. “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 fucked with Ken.”

The actor continued, “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.”