Ryan Gosling: ‘I wanted to let go of my childhood’

It belongs to him, which has become almost an aphorism: “Being a sex symbol is somehow non-sexual.” But when you meet him, you realize how controversial this statement is. Very debatable. Because you involuntarily catch yourself in envy. It’s me, man. And women, something tells me, are in awe.

The thing is, Ryan Gosling is perfect. He is incredibly calm, he smiles with restraint, he has a firm handshake and confident plasticity. He doesn’t evade the answer. He is straightforward, but not at all naive. He is meticulous and pays close attention to detail. He has an analytical mind and an absolutely sincere unwillingness to use his physical virtues off the screen. On the contrary, he seems to be trying not to be conspicuous – black jeans, black polo, gray sweatshirt. But is it possible if you are blond with a hooked nose, thirty-four years old and under 190 cm tall? If you are Ryan Gosling – with your talent to play the most tragic and the most romantic with only your eyes, and with your article of a ballet dancer?

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By the way, Gosling really regularly attends a ballet class – he hates the gym with this “static build-up of useless muscles.” He recognizes only their use, movement. And he confidently moves through life, guided by his special sense of rhythm. However, everything usually has a rough downside. I, suspicious, try to see her in perfect Gosling.

Psychologies: I was preparing for an interview with you and watched the YouTube video of your band Dead Man’s Bones (“Dead Man’s Bones.” — Approx. ed.). Frankly, it’s amazing: some kind of Halloween turned into a musical project …

Ryan Gosling: Rather, a hybrid of a freak show and “Hello, we are looking for talent!” – thought so…

Yes, Gogol Bordello with a children’s choir, I understand. But it’s so bold! The song “Pa Pa Power” with the lyrics: “Broken glass, broken hearts, burning streets, burning cars …” And in the video there is a quiet, well-groomed provincial town of the past with lifeless bodies of adults on the street and children, half-ghosts, half-zombies with an angelic appearance … As you know that you are the creator, motor and inspirer of this phenomenon, I will not hesitate to ask: has the autobiographical crept in? I mean this image – a blond child as a source of horror and death for adults …

R. G. (After a pause, during which he carefully looks into my eyes.): I did not expect that our conversation could turn into a session of psychoanalysis …

But children imitating zombies and ghosts overtaking adults. There is no presentation of an account to the adult world on behalf of a once offended child?

R. G .: We actually did an album with The Silver Lake Children’s Choir, children and children’s voices are really a big part of our band’s unique sound and image, we actually did a one year tour of America playing with local children’s choirs. And I really made my debut as a director with a film in which the main role belongs to children. But this does not mean at all that I consider the world of childhood an ideal. On the contrary, my notorious “inner child” did not survive …

I do not believe. After all, it is he who knows how to rejoice, experiment, resent injustice and makes us go to the movies for action. We, adults, are conservative and restrained, the world of creativity rests solely on “inner children”. You are exactly like that. I have seen your films. And I know that you are a crazy car racer and in general … a motorcyclist.

R. G .: You ask and you don’t give an answer. So, my “inner child” did not survive. As not a single child survived, everyone became adults. My inner child has matured, but, it seems to me, has not lost its most … sparkling qualities. You see, I found myself early in adulthood …

Namely, on the Disney channel, as one of the “mouseketeers” – along with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake?

R. G .: You mean, did the world of show business, contracts, discipline, obligations put pressure on the child’s psyche? No, it’s unlikely. I’m just one of the “survivors” – to whom the plan of the Almighty did not apply to geek actors. The plan according to which, by the age of 30, I had to have the usual set for young stars: two terms in a drug clinic, three sex scandals, two broken paparazzi cameras and one criminal trial under the article “Hooliganism”. None of this happened to me, as you can see. First, I missed the stars in the sky at The Mickey Mouse Club. For a teenager from Canada, it was a big success to get there, but there I was stubborn and ended up mostly on backup dancers. And secondly, I wanted to part with my childhood.

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But nothing dramatic happened to you, did it? Or I’m wrong?

R. G .: Nothing in the usual sense, you’re right. Except one thing – our Cornwall in Ontario is located on the banks of the St. Lawrence River. And on the other side of it is the United States. And there was Rocky, Rambo, real rock music. And the well-being of the middle class. I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. And they endlessly checked … And somehow I didn’t have friends. In general, I made my first friend when I was already 15. Cornwall is a provincial town with a paper mill as a city-forming enterprise. The parents separated when the father was fired from there. I was 13. Everything was destroyed … Actually, I had one perspective – to grow up and go to work at the same plant. But the plant also closed at some point. It was a disaster for the city. And already at the age of seven I realized that I had to get out of Cornwall. And then my paternal uncle settled with us. And he, you know, was the professional counterpart of Elvis Presley. And without having any external data for this – he was bald and with a birthmark on his face. But he managed to be Elvis! His last name is Perry and he performed as Elvis Perry. He lived in our basement and rehearsed there, and I watched how another person was fashioned from one person. That was the first time I saw… an act of acting. And since my sister and I sang at weddings – well, the bride is in the armchair, this whole ritual, we sing with children’s touching voices – then my uncle took me as an assistant, after all I had some kind of “stage experience”. I gave his scarves to the ladies in the hall as a gift or brought a teddy bear when he sang “Teddy Bear” … And then I started winning some children’s talent competitions. What’s funny, with the clown sex dance, which drew the girls and even the ladies from the auditorium. I stopped being a child in the literal sense of the word that’s when I decided that Cornwall was not for me. And when I realized that for me the way out was to scamper to California as soon as I got a driver’s license. Even then I vaguely guessed that the world was a place quite adapted for happiness. Just not the whole thing.

And at the age of 12 you began to earn your first – and rather big – money. This is an achievement. What is your attitude towards money now? It’s just that you don’t appreciate them enough – you made a career on serious copyright films, but you could aim at superheroes from comics…

R. G .: It’s true, I prefer roles and stories over budgets. But you know, I always, after the “Fanatic” who made me a name – and I was only 17 then – in the financial part of the contracts I provide for a small fee relative to the budget, but a significant percentage of the fees. I always believe that this “Valentine”, this “Drive”, this “Diary of Memory” will be more profitable than “Avatar”!

And you still talk about the death of the “inner child”…

R. G .: No, really, money is not stimulating. And if they are stimulated, then this is a bad incentive. A good ally, but a false incentive. I recently became convinced of this again – when I was making How to Catch a Monster, my first film as a director. We had no money for professional lighting, we shot in natural light – and therefore the fire there is really an all-devouring element. We didn’t have a set budget, so I chose Detroit, the city of the lost American dream. And that is why the landscape is so hopelessly sad in the “Monster”. There was no money for costumes either, and Eva (Eva Mendes, actress, Gosling’s wife. – Ed.) and I went to the Salvation Army store and brought a bale of junk. And they helped the artists, as they claimed – choosing clothes from a bale, they mentally dressed their hero, invented him. It was the same in childhood – the question was not about more money, but about … a different life. And in many ways I am different. The one who can have friends, who can protect loved ones.

For some reason, whenever we, men, talk about an ideal life, it is always a life in which we perfectly correspond to the stereotype “a man is a breadwinner and a protector.” Although it cannot be said that something threatens our loved ones in the XNUMXst century.

R. G .: Not that it was about me … I, a feminist both by conviction and by life practice, definitely do not consider women to be the weaker sex. I have wanted to have a child for a long time and I was so happy with the girl – I really believe in her, and therefore she is Esmeralda, in honor of the heroine Hugo, strong and persistent. And I have a hard time defining the concept of “masculinity.” But there is something tribal in us, something from that man in the skin, guarding his range, do not argue. And I still have it from my childhood. I was the only man in the family, where there were only my mother and my sister, she is four years older than me. But I was the man. And you know, it was such torture in our provincial Canada – when my mother and I were walking down the street, and she is a very beautiful woman, and these men were swarming around, honking from their cars and whistling to her from construction sites. And this happened regularly. And you are eight or, there, ten, and you can’t even punch anyone in the face. I still remember that helplessness. But also what amazing scenarios of my mother’s protection I drew in my imagination then.

But it turns out that you still define masculinity: this is when you can punch in the face …

R. G .: Yeah, and especially often masculinity is shown by women who are more courageous than us, I’m sure. I’m just against generalizations on any basis. For a role in “This Stupid Love” – ​​I play a kind of macho there – I began to read glossy magazines for men. Everything in them is very respectable – how to dress, how to behave in different circumstances, what exhibitions to go to and how to pump the press. And essays with columns meaningful. But it seems to me that ultimately they are trying to sell the dream – to make us dream of some kind of … demo version of us. And I don’t need to buy dreams. I have mine.

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Here you ironically noticed that God has a plan for child stars. But seriously, do you think God has a plan for each of us? Does fate exist as a destiny? Or all the work, effort, luck?

I thought about this question. And thinking. So far, I have come to an intermediate conclusion: everything is decided by … how should I put it … your sense of relevance. Here is the premiere of How to Catch a Monster at Cannes. And a resounding failure. I admit that I am mediocre. But after all, this film, too, emerged from a bunch of Salvation Army clothes, Detroit ruins and budgetless enthusiasm, its energy does not match the energy of Cannes – red carpets, tailcoats and jewelry. This is a mismatch of elements. The inappropriateness of this film in this place, no matter how prestigious it is for a debutant director to participate in the Cannes Film Festival. Yes, Cannes would not even have taken “Monster” if I had not been the author. There was no place for him. Or here I was preparing to play with Peter Jackson in “Lovely Bones” and for this I recovered by 15 kg. But at the last moment the director decided to replace me with another actor. I was left with nothing – fat and unemployed. And then I realized: I make three films a year, I live in Los Angeles, where the lifestyle is known – from home to car, from car to studio or office, then back to the car. Then I felt all my irrelevance in the circumstances. I stopped meeting reality altogether. I needed to re-establish that connection. I announced that I would take a break from work indefinitely. Then it turned out that for three years. I got into Dead Man’s Bones, learned to play the piano and ukulele on YouTube – changed the circumstances. And the place – moved to New York, where reality awaits you everywhere. where I fit in. And God… You know, I’m a Mormon. Their faith in my upbringing was of great importance. And this is not polygamy – there are almost no communities of this canon left, and they did not particularly insist on it. But Mormons believe that God is the father of the souls of all people and, like a father, knows and loves each person personally. And Christ is our elder brother because he is the first son of God. So I have a kindred relationship to God – I can argue with him.