Ryan Gosling’s daughters hilariously prove ‘nobody plays with Ken’

‘The whole idea that nobody plays with Ken is true,’ the actor jokes

Ryan Gosling has revealed that his two daughters aren’t fans of Ken dolls, despite his role in the upcoming Barbie movie.

The 42-year-old actor spoke candidly about his two children, Esmeralda, eight, and Amada, seven, who he shares with long-term partner Eva Mendes, during a recent interview People. According to Gosling, while his daughters enjoy playing with Barbie dolls, they don’t feel the same way about the Ken ones.

“I kept finding their Ken dolls discarded, so the whole idea that nobody plays with Ken is true,” Gosling, who stars as Ken in the highly-anticipated Barbie movie, said.

He also noted that Barbie dolls have become a big part of his life as a father of two.

“Barbie has always kind of been on the periphery,” Gosling said. “But now, it’s a part of my day-to-day because I have two kids.”

Although his children prefer Barbie to Ken, the actor revealed that his daughters were able to visit the set while he was filming some of his biggest scenes for the upcoming movie, and that they acted as his “coaches”.

“When they came to set, they were behind the camera, like my coaches. It was pretty cool,” The Notebook star said.

This isn’t the first time that Gosling has shared how his family feels about his role in Barbie. During an interview with Entertainment Tonight at the Los Angeles premiere of the movie, which features Margot Robbie as the titular Barbie, he described how his daughters felt about him playing Ken.

“It was, I think, weird enough for them that I played Ken anyway,” he said. “That I might just hold off on them seeing the full Ken-ergy.”

In addition to seeing some scenes from the movie already, Gosling said that his children helped him bring his character to life. “They’ve seen a lot of pieces of [the film], and helped me a lot with it,” he said. “They were a huge inspiration for me.”

When asked if his daughters thought Barbie was funny, Gosling quipped: “Yeah, unless it wasn’t. And then I worked on it…They’re brilliant comedians.”

Last month, the La La Land star, who is known to keep his family life private, also made rare comments about becoming a father. During a cover story interview with GQ, he revealed that, before his relationship with Mendes, who he’s been dating since 2011, he hadn’t thought about becoming a parent. However, he acknowledged that his perspective ultimately changed when Mendes told him that she was expecting.

“Eva said she was pregnant,” he recalled. “I would never want to go back, you know? I’m glad I didn’t have control over my destiny in that way, because it was so much better than I ever had dreamed for myself.”

While speaking to GQ, he also reflected on his decision to take a four-year absence from Hollywood because he “wanted to spend as much time as [he] could with [his family].” Gosling went on to reveal that, while he and his partner don’t have a nanny for their two young daughters, he usually “just leans on Eva” when he doesn’t know what to do in a situation.

The Greta Gerwig-directed film hits theatres in the US and UK on 21 July.