Not just Ken: Ryan Gosling is the greatest male comedic actor of the 21st century
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By Tom W. Clarke
There is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment in Barbie that shifts the entire film. Ryan Gosling’s Ken is standing outside a school when a mum approaches him and asks him for the time. It’s the first time Ken has ever felt respected. A look flashes across his face: in a single moment he moves through shock, confusion, delight and arrogance before settling on a facade of nonchalance.
In that second the gamut of Ken’s personality and character arc sprint across his eyes. It’s a remarkable show of acting. It’s also hilarious.
Ryan Gosling is a comedic force, with several guffaw-inducing performances under his belt.Credit: Getty
Ryan Gosling is not usually described as funny. He’s your classic leading man – expected to be charismatic and charming but not laugh-out-loud funny. He made his name in emotional dramas like The Notebook and Blue Valentine, and then hypermasculine roles in Drive, Only God Forgives and Blade Runner 2049.
But Gosling is funny. In fact, he’s a comedic force, with several guffaw-inducing performances under his belt. He’s become a better, more watchable and more consistently bankable comedic lead than any other male actor going around – better than Will Ferrell, Seth Rogen or Jonah Hill.
Unfortunately, Gosling has fallen into a trap that has affected many actors, who are so traditionally good-looking that they get typecast as stoic leads, despite being at their best when allowed to embrace their weirdest impulses; character actors trapped in the chiselled bodies of movie stars (I know, what a problem to have).
Brad Pitt was always best in bonkers supporting roles, like the psychotic mental patient in Twelve Monkeys and the baffling boxing champion in Snatch. Robert Pattinson fought his teen heart-throb past to become one of Hollywood’s most unpredictable stars, game for anything in movies like Good Time and The Lighthouse. Gosling is cut from the same cloth.
He first showed his penchant for playing against type in Lars and the Real Girl, as a socially awkward man who falls in love with a lifelike doll. The premise could easily be a one-note mockery of the lonely. Instead, Gosling ensures Lars is the heart of the film rather than the butt of the joke. It’s an offbeat and eccentric performance but understated, never veering into caricature.
Many famous comedic actors lapse into cringey gags and lazy gross-out humour, or resort to simply shouting nonsense into the abyss, mistaking noise for jokes. They become repetitive and embarrassing self-parodies. Think Adam Sandler’s past decade or so.
But Gosling is never grating or annoying. His shtick never gets old. He doesn’t even have a shtick. His résumé is versatile and fascinating; he’s as capable of subtle nuance as he is broad physicality.
In Crazy, Stupid, Love he is a cocky playboy trying to help Steve Carell’s sad dad. Gosling’s character, Jacob, is shallow and arrogant, the villain in any other rom-com. But Gosling imbues Jacob with a heart of gold buried in his cynical, perfectly sculpted chest. When Carell pulls out a Velcro wallet, Gosling’s face is a mix of disdain, pity and determination. A thousand words with one look.
Ryan Gosling: consistently funnier than you realise.Credit: Warner Bros
The Big Short again united Gosling with Carell, this time as a fast-talking finance bro opposite Carell’s righteous ball of fury. Unapologetically appalling, Gosling pulls off the movie’s most audacious lines – he justifies the numbers in a presentation by announcing that his math specialist “won a math competition in China [and] doesn’t even speak English!”
Perhaps his outright funniest effort is in The Nice Guys, a darkly comic murder-mystery. Opposite Russell Crowe, Gosling goes full screwball, giving a masterclass in physical comedy as a goofy and chaotic detective out of his depth.
And then, of course, there’s Barbie. The internet booed when Gosling secured the role, but his doubters were silenced by one of the most iconic comedic performances of the decade. Ken is the culmination of Gosling’s comedic career. He ricochets perfectly from air-headed goofball to insecure cool guy, to needy boyfriend, to cocky man-about-town, to precarious dictator, and back again.
Barbie allows a direct comparison between Gosling and one of this century’s most celebrated comic actors: Will Ferrell. Gosling brings it all – every facial expression will have you in stitches, every line reading is uniquely perfect, every dance move is exaggerated flawlessly. Ferrell just shouts a lot, often stomping on his own punchlines.
Ryan Gosling probably won’t win the Oscar for best supporting actor – that will go to Robert Downey Jr for Oppenheimer – but he should. Simply being nominated just wouldn’t be Kenough.
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