The role of Ken will be played by Ryan Gosling in the upcoming new Barbie movie, which also stars Margot Robbie and will be directed by Greta Gerwig.
Some people may criticise Ryan Gosling for his wooden acting, but now he has the chance to prove them wrong with a plastic performance as Barbie’s boyfriend Ken, in the upcoming movie dedicated to the doll that will star Margot Robbie in the lead role. According to Deadline, Gosling had initially turned down the role, but the studio were so insistent that he was their “only choice” that they waiting for an opening in his busy schedule to appear in order to sign up the actor.
If you’ve not already heard of this perplexing project, for which shooting will begin in early 2022, then let’s just say that you’ve got a lot to catch up on.
While the idea itself would just seem like a cheap cash-in from the toy brand Mattel, it’s the enticing appointment of Greta Gerwig (the indie star who directed Lady Bird and Little Women) as co-writer and director that could give it the potential to confound all those cynical expectations. At the very least, she can surely be relied upon to give Barbie better dialogue than your average Malibu Stacy doll:
Gerwig will collaborate on the script alongside her partner Noah Baumbach, director of Marriage Story — so it’s too possible we’ll have a scene where a cranky Ken punches a hole through a dollhouse wall.
That said, there’s plenty of existing material for the pair to work with if they choose to bring Barbie’s official backstory to the screen. According to my relentlessly thorough and unrelenting research (a quick browse of the Wikipedia page), Barbie apparently owns more than 40 pets including a panda and a lion cub, a vast array of vehicles including sports cars and 4x4s, and she can even operate a commercial airliner.
If the life story of a fashion-conscious part-zookeeper part-petrolhead doesn’t sound like a box office bonanza in the making, then frankly I don’t want to know what does.
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