Ryan Gosling’s live rendition of “I’m Just Ken” stole the show at the 2024 Oscars, and fans can partially thank his two daughters for how it turned out.
“It was so fun because they came to the dress rehearsal the day before and so they were in the front row,” Gosling, 43, gushed to People on Tuesday, March 12. “They gave me some tips and some notes, all great notes.”
Gosling, who starred as Ken in the 2023 movie Barbie, shares daughters Esmeralda, 9, and Amada, 7, with partner Eva Mendes. Gosling earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. His character’s breakout musical number, “I’m Just Ken,” scored a nod for Best Original Song. (Both Gosling and “I’m Just Ken” ultimately lost their categories on Sunday, March 10.)
During Sunday’s broadcast, Gosling sang alongside Barbie costars Simu Liu, Scott Evans, Ncuti Gatwa and Kingsley Ben-Adir and a swarm of backup dancers. The performance, which also featured songwriter Mark Ronson and legendary guitarist Slash, was conceptualized as an homage to Marilyn Monroe’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
Gosling channeled his inner Marilyn in a hot pink, bedazzled suit and sunglasses after taking Esmeralda and Amada’s advice about the number.
“They are such a huge part of this for me … it was my girl’s interest in Barbie and disinterest in Ken that got me into this in the first place,” Gosling said on Tuesday at the SXSW premiere of his next film, The Fall Guy. “It was beautiful to have them there at the end.”
Esmeralda, Amada and Mendes, 50, were Gosling’s No. 1 cheerleaders leading up to the Oscars, but the kids stayed home on the big night. Mendes, meanwhile, watched from backstage.
“You took Ken all the way to the Oscars, RG,” the actress captioned an Instagram photo from his dressing room later that night. “Now come home, we need to put the kids to bed. 💋.”
Gosling instead was joined by his parents and sister Mandi in the front row during the awards ceremony.
The Oscars performance further proved Gosling’s “Kenergy,” but he wasn’t always on board with singing in the July 2023 feature.
“He has a beautiful voice, and he’s a beautiful dancer. We got there organically,” director and cowriter Greta Gerwig told Rolling Stone in an interview published in July 2023. “I think if I had said, ‘I want you to sing and dance in this movie,’ he would not have necessarily done that for me. But it was kind of that thing of boiling a lobster. I think by the time he was singing and dancing, he didn’t even totally know how we had gotten there. But he’s so fabulous at it.”
