'Barbie' movie: Ryan Gosling's 'I'm Just Ken' song is here

Ryan Gosling squints in the sunlight while posing a pale pink suit at a movie premiere

By Nardine SaadStaff Writer

July 11, 2023 Updated 1:59 PM PT

Move over, Bowser and Peaches, there’s another movie character here to steal your 1980s power-ballad glory.

And it’s Ken. Just Ken.

“Barbie” movie star Ryan Gosling bares his soul and his chest in the just-dropped music video for the Greta Gerwig-directed film. And he’s really in his feelings about Barbie’s (Margot Robbie) sojourn to the real world and what that means for his second-fiddle status.

“I have feelings that I can’t explain / Driving me insane / All my life been so polite / ‘Cause I’m just Ken / Anywhere else I’d be a 10 / Is it my destiny to live and die a life of blond fragility?” Gosling sings.

The Oscar-nominated “La La Land” and “Half Nelson” star brings his so-called Ken-ergy to “I’m Just Ken” — however insecure the sentient plaything might feel about being friend-zoned by the iconic Barbie. The slow-building teaser, the latest in the pink-hued hype machine for the highly anticipated July 21 release, also lays the groundwork for a narrative arc for Barbie’s much-maligned male counterpart. Gosling’s Ken becomes the unexpected emotional center of the movie after falling into toxic-masculinity tropes and coming out the other side.

Joined in the video by several other Kens who appear in the movie — played by Simu Liu, Scott Evans, Ncuti Gatwa and Kingsley Ben-Adir — Gosling’s cheeky Ken wonders aloud what it will take for Barbie to “see the man behind the tan.” The tune culminates with him menacingly yelling threats about Malibu Beach.

“It was the gravitas he’s able to bring as an actor that was part of what made everything so heartfelt — but also so funny,” Gerwig recently told The Times.

“Ken sang that song,” Gosling joked with The Times’ Mark Olsen. “I never sang like that in my life. I don’t know why or how that happened.”

The song was written by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, who won Oscars for their work on the “A Star Is Born” hit “Shallow.” Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash played on Gosling’s “Just Ken” too, soundtrack producer Ronson told Variety.

“Just Ken” is the latest track to be released from the motion picture’s soundtrack, which includes original songs from Grammy-winning artists Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Charli XCX and Dua Lipa. Lipa’s “Dance the Night” dropped last month.

Gosling also sings a straight-faced version of the Matchbox 20 hit “Push,” and Robbie, a producer on the film, begged to have a version of Aqua’s 1997 hit single “Barbie Girl” incorporated into the movie. The latest iteration of “Barbie Girl” is “Barbie World,” a remix released late last month by hip-hop Barbie Nicki Minaj and rapper Ice Spice.

Earlier this week, Gosling joined the cast of the movie for the pink-carpet premiere of “Barbie” in Los Angeles. And while Robbie’s Barbie outfit dupe stole the show, something her co-star wore also made headlines. (Alas, there were no Ken-branded boxers in sight.)

The actor, who wore a pale pink Gucci suit, paid tribute to his longtime girlfriend Eva Mendes with a piece of jewelry: a gold necklace bearing an “E” pendant in Barbie’s signature Dollie font.

The 42-year-old said Mendes and their two daughters — Esmeralda, 8, and Amada, 7 — heavily influenced his work in the movie and has vehemently clapped back at critics who argued that he was “too old” for the role.

“There was such a synergy between what I was watching happening in my own house and then also the brilliance in the way that Greta was using these characters to do something similar,” Gosling told The Times. “I walked into my backyard and I saw Ken laying face down in the mud next to a squished lemon. And I thought, she’s right. This story does have to be told.”

Meanwhile, Mendes has publicly proclaimed her love for Gosling’s Ken-ergy, donning a “Ryan Gosling is Ken” T-shirt in a May Instagram post and co-signing Gerwig’s characterization of his Ken last week as “some combination of Marlon Brando meets Gene Wilder meets John Barrymore meets John Travolta.”

“One of my favorite things the insanely talented & beautiful GRETA GERWIG says in @rollingstone about Mi Hombre, Mi Vida, Mi Amor …RG💗,” Mendes wrote.

A Ken fan through and through, she also requested and successfully obtained Gosling’s infamous Ken underwear.