Barbie: How Ryan Gosling's SNL Skits Landed Him the Ken Role

Barbie director Greta Gerwig unpacks how Ryan Gosling's appearances on SNL influenced her decision to cast him as the fantasy-comedy's Ken.


Ryan Gosling's Saturday Night Live skits helped land him the Ken role in Barbie, according to the fantasy-comedy's co-writer and director Greta Gerwig.


Gerwig discussed the influence of Gosling's SNL appearances on Barbie's casting process in a recent episode of the SmartLess podcast. "You know those actors you can… just sort of feel that they know what's funny, and I always felt that about [Gosling]," she said. "And then I'm a big fan of all of his SNL [skits], I always thought he was great on SNL… He did 'Guy That Just Got a Boat' on 'Weekend Update,' and it's so good." Gerwig added that she was so convinced that Gosling was the perfect choice to play Ken that she included his name in Barbie's screenplay before she actually met the two-time Academy Award nominee.


Gerwig quickly got to know Gosling after he signed on for Barbie, though. The filmmaker revealed in a recent interview that she and Gosling texted constantly during the production's early stages and soon discovered that they shared an appreciation for Hollywood icon Sylvester Stallone. "When Ryan Gosling and I were texting a lot, we kind of both stumbled upon our mutual love of Sly Stallone," Gerwig said. "And then we were talking about his look in the '70s and how terrific it was. And he really adorned himself as a man. And we thought, 'Well, that's a good place to start [for Ken's discovery of real-world portrayals of masculinity in Barbie]."


Margot Robbie Reveals Her Big Barbie Regret


Gosling also impressed his Barbie co-star Margot Robbie, who recently lamented that she didn't get to lock lips with him at any point in the film's 114-minute runtime. Commenting on Barbie's lack of a Barbie/Ken kiss, Robbie quipped that it "didn't feel like a win for me." The Aussie actor also said that her friends were shocked that she kept proceedings so chaste given her status as one of Barbie's producers. "All of my girlfriends were like, 'Well you did a whole movie with him and you don't kiss? What's wrong with you? I thought you were kind of in charge on this one!'" Robbie recalled.


Robbie may not get another chance at an on-screen kiss with Gosling, either. In a recent interview, Gerwig cast doubt on the possibility of a Barbie sequel, confessing that she currently has no ideas for where Barbie's story could go next.


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