Ryan Gosling’s favourite actor of all time is a comedy gennius: “My Marlon Brando”
Ryan Gosling rose to prominence in the mid-2000s after starring in films such as The Notebook, Blue Valentine, and Half-Nelson. However, the successful actor got his start on the Disney Channel as a ‘mouseketeer’ for The Mickey Mouse Club when he was just 12.
Since then, Gosling has proved himself to be a capable actor in both Hollywood cinema and independent films. The star branched out into the action genre when he starred in Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 film Drive. Yet five years later, he starred in the musical La La Land, demonstrating his diversity. These roles garnered the actor significant acclaim; however, Gosling’s star power has only kept increasing, aided by a knock-out performance in Blade Runner 2049 in 2017.
Recently, Gosling starred in The Gray Man, which, despite mixed reviews, will be followed by a sequel in the near future, as many mediocre action movies do. Gosling has proved himself a perfect leading man for any genre through his flexibility and complex, nuanced knowledge of acting. His next project, Barbie, where he will play a real-life version of the muscular and bronzed Mattel Ken doll, couldn’t be more different from his role as a CIA black ops assassin in The Gray Man.
During press interviews for the recent action flick, Gosling revealed that his favourite action star would have to be Sylvester Stallone. He shared, “He’s such a good actor. […] You got action, but you’ve got these like amazing characters at the centre of it. It was just like, it was this beautiful marriage. I miss those days.”
An ability to army roll from action into comedy is a unique skill that not everybody can pull off with dexterity. It’s the kind of seasoning that another bland piece of action hero meat can be turned into a franchise or series of movies. It’s a skill that has ensured Ryan Reynolds has been gifted Deadpool movie after Deadpool movie, despite somewhat diminishing returns.
However, Gosling has also revealed his favourite actor of all time, not just action-specific. His choice is none other than the late Gene Wilder, best known for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Wilder’s first film role saw him play a hostage in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde. That same year, Wilder played an important role in Mel Brooks’ The Producers, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Supporting Actor’.
Over the decades, the American actor collaborated with Brooks multiple times, co-writing Young Frankenstein with him, which earned the pair an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’. Wilder also starred in several pictures by Richard Pryor, such as Silver Streak and Another You.
Wilder appeared in several television shows and made-for-television films during the late 1990s and early 2000s before narrating a documentary called Expo: Magic of the White City in 2005, one of his final credits. Wilder died in 2016 from Alzheimer’s disease, yet he will continue to be remembered as a magnificent and hugely influential figure due to his impact on other actors.
Expressing his love for Wilder, Gosling shared, “Gene Wilder is my Marlon Brando. Gene Wilder will break your heart and make you laugh at the same time. And that’s deep. There’s something really profound about what he’s able to do. It’s transcendent. It’s everything. He gives you everything at once, and you have to decide what you feel about it.”
Wilder, perhaps most beloved for his role as the chocolate factory-owning eccentric, is most notably thought of as a comedic actor, but his career is littered with truly wonderful performances. The role of Willy Wonka provides perhaps one of the finest examples of that. Having guffawed and trampolined his way across almost every scene of the finale, in which Charlie is (at first) denied his chance to own the factory as had seemingly been promised, Wonka’s switch from affable loon to fearsome businessman was rightly applauded as an acting masterclass.
While it does go in opposite directions, it is a skill Gosling has often tried to apply to his own performances. Able to hold the camera with charm before switching into a complete new phase of his character’s arc with ease and a captivated audience. Gene Wiler may not be the first name people reach for when picking their acting heroes, but it is easy to see how such a man has influenced Ryan Gosling.
