When filming 2004’s The Notebook, the epic Nicholas Sparks love story that has made him the focus of ardent female attention ever since, he (unsuccessfully) requested a stand-in for his co-star Rachel McAdams during one scene because he found her so irritating. As he told The Guardian in 2007, when he was subsequently dating McAdams: “We inspired the worst in each other. It was a strange experience, making a love story and not getting along with your co-star in any way.”
A lot has happened in the decade since: an Oscar nomination for his role as a crack-addicted history teacher in 2006’s Half Nelson, followed by 2010’s Blue Valentine, a portrait of an unhappy marriage opposite Michelle Williams, and his stuntman-turned-getaway driver in 2011’s Drive. That same year, he starred in the George Clooney-directed political drama The Ides of March, and he finally delivered female fans another romantic hero opposite Emma Stone in Crazy, Stupid, Love. He met his partner, Eva Mendes, who is also the mother of his eight-month-old daughter Esmeralda, on the set of 2012’s crime drama The Place Beyond the Pines.
Today, Gosling’s here to talk about his directorial debut, Lost River, which he also wrote. It’s a dark tale about a single mother (Christina Hendricks) doing what she has to do to survive in a decaying community. It also stars Ben Mendelsohn, Matt Smith, Saoirse Ronan, Mendes and newcomer Iain De Caestecker.
Gosling is explaining why he decided to film in Detroit, a city struggling with unemployment, lack of infrastructure and a high crime rate after the downsizing of the auto industry.
“I’m from Canada and I think, like everyone growing up anywhere else in the world, you are very aware of America – it sort of looms large in its legend, and so did Detroit,” he says. “I had a lot of romanticised ideas of what Detroit was like, but I didn’t get there until I was 30 and it was very different than I had imagined it.”
What he discovered when he finally visited inspired the setting for his film, which has an eerie, dreamlike quality.
“There are miles of abandoned neighbourhoods, and within those neighbourhoods there are occasionally families sort of trying to hold on to their lives [while] the neighbourhoods around them are being burned and torn down,” he continues. “In some cases they don’t get water, and in some cases they don’t get power to the streetlights, so I wanted to make something about that. I didn’t want to make a literal film about Detroit, because it felt like what they were experiencing was more universal than that. I wanted to find a way everyone could relate to it. And just focus on the emotional landscape of that. So, the fairytale format became the best way, I felt, to do that.”
It’s a very dark world Gosling has created, something he seems to gravitate towards with his film choices. Where does this affinity for stories about outcasts in sinister environments come from?
“You know, when I was a kid, I had a single mom [Gosling’s parents divorced when he was 13] and she was very beautiful,” he says. “And to me, as a young man, all men felt like wolves and there was a very threatening, predatory tone to the world in general, not just to specific people. It felt like life could become a nightmare at any second.”
This recollection goes some way to explaining how, no matter how many brooding silent types Gosling plays on film, his image as a smouldering-yet-sensitive dream boyfriend prevails. Just look at the blogs and memes devoted to him – memorably beginning with the Tumblr F*ck Yeah! Ryan Gosling, followed by the Hey Girl meme and the Feminist Ryan Gosling Tumblr. I mention there was a study done recently at the University of Saskatchewan that found men who viewed pictures of him with feminist text written over them were more inclined to support feminist statements. How does he feel about being the poster boy for feminism?
“Well, I don’t know,” he laughs. “There are certainly worse things you can be a part of. I mean, look, I have very strong female characters in my life. I grew up with strong women and the amount of them grows exponentially as time goes on, in my world. And that’s my reality. So, I just tend to gravitate towards stories with strong female characters. It’s not a conscious thing. I didn’t make those [memes], you know? It’s not by design. But I do have a little girl now and it’s important to me. These things are becoming… not more important to me, but more important in general, I think. There are lots of great women out there who I really admire: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, the Broad City girls [Abbi Abrams and Ilana Wexler], Lena Dunham and Kathryn Bigelow. I don’t know, it just seems like it’s happening.”
Ironically, Gosling was given the opportunity to set hearts aflutter as Noah in The Notebook because director Nick Cassavetes didn’t want a ‘traditional’ leading man.
“I never had an opportunity in my life like The Notebook until then, and that was because the director wanted me because I wasn’t some kind of heart-throb,” he explains, looking every inch the off-duty movie star with his casual-chic navy knit and stubble. “He wanted me because he thought I was crazy enough to do these crazy things and he, for whatever reason, felt like I was just more of a regular guy and not the kind of guy you would see in a movie like that.”
And how does his popularity with women sit with him now?
“Ahh…” Gosling squirms in his chair. “I don’t know how to answer that. I really don’t.”
After a bit more probing (and a lot more squirming), he says, finally, “You know, I’ve been on the flip side of it. Growing up, you know? It… [searching for words] …it definitely wasn’t always this way. And I remember what it was like when it wasn’t this way [laughs], so I guess, you know, it’s just… ah, but I don’t know how to answer that question.”
Before, he says, he could never get an audition as the guy who got the girl. He was always up for roles as the best friend or the weirdo.
Perhaps that’s the reason you’re seen as the thinking woman’s crumpet? I ask.
“Crumpet?” he says with distaste. “That’s a first. I don’t know how I feel about that… That I have a strong feeling against.”
Not into being a crumpet?
“That’s not hard to answer,” he laughs. “Crumpet’s got to go.”
Fair enough. Buttery breakfast foods aside, I think Gosling’s individuality, rather than being the generic jock type, is part of his appeal, I say.
“Yeah, growing up, I never played sports,” he agrees. “And I guess, growing up, the guys girls liked were jocks or, you know, that sort of thing, and because I never did that; I was in dance class and things like that. Also, I just grew up around a lot of girls. I was [involved] in a lot of their conversations about guys and I found it frustrating because I felt like I must not be a threat if they’re being so open in front of me. That used to bother me [laughs]. Yeah, that bothered me. I didn’t like that.”
No doubt Gosling picked up some helpful information during those formative years as a fly on the wall. He has, after all, snagged the very talented and beautiful Mendes, with whom he lives in Los Angeles, with their daughter.
How did he find directing someone he’s in a relationship with?
“Well, and I’m not trying to avoid the question, but everybody in this film, for the most part, I had worked with before. For me, it was crucial to work in this intimate, low-budget, small way, with people I had worked with before, because I feel like in my experience that’s where everyone was at their best. So, it helped, was the answer to that question,” he says.
There wasn’t any kind of lack of professional respect because you have that intimacy?
“No, there’s more,” he says. “Because they know what is at stake for you personally, and all the work that’s gone into getting there.”
Their low budget meant that making the film was a collaborative process, he says. One day, Gosling, Mendes and the costume designer went to the Salvation Army to fill garbage bags of clothes, from which the actors could choose their costumes.
“[Eva] picked this gold sequined jacket,” he says. “Matt Smith saw destiny staring him in the face and he made that his character’s uniform. And that happened a lot in the film, where she indirectly picked things that became very important to different people involved. Never wanting credit. She hates credit and she’ll even be mad that I’m giving her that credit. But she was very helpful in so many ways.”
It may have been a team effort, but along with writing and directing Lost River, Gosling also wrote and performed a song on the soundtrack. It’s not his first foray into music. He had a band called Dead Man’s Bones a few years back (now “six feet under” he says). But his musical talent is probably no surprise given he got his start in showbiz alongside Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears as a Mouseketeer in The Mickey Mouse Club. Recently, a video of him dancing in the early ’90s, showing rampant enthusiasm and wearing MC Hammer-style pants, has been doing the rounds on social media (it can be found on YouTube).
The videos are “hilarious” he says, but also great evidence for why he used to get into fights when he was young.
“If you watch those videos, you see how you might want to take the confidence out of that kid a little bit,” Gosling explains. “I’ve always been a little more confident than my talent warranted: ‘fake it ’til you make it’ philosophy.”
Sure, they’re funny, but he clearly has rhythm.
“I had my little hustle,” he laughs. “Everyone’s got to do their shimmy shimmy ya.”
The man’s a triple threat, then. So would he ever consider doing a musical?
“Yeah,” he laughs. “Maybe not [re-]creating those moves specifically, but I do love Gene Kelly and Singin’ in the Rain and An American in Paris, those styles of musicals. Busby Berkeley, I’m a huge fan of.”
I think we’d all like to see a sequel to that video, though.
“Right, yeah, maybe I can do some kind of Magic Mike thing where I revisit that,” he chuckles.
Not long after this conversation, it’s announced that Gosling will star opposite Emma Stone in a musical directed by Whiplash director Damien Chazelle, called La La Land. It’s not the story we had workshopped, but I think we can all settle for the duo being reunited for a film filled with scenes where Gosling catches her Dirty Dancing-style.
And luckily for his loyal army of fans, though Gosling will “absolutely” direct again, he has no plans to disappear behind the camera for good. “I’ve always admired actors who directed and directors who acted, and I feel like for me it feels very natural to do both,” he says.
No comments:
Post a Comment