Ryan Gosling is no longer interested in acting roles that will put him in a “dark place,” and now chooses his parts with his wife, Eva Mendes, based on what they feel will be “best for all of us… with our family in mind first.”
The comments came in a new interview Gosling gave to WSJ Magazine, touching on the success of last year’s Barbie and his role in The Fall Guy. Addressing roles he’s played in recent years, Gosling explained that he’s focused on things that will preserve his mental health for the sake of Mendes and their two children.
“I don’t really take roles that are going to put me in some kind of dark place,” he said (per Variety). “[I try] to read the room at home and [what feels like] is going to be best for all of us. The decisions I make, I make them with Eva and we make them with our family in mind first.”
Continuing, Gosling highlighted the 2016 musical La La Land as “the first” film role he chose with his family-friendly philosophy. “It was just sort of like, ‘Oh, this will be fun for them, too, because even though they’re not coming to set, we’re practicing piano every day or we’re dancing or we’re singing,’” he said.
Referencing Barbie, Gosling shared an adorable anecdote about the film synchronizing perfectly with his daughters’ pastimes. “They were already making little movies about their Barbies on the iPad when [I was cast as Ken],” he said. “So, the fact that I was going off to work to make one too, we just felt like we were aligned.”
More than being on the same wavelength, though, Gosling explained that his daughters inspired his approach to playing Ken. “Their interest in Barbie and their disinterest in Ken was an inspiration.”
For more, read the full interview with WSJ Magazine here.
Meanwhile, The Fall Guy arrives tomorrow, May 3rd. Last month, Gosling appeared on Saturday Night Live to bid farewell to Barbenheimer, where he also imitated Beavis and Butt-Head with Mikey Day (a bit they reprised for The Fall Guy premiere this week).