The actor Ryan Gosling wanted to replace him: “This would have been the greatest movie ever”
It’s been 30 years since Ryan Gosling made his screen debut, but only recently has it felt as though the actor has made a concerted effort to try and straddle the divide between being an actor and a movie star.
Greta Gerwig’s Barbie was the perfect example of the two worlds colliding, with the toyetic fantasy comedy clearing $1.4 billion at the global box office and earning Gosling an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Supporting Actor’, although it’s beginning to look like the exception that proved the rule.
As a performer, Gosling has three Oscar nominations and a Golden Globe win to his name from six nods in total, delivering phenomenal performances in movies like Blue Valentine, Half Nelson, La La Land, The Place Beyond the Pines, First Man, and Crazy Stupid Love.
The movie star thing is proving a much tougher nut to crack, though, with his above-the-line outings in Gangster Squad, Blade Runner 2049, The Fall Guy, and The Nice Guys all underperforming in cinemas while anyone who claims they can name his character from Netflix’s The Gray Man off the top of their head is probably a liar.
He’s a popular A-lister who isn’t quite a bankable leading man, which is an odd predicament given his obvious gifts. Not that Gosling has ever been drawn towards superstardom; his primary focus has always been interesting, complicated characters that allow him to create something unique from the ground up.
It didn’t quite go to plan when he piled on the pounds for Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones and then got fired because he was too young and too fat for the gig, but nor are there many ridiculously handsome leading men who’d sign on for a dramatic comedy where they play a man who falls in love with an anatomically correct sex doll.
Gosling was reliably excellent in Craig Gillespie’s Lars and the Real Girl, a turn that could have easily devolved into overplayed mugging, mockery, and exaggerated histrionics. However, ever the self-deprecating type, the actor told Pop Entertainment it had the potential to be the greatest film in history if somebody who wasn’t him headlined the picture.
“When I read Lars, I wished that Gene Wilder could play the part,” he admitted. “If he did, this would be the greatest movie ever. So, I thought it was just a great opportunity for me to get to be a part of something that won’t come around again.”
Based on his iconic partnership with Mel Brooks and the exuberant persona that defined many of his best roles, it’s not ridiculous to think that Lars and the Real Girl would have been more overly comedic were Wilder front and centre. Then again, seeing the legendary comic fall in love with a sex doll would be a sight worth seeing, so Gosling’s point is hardly invalid.
