Ryan Gosling says he’s stopped taking roles that put him in a ‘dark place’ for family’s sake

‘Barbie’ and ‘The Fall Guy’ star says he thinks about his family and ‘what is going to be best for all of us’

Ryan Gosling has revealed that he now purposefully avoids acting in films that are psychologically troubling, saying: “I don’t really take roles that are going to put me in some kind of dark place.”

The actor, 43, had a major box office hit playing Ken in last year’s Barbie, and can currently be seen in the action-adventureThe Fall Guy.

Gosling began his career as a child as part of Disney Channel’s The Mickey Mouse Club, but distanced himself from that persona as an adult by playing a Jewish neo-Nazi in The Believer, a drug-addicted teacher in Half Nelson and a man in a relationship with a sex doll in Lars and the Real Girl.

In a new interview with The Wall Street Journal Magazine, Gosling said that he now thinks about his family before accepting a role. He has two daughters below the age of 10 with fellow actor Eva Mendes.

“This moment is what I feel like trying to read the room at home and feel like what is going to be best for all of us,” said Gosling.

“The decisions I make, I make them with Eva and we make them with our family in mind first.”

Ryan Gosling at the premiere for ‘The Fall Guy’ in Hollywood in 2024 (Getty Images)

Gosling traced the change in his mindset back to his performance in 2016 jazz romance La La Land.

“I think La La Land was the first. It was just sort of like, ‘Oh, this will be fun for them, too, because even though they’re not coming to set, we’re practicing piano every day or we’re dancing or we’re singing,’” recalled Gosling.

“Their interest in Barbie and their disinterest in Ken was an inspiration. I thought, they were already making little movies about their Barbies on the iPad when it happened, so the fact that I was going off to work to make one too, we just felt like we were aligned.”

Gosling also recently proved he’s the ultimate supportive partner by wearing a T-shirt promoting Mendes’ new book during his own press tour.

During a recent video interview with Hits Radio, Gosling and his The Fall Guy co-star Emily Blunt were asked about their favourite films and which Taylor Swift song they embody most.

As clips from the interview circulated online, fans couldn’t help but notice that the 43-year-old Barbie actor was wearing a white T-shirt with the words, “Desi, Mami, and the Never-Ending Worries,” written across it.

The text is the title of a children’s book, due to hit shelves later this fall, written by his partner of more than a decade.