With the Academy deeming his performance to be kenough to earn him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Ryan Gosling’s turn as Ken in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is sure to go down as one of the proudest portrayals of his career.
But he couldn’t have done it without his number one inspiration for the character, who sadly is no longer with us, according to Gosling’s daughters.
In a recent interview with Variety, Gosling revealed that the Ken doll owned by his daughters—the same Ken doll he famously found lying naked and face-down in the mud after reading Barbie‘s script for the first time—apparently died of “armpit arthritis” following Barbie‘s historic theatrical run, a death that proves better than any that the universe has a wicked sense of humor, and that even the significantly less-jointed of us aren’t safe from the ruthless clutches of arthritis.
He told them,
“He was wearing a tuxedo, albeit a sleeveless one, and I asked my daughters, ‘What happened?’ And they said, ‘Oh, he died of armpit arthritis. Ken’s dead!’”
As Gosling glanced at the new-and-improved-but-also-deceased Ken doll, however, a wave of satisfaction washed over him:
“I was like, ‘Well, at least he’s face up and wearing clothes.’ I feel like he was a little better off than where I found him.”
And it would take a real crank to disagree with Gosling there; the actor managed to bring a measuredly-bombastic hilarity to a character that had no personality to start out with, complete with a Grammy-and-Oscar-nominated musical number and a deft understanding of Gerwig’s cleverly incisive material.
In the meantime, it’s armpits out in memory of the Ken doll that once resided in Gosling’s home, and if any of those nominations end up turning into wins, we’re sure Ken will be smiling down on the actor, mainly because he isn’t capable of any other facial expression.
(featured image: Warner Bros. Pictures)
