‘Barbie’ Movie: Ryan Gosling Knows He Has Big Ken-ergy

Barbie is a movie from Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach that promises us the camp of the ’80s Barbie thanks to Margot Robbie’s take on the character, along with her bleach blonde boy toy Ken, played by Ryan Gosling. And while we know very little about the movie as a whole, we do know that it seems like the cast is having the time of their lives making this movie, and can you blame them? It’s a childhood dream come true for me just watching them make it. Actually being in the movie can only be that much better.

Now that Ryan Gosling is on the press tour for his latest film The Gray Man, where he stars opposite Chris Evans who, at one point in the movie, even calls him a Ken Doll, he’s been getting a lot of questions about Barbie. Because again, we don’t know much about the movie, so any bit of information we can get from the cast and crew is helpful to figure out what Gerwig and Baumbach have in store for us. One of the things that Gosling has taken to saying recently, though, is that he always thought he’d play Ken because he has, and I quote, “Ken-ergy.” Yes, meaning Ken energy. And you know what? He’s not wrong.

As always, Josh Horowitz has the best interviews (made better by the fact that he just seems to be having a great time while he’s doing them). And this time, he sat down to talk with Ryan Gosling about The Gray Man and got the quote of the century from Gosling. “There’s always been a Ken inside of me. I’ve had this Ken-ergy, if you will,” Gosling said to a laughing Horowitz, and thus became the worst thing ever to happen to me: thinking about Ryan Gosling saying “Ken-ergy” and loving it.

Not once but twice, Gosling has brought up his Ken-ergy. Outside of talking with Horowitz, he also sat down with the BBC The One Show to talk about the movie and brought up partner Eva Mendes. When asked about what she thought about the look, Gosling said, “She’s been very supportive. She’s supporting my Ken-ergy. She started a hashtag #ThatsMyKen, which meant a lot to me.” And what can he tell us about the Barbie movie? “You know, I can tell you that I think Gray Man would be Ken’s favorite movie.”

The promise of Barbie

I don’t know what it is about Barbie as a movie, but there’s something so incredibly fun about this movie that has just roped me into its world and refuses to let go. Maybe it is my own love/hate relationship with the toy (and the body image issues I attribute to her), or maybe it’s just the fact that it’s something I grew up with, so I know a lot about Barbie and her world, but this movie is high up on my list of things I’m excited for.

Pair that with Gosling’s attitude about playing Ken, and it’s just a match made in heaven. Part of me is glad we don’t know much about this movie because I’m fine with being left in the dark. I like that we know nothing about it because it’s just one of those movies that seems too good to be true, and if it means knowing nothing until a trailer? Fine by me! At least we know that Ryan Gosling has the Ken-ergy to pull it off.

(featured image: Jaap Buitendijk/Warner Bros.)