Ryan Gosling reveals why he said ‘100 per cent no’ when asked to sing ‘I’m Just Ken’ at Oscars

12 April 2024

Ryan Gosling said “100 per cent no” when asked to sing ‘I’m Just Ken’ at the 2024 Oscars.

Ryan Gosling said ‘100 per cent no’ when asked to sing ‘I’m Just Ken’ at the 2024 Oscars

The 43-year-old actor, who played Ken in director Greta Gerwig’s ‘Barbie’ movie, said he feared there was too much that could “wrong” with the performance when he was approached by the producers of this year’s Academy Awards with the idea he should perform it on stage.

He said on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’: “(It was) 100 per cent no.

“There’s a lot of ways that could go wrong.”

When host Jimmy, 49, read positive reviews about Ryan’s performance, he referenced the talk show host’s house band when he jokingly replied: “Imagine the reviews I would have had if I’d have had The Roots.”

Ryan’s ‘I’m Just Ken’ performance saw him dancing in a pink suit and black cowboy hat while joined onstage by the song’s writer and producer Mark Ronson as well as his fellow movie ‘Kens’ – Simu Liu, Scott Evans, Ncuti Gatwa and Kingsley Ben-Adir.

Ryan was also joined by Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash and Wolfgang Van Halen, and at one point the actor handed his mic to audience members Margot Robbie – who played ‘Barbie’ in Greta’s blockbuster – as well as Emma Stone, America Ferrera and Greta.

Ryan – who has daughters Esmeralda Amada, nine, and Amada Lee, seven, with his long-time partner Eva Mendes, 50 – said his kids’ reaction to his Oscars performance was: “Dad’s Kenning again.”

He added about how his girls inspired him to take the Ken role: “I mean it was their interest in Barbie and their disinterest in Ken that sort of started all of this.

“It’s really been a team effort. They were on the film and they came to set when I filmed the number but it’s also been like a lot of this has no context for them.

“You know it’s just like a lot of fake tan stains around the house, bleached hair.

“So I wanted to them to come to the dress rehearsal just to give it some kind of context for what had been going on."

Ken also said his Oscars performance was his girls’ first experience of live music, adding: “They knew all the choreography better than I do. And the songs, oh my God, they’re backstage kind of like showing me (jazz hands), you know.”