Ryan Gosling Hits Back At Critics Who Say He’s Too Old To Play Ken In The ‘Barbie’ Movie

The upcoming live-action movie Barbie stars Margot Robbie as Barbie and Ryan Gosling as Ken. While there has been a lot of anticipation surrounding the film, there also has been much criticism regarding Gosling’s age. 

Complaints about Gosling being cast as Ken are due to his being 42 years old. Some fans believe that he is just too old to play Ken – in the animated TV series and movies, Ken seems relatively young. 

Now, Gosling is firing back at the complaints in an interview with GQ. “If people don’t want to play with my Ken, there are many other Kens to play with,” he said. He is referencing the fact that in the movie there are multiple different Kens that are portrayed by different actors, including Ncuti Gatwa, John Cena and Simu Liu.

A social media trend even started from the backlash – #notmyken.

“It is funny, this kind of clutching-your-pearls idea of, like, #notmyken,” he said. “Like you ever thought about Ken before this? And 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. Barbie never fucked with Ken. That’s the point. 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.”

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Gosling now refers to himself as Ken’s representative and declares that he is the one that truly cares about Ken. 

The movie, directed by Greta Gerwig, is set to come out on July 21. It will follow the lives of Barbie and Ken and their lives in Barbie Land and what happens to them when they go to the real world.

Other well-known actors will star in the movie including Will Ferrell, Michael Cera, Kate McKinnon and America Ferrera.

Gosling is known for acting in La La Land, Blade Runner 2049, The Notebook, Half Nelson and other popular films. He has won two Oscars, one for his performance in Half Nelson in 2007 and the second for La La Land in 2017. He additionally won one Golden Globe for his performance in La La Land in 2017. In total, he has been nominated 160 times for various awards and projects and has won 37 of those nominations.