Ryan Goslingcurrently has an iron grip on online pop culture, especially within the male demographic. Thanks to his blend of Hollywood leading-man good looks and quirky sense of humor, Gosling has suddenly become an icon for young men across social media. With his newest film,The Fall Guy, looking to play into this trend, how did Ryan Gosling go from a romantic lead to a self-aware comedic actor?
No longer typecast as a romantic lead, Gosling’s career has come a long waysinceThe Notebookin 2004, which was the actor’s most iconic role for nearly a decade. However, the last 10 years have seen Gosling’s career boom as the actor has gone against his public persona, performing in films likeLars and the Real Girl,The Nice Guys, andBarbie. The hard left turn of Gosling’s career, as well as his exploding popularity, has turned the Canadian star into one of Hollywood’s most self-aware actors working today.
Gosling’s Cult-Like Fandom Has Been Defined by Quirky Comedy
Ryan Gosling has never really gone away, as the Canadian actor has been working consistently sinceThe Notebook, starring in indie hits, includingA Place Beyond the PinesandAll Good Things, as well as appearing in major blockbusters likeDrive,The Big Short,La La Land, andBlade Runner 2049. However, Gosling’s turn to self-aware comedy has seen the actor’s popularity skyrocket in recent years, especially online.
Since starring inThe Notebook, one of the most popular andiconic romantic moviesof the 21st Century, Gosling was quick to be typecast as a typically handsome Hollywood A-lister. It appears that Gosling quickly understood the public persona put upon him and has had a lot of fun playing against it.
One of his earliest and most dramatic against-type performances is inLars and the Real Girl, in which the typically handsome Gosling portrays Lars Lindstrom, an awkward young man with a terrible mustache and haircut who falls in love with a sex doll he found online. The film went on to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2008, with Gosling being nominated for Best Actor at the Critics' Choice Awards the same year.
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While none of his more recent comedic performances have seen the actor don such terrible fashion, the base of Gosling’s comedic performances comes from exploiting and cleverly twisting the actor’s suave appearance.Oneof Gosling’s funniest performances, The Nice Guys saw the handsome actor portray the clumsy private investigator Holland March, whose incompetence is juxtaposed by Russel Crowe’s no-nonsense Jackson Healy. The film twists the stereotypes associated with handsome actors in spy/thriller films to great effect, with Gosling’s character reduced from the typical stylish detective to a clumsy, alcoholic detective who only makes each situation worse.
It’s safe to say that2023’sBarbieis one of Gosling’s biggest roles, in which he plays the emotionally needy best friend of Barbie, Ken – or a version of Ken.Barbieturns the tide on the Stoic, brooding performances for which Gosling gained fame through the internet by turning his character into the definitive ‘Himbo.’ Gosling’s Ken is one of, if not the funniest character in the film, with his sadly funny emotional dependency on Barbie’s approval and reduction of the Patriarchy coming down to mini-fridges and horses.
Gosling’s newest film,The Fall Guy, looks to continue the trend of satirizing Gosling’s attractiveness, as he portrays expert stunt person Colt Seavers, tasked with utilizing his acrobatic prowess to save the star of his current movie. The first trailer for the film establishes Gosling as a typically cool,stylish Hollywood stuntperson. However, as the plot unfolds, his awkwardness and incompetence slowly unravel and come to a head when the man who can jump from car rigs onto moving helicopters can’t break a hotel room door after the key-card stops working.
Gosling’s Appearance in Blockbusters Heightens His Comedic Performances
Alongside his comedic performances, Gosling has featured in numerous blockbuster action films, like the Russo Brother’sNetflix action-thrillerThe Gray Man, alongside Chris Evans, andBlade Runner 2049with Ana de Armas. His dramatic performances, especiallyBlade Runner 2049andDrive,have slowly developed over the years into the “He’s literally me” meme – which Gosling publicly announced he dislikes. The trend likens young men’s emotional struggles and challenges in communicating their emotions to the stoic performances of Gosling’s dramatic characters, which are usually pragmatic and emotionally reserved but in desperate need of help.
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As well as revealing the current state of mental health in young men and teens, the popularity and cult-like worship of Gosling’s Stoic characters only heightens his comedic performances in subsequent films. Gosling’s performance inBarbieis funny when watched in isolation, but when it is preceded by a performance like thatfound inBlade Runner 2049, where we establish the actor as cold, cool, and detached, and then see him turn a complete 180 into a ‘Himbo,’ the comedic effect is doubled.
