Greta Gerwig revealed Ryan Gosling’s surprising reality TV inspiration when it came to crafting the character of Ken for the Barbie movie.
“I’ve never seen The Bachelor, but Ryan Gosling — when we started talking about Ken, he said, ‘Oh, the Kens remind me of [how the contestants] on The Bachelorette [are] when the woman isn’t around. They don’t know what to do with themselves. They’re doing, like, push-ups and they kind of are competitive with each other and if one guy wears glasses and then another guy wears glasses he’s like, no you took my thing, I’m the guy with glasses,’” Gerwig, 39, shared during the Monday, July 31, episode of the “SmartLess” podcast.
Gosling’s innate vision for Ken was just one of the reasons Gerwig knew he was the man for the job.
“We knew we were writing the part [of Barbie] for Margot [Robbie], so in writing we cast Ryan. We wrote his name into the script. It was the thing that I was like, ‘I know.’ And then when we handed them the script the studio was like, ‘Oh that’s so wonderful that you know Ryan.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know Ryan. I’ve never met Ryan,’” she recalled on Thursday’s episode. “But you know those actors, whether they do comedy or not, they have funny rhythms in them? You can sort of feel that they know what’s funny? I always felt that about him.”
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Gerwig added that while she had to rely on Gosling, 42, about details around The Bachelor franchise, she “probably would love” all of it due to being such a reality TV fan — especially when it comes to dating shows.
“I love Love Is Blind,” she told hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett. “I love it so much. I love people falling in love on television [and] in their hearts. It just makes me so happy.”
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When Hayes, 53, pointed out that one couple — Lauren and Cameron Hamilton — from the Netflix series are still together after tying to knot in season 1, Gerwig confessed she has kept up with their love story. “They’re in love, Lauren and Cameron. They’re doing great,” she said, laughing, while Arnett, 53, gave his best wishes. “Lauren and Cameron, wherever you are, best of luck.”
While Gerwig noted that reading and watching movies with partner Noah Baumbach are also some of her favorite downtime activities, the director hasn’t had much time for any of it. Barbie, which was released on July 21, brought in $162 million on opening weekend. The film nearly doubled the opening weekend box office numbers of Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated Oppenheimer, which was released the same day. The success of the two blockbusters — double billed as Barbenheimer — made for the biggest opening weekend of the year.
Gerwig — who is also the director behind 2017’s Ladybird and the most recent Little Women adaptation — may have just helmed one of the year’s biggest movies — but she still has nerves about jumping into her next project, which will see her writing and directing at least two of the upcoming Chronicles of Narnia films.
The movies, which are based on the beloved C.S. Lewis novels, will premiere on Netflix and mark Gerwig’s fantasy debut — but she sees the pressure as a positive thing.
“I haven’t even really started wrapping my arms around it, but I’m properly scared of it, which feels like a good place to start,” Gerwig said on the Thursday, July 20, episode of the “Total Film” podcast. “I think when I’m scared, it’s always a good sign. Maybe when I stop being scared, it’ll be like, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t do that one.’ No, I’m terrified of it. It’s extraordinary. And it’s exciting.”
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She added: “I hope to make all different kinds of movies in the course of the time I get to make movies, which — it’s a long time, but it’s also limited. I want to do big things and small things and everywhere in between, and having another big canvas is exciting and also daunting.”
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