Ryan Gosling is 42 years old and still looks better than I ever have in my entire life. Yet some feel he is too old to play the famous fashion doll Ken in the Barbie movie. True, the Barbie doll was introduced in 1959 as a “teenage fashion model,” but over the years, the characters have clearly aged up. I don’t know many teenage Presidents of the United States or astronauts or pop stars… oh… okay, not that last one.
But, Kenneth Sean Carson (yep, that’s his full name) was introduced in 1961 and yes, he was a high schooler, but over the years, he has been depicted as a businessman, firefighter, pilot, and doctor. In fact, he appears as a doctor in the most recent Barbie trailer in pink scrubs. In the stinger to the trailer, he insists on performing an appendectomy in the real world. Once again, he is clearly not a teenager.
Buuuuut, Ken has always been Barbie’s arm candy. And Gosling points that out. In an interview with GQ, he remarked:
“Like you ever thought about Ken before this?”
Gosling graces the cover of the newest issue of the magazine, fittingly sporting bright Barbie pink, although he has clearly grown out that bleach-blond Ken hair.
Possible SPOILER ALERT, but Ken may wind up being the villain of Barbie, as he accompanies Barbie into the real world… a world where white men run everything as opposed to Barbie World where everything revolves around women.
In the Barbieverse, Ken’s job was listed as “beach.” Just “beach.” Lifeguard? Uh… that’s the only beach job I can think of, and that is an actual job that Ken has held in the past.
As Gosling remarked:
“His job is beach. For 60 years, his job has been beach. What the fuck does that even mean?…
“And everyone was fine with that, for him to have a job that is nothing. But suddenly, it’s like, ‘No, we’ve cared about Ken this whole time.’ No, you didn’t. You never did. You never cared. Barbie never fucked with Ken. That’s the point. If you ever really cared about Ken, you would know that nobody cared about Ken. So your hypocrisy is exposed. This is why his story must be told.”
You can catch a bit of Ken’s jealousy of Barbie in the official full-length trailer.
Greta Gerwig directed Barbie based on a script by her and her partner Noah Bombeck. Margot Robbie stars as the primary Barbie, with Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, Nicola Coughlan, Alexandra Shipp, Ritu Arya, Hari Nef, Emma Mackey, Dua Lipa, Ana Cruz, and Sharon Rooney as alternate Barbies.
In addition to playing Mermaid Barbie, Dua Lipa also provided the film’s pop single which has been featured in the trailers, “Dance the Night.” You can watch that below:
Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Ncuti Gatwa, and Scott Evans costar as alternate Kens. Emerald Finnell appears as Midge with Michael Cera as Allan, two dolls that appeared as Barbie and Ken’s best friends in the doll line.
In the real world, America Ferrera, Ariana Greenblatt, Will Ferrell, Jamie Demetriou, and Connor Swindells will portray real humans. Helen Mirren narrates.
Barbie hits theaters on July 21.
