Ryan Gosling responds to critics who say he’s ‘too old’ to play Ken in ‘Barbie’

‘You ever thought about Ken before this?’ actor says

Ryan Gosling has a “funny” response for critics saying he’s “too old” to play Ken in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie.

In the film, Gosling is cast to portray Ken, the boyfriend of Margot Robbie’s titular Barbie, who journeys to the human world to find true happiness after getting booted from Barbieland.

Ever since the first trailer featuring the 42-year-old actor was released, people started voicing their opinion on how Gosling appeared to be “too old” to play Ken.

On Wednesday (31 May), the La La Land star addressed the comments.

“If people don’t want to play with my Ken, there are many other Kens to play with,” he told British GQ.

“It is funny,” he said. “This kind of clutching-your-pearls idea of, like, #notmyken. Like you ever thought about Ken before this?” given that “for 60 years, (Ken’s) job has been beach” and that “everyone was fine with that, for him to have a job that is nothing”.

“But suddenly, it’s like, ‘No, we’ve cared about Ken this whole time.’ No, you didn’t. You never did. You never cared,” he said. “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.”

Gosling admitted that he “cares about this dude now”.

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“I’m like his representative. ‘Ken couldn’t show up to receive this award, so I’m here to accept it for him’,” he said.

Elsewhere in the interview, Gosling also spoke about his preferred method of acting.

The Nice Guys star compared his preferred method is “escape room style”, referencing the popular activity where participants are locked in a room and given a series of clues and puzzles to solve in order to escape.

Barbie will be released in cinemas on 21 July.