Everyone knows Barbie is the ultimate toy — Ken dolls just don’t compare. Even if your dad is Ryan Gosling, who plays Ken in the movie, the toy just isn’t as fun as Barbie and all her many variations. Gosling recently revealed that his daughters Esmeralda, 9, and Amada, 7, with Eva Mendes are not at all into Ken, and it’s so relatable.
“I knew that they loved [that I play this role in ] because they kept saying at first, ‘Hey, can we go to Target?’” he told
at the 2024 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. “And we go to Target, and then they’d slowly go by the Barbie aisle. And my wife and I sort of realized, ‘OK, I think it’s time to let them have Barbies.’ And no interest in Ken, which was pretty interesting, too.”
Poor guy! To be fair, Barbie is iconic in a way that Ken’s just…not. And if you’ve seen the movie, you know just how important it is for Ken to not think too highly of himself (the Mojo Dojo Casa House is evidence enough).
star also shared that they haven’t even seen the movie yet. “I don’t know if you should watch your father as Ken,” Gosling told the outlet.
“I don’t know what age is a good age to see your father do that. It gets pretty crazy.”
Although, they have seen part of it when they visited their dad on set. “They’ve seen little parts of it and they came to set one day when I did a big musical number,” he admitted. I’m sure they will love it — even if they like Margot Robbie’s character better.
In June, Gosling told that his daughters take their Barbie dolls very seriously (as they should!). “My kids, their Barbies aren’t even named ‘Barbie.
’ They all have their own names [and] very complicated lives, backstories, interrelationships, history — you gotta know it all,” he told the outlet. “If you are playing with the two that are estranged now for some reason [and you did not know that], it’s like, ‘Get out of here.’”
He added that the Barbies “don’t even talk!” “And by the way,” he continued, “[Ken] works at a grocery store, he’s not a fireman. You gotta know [the story lines].”
At
world premiere in July, Gosling told that his daughters “helped” him with the film. “They’ve seen a lot pieces of [the film], and helped me a lot with it,” he said. “They were huge inspiration for me.” Can you imagine? That sounds so sweet!
The “I’m Just Ken” singer continued, “Well, it was, I think, weird enough for them that I played Ken anyway. I might like, you know, just hold off on them seeing the full Kenergy.”
It’s OK, Ryan. Even if your daughters don’t love your character, you are still Kenough!
