Until recently, you’d be forgiven if you confused Ryan Gosling with Ryan Reynolds, both being blonde and Canadian and a bit too pretty for mere mortals. Maybe you only recognized Gosling as “The Notebook guy,” as onlookers identified him in a now-famous YouTube video of Gosling breaking up a New York street fight.
But within the span of three months — and three very different films — the kid from Cornwall’s star has gone supernova. He’s become a name that can sell movie tickets, whether for a quirky relationship comedy (Crazy, Stupid, Love), a hyper-violent existential Euro-thriller (Drive) or a biting political drama (The Ides of March).
In Hollywood terms, he’s poised to be “the next Tom Cruise.” He even threatened to outshine Brad Pitt and George Clooney at September’s Toronto International Film Festival. So there’s no excuse for not knowing “The Gos” now.
Of course, that hasn’t stopped the 30-year-old Gosling from trying to fade into the background when he’s not being projected onto a 50-foot movie screen. During TIFF, he made the obligatory appearances at media events and post-premiere parties, but he shied away from taking attention from his work.
He was similarly unassuming and disarming during the press conference for The Ides of March. Seated next to Clooney, his director and co-star, he wore a loose-fitting sweater, sleeves rolled up to reveal a homemade tattoo that is the symbol of his record label, Werewolf Heart Records, which looks like something a four-year-old would stick on the fridge. He kept his eyes downcast and often deferred to King George when questions probed a bit too deeply into the creative process.
“Ryan’s character is at the centre of a hurricane,” Clooney said, referring to Gosling’s role as an idealistic political aid trapped in an increasingly dirty presidential campaign. “He has to carry everyone’s point of view on his shoulders. [That] requires intelligence of an actor that you don’t often see, and he knocks it out of the park.”
For his part, Gosling said that working with Clooney was “life altering” and that “watching him work was like watching a unicorn be born every day.” It drew a laugh from Clooney and the assembled media, and it became one of the best quotes of the festival.
In fact, Gosling has become known for giving “good quote” in magazine and newspaper interviews. Like how slapping Steve Carell was the best part of making Crazy, Stupid, Love. Or how the John Hughes classic Pretty in Pink would be “the most perfect film ever” if there were “more head-smashing in it.” Or how he “went through puberty in a theme park.”
That last one is a reference to Gosling’s first professional gig as a member of Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club alongside Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Gosling was 12 at the time, and his experience amounted to performing as part of his uncle’s Elvis tribute act at weddings.
A brief stint as Zeus’s less-than-brawny son in Young Hercules followed, but he quickly shed his Tiger Beat image with 2001’s The Believer, in which the then-19-year-old played a Jewish neo-Nazi. It earned him an Independent Spirit Award, indie film’s equivalent of an Oscar.
Then came the one-two punch of The Notebook, a romantic weepy film that paired him with his former flame (and fellow Canuck) Rachel McAdams, and Half-Nelson, which earned him an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a drug-addicted school teacher.
But instead of going the blockbuster route, Gosling continued his string of vulnerable, volatile leads in little-seen indie films like Lars and the Real Girl, in which he falls in love with a blow-up doll, and Blue Valentine, a dark relationship drama that can easily be described as the anti-Notebook.
“I liked independent film,” he says. “I’d been given a freedom there and had a voice there. And I don’t feel like one of those guys that can be in anything and still do good work.”
Now, though, Gosling is embracing his leading man status. No, that’s not quite right. More accurately, he’s grabbing it and squeezing it for all it’s worth. Crazy, Stupid, Love sent fans swooning over his impeccably dressed pickup artist who mentors Steve Carell.
Drive sent their heads spinning as he played a Steve McQueen–esque Hollywood stunt driver by day, heist getaway driver by night.
And The Ides of March will likely have fans swooning and spinning thanks to its potent tabloid cocktail of sex, politics and ambition.
His next film, The Place Beyond the Pines, would seem to combine Drive and Ides, with its blockbuster-worthy story of a motorcycle stunt rider who turns to crime to provide for his family only to end up on a collision course with a cop-turned-politician.
Beyond that are roles as ’40s-era cops battling L.A. gangsters and kick-boxing gangsters battling Bangkok cops. It’s as though Gosling is trying to cover all his bases as quickly as possible, which isn’t surprising given Gosling’s recent admission that he’s actually considering switching gears — professionally, that is.
Indeed, based on a recent TIFF remark (although one not so popular with his many fans and admirers), it’s apparent that Gosling intends to retire from acting at some point in the near future.
“I don’t want to act much longer,” he told a roundtable of journalists during TIFF. “I can’t do one thing my whole life. I know there are only so many characters I’ll be able to play. It will be over whenever the inspiration dries up.”
In fact, working with actor-turned-director Clooney has opened Gosling’s eyes to the possibility of calling the shots himself one day.
“George knows exactly what he wants, and I was surprised by his level of enthusiasm for filmmaking in general. He would walk you through the scenes, even hum what he thought the soundtrack might be like,” Gosling says.
“That’s interesting to me.”