Ryan Gosling hasn’t allowed his daughters to watch the Barbie movie. Esmerelda, 9, and Amada, 7, are Ryan’s two kids with his actress wife, Eva Mendes.
At the 2024 Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Ryan talked with E! News and admitted that, although they were a major factor in his decision to take the role of Ken, he still feels conflicted about them seeing him in the movie.
“I’m not sure if you ought to see your dad in the role of Ken,” he made a joke, saying, “I’m not sure what age is appropriate to see your father do that.”
Still, his girls had the opportunity to visit Barbieland and see their father in action.
“They came to set one day when I performed a big musical number, and they’ve seen little bits of it,” he said.
Making Barbie, according to Ryan, “was a way to sort of make something both for and with them.”
“At first, they kept asking if they could go to Target, so I knew they loved it,” he recounted.
“And then we head to Target, and they stroll by the Barbie section. After that, my spouse and I concluded that it was probably time to give them Barbies. And there was no curiosity in Ken, which was also rather intriguing.
During the same interview with E!, Ryan also mentioned his wife and expressed his desire to perform on stage with her once more. Ryan said that working on the film “was the greatest experience I had making a film.” The two met while filming ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ in 2012.
While accepting his Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film at the film festival, Ryan gave an affectionate shout-out to Eva. He called Eva Mendes, the girl of his dreams. He also affectionately mentioned his daughters, “the dream kids.” Ryan always dreamed of working in movies. Now, the movies had given him his dream life.
“So the way I see it, there’s no way I’ve contributed half as much to cinema as cinema has contributed to me,” he added.