Ryan Gosling
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Ryan Gosling was honored by the Santa Barbara Film Festival on Saturday evening and used his speech to reflect on his long journey to Ken.
Accepting the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film at a dinner in Santa Barbara, Gosling mused: “Up until that point I had only ever thought about how much cinema had done for me, I had never really thought about what “I should do it.” I did it for the cinema.”
He recalled how he had a problem with swearing in third grade (joking: “I didn't think it was a problem, but my teachers did, and I just thought they were a bunch of uptight moms – wait a minute. “) and difficulties at school. Until one of his teachers scheduled weekly visits to the library and made a deal that for every book the actor read, he could rent a movie from the library collection.
The films “broadened my horizons, but they also taught me how to dream, or at least how to dream bigger,” Gosling continued. “That whole experience, the filmmakers, the actors making up their own stories, my mother pulling me out of school to show me how to make up my own story – from a young age, film had opened a door , which led to a world where daydreaming existed. That doesn't mean you're wasting time, it's that you're doing your job. A job I couldn't wait to do, a job I jumped at right away – if you count putting on killer pants and dancing at the mall or singing “When a Man Loves a Woman” during the garter belt ceremony at weddings.”
Gosling praised his Barbie director Greta Gerwig, who was in attendance at the event, for never letting the film's cast forget how lucky they are to work in Hollywood, noting, “I for one was so lucky . I got to fly to the moon, be a motorcycle bank robber, a getaway driver, waltz through the stars, be an elementary school teacher – albeit addicted to crack -, become a replicant from the future, a gangster from the past, a stuntman in love, and finally, thanks to Greta, a 70-year-old doll without a crotch,” bursts into laughter at the podium.
Gerwig presented Gosling with his honor, praising him for his performance as Ken and praising, “He's such a delicious and unexpected combination of genius.”
“He has the searing intensity of Marlon Brando, he has the exquisite comedic touch of John Barrymore, the tragic realism of Montgomery Clift and the virtuoso showmanship of John Travolta and the sly wit of Gene Wilder,” Gerwig added.
Steve Carell, who worked with Gosling on “Crazy Stupid Love” and “The Big Short,” was also on hand to talk about the star. He recalled that the two once discussed their plans for the weekend and Gosling said his band was playing a gig on a Friday night at a senior center in Glendale.
“Isn’t that just adorable? “A movie star would have told this story on a talk show, used it, got some juice out of it, monetized it, maybe it would go viral as a GIF or a meme, #RyanAtTheSeniorCenter,” Carell deadpanned, “But not Ryan Gosling, he just did it to make a few old people happy. And I find that annoying as hell.”