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Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes’ daughters, Esmeralda, 9, and Amanda, 7, love the Barbie movie just as much as the rest of us, especially when their famous father plays Ken. Gosling performed the number, “I’m Just Ken,” at the 2024 Oscars earlier this year. He brought his daughters along for the dress rehearsal and both of them gave him some pointers on how to perform the song with some “oomph.”
The Oscar-nominated actor brought to life Barbie’s counterpart, Ken, who travels to the Real World and discovers the patriarchy. Afterwards, he returns to Barbieland to impact his newfound wisdom on the other Kens, who decide to overthrow the Barbie-led government and claim Barbieland for the men, renaming it Kendom.
Gosling’s Daughters Supervised His Oscars Dress Rehearsal
“They know all the choreography better than I do — and the songs. They’re backstage kind of showing me,” Gosling said on Thursday’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“It was their interest in Barbie and their disinterest in Ken that sort of started all of this, and it’s really been a team effort,” he shared. “They were on the film and they came to set when I filmed the number.”
He added that his daughter’s attendance at the dress rehearsal put it into perspective what it means for their dad to ‘be’ Ken.
“A lot of this has no context for them. It’s just like a lot of fake tan stains around the house,” he joked. “So I wanted them to come to the dress rehearsal just to give it some kind of context for what had been going on.”
Eva Mendes Steps Up To Raise Their Children As Gosling Hosts SNL
During a Today show appearance, Gosling’s wife Eva Mendes explained her decision to step away from acting to raise their two children. Mendes said, “It was like a no-brainer. [And I was like], I’m so lucky if I could have this time with my children.”
“It was almost just like a non-verbal agreement that it was like, ‘OK, he’s going to work and I’m going to work. I’m just going to work here,'” she added. “He went and he did his job. He just happens to be really good at his job. And he did it and he came home.”
Gosling will be hosting Saturday Night Live on April 13, marking his third appearance on the sketch comedy show.
“I’m more nervous [this time], well, because before I didn’t know, now I know,” Gosling admitted on the Tonight Show. “I think I laugh too much.”
