Credit: Inside the MagicRyan Gosling is acclaimed for his intense roles in indie dramas and beloved for his popular romantic films, but he just unleashed his greatest performance yet: Marilyn Monroe.
On Sunday night, Ryan Gosling appeared at the 96th Academy Awards ceremony to perform “I’m Just Ken,” his pivotal musical number from the titanic box office blockbuster Barbie (2023). Although Gosling has appeared in movies as iconic as the millennial romantic classic The Notebook (2004), the stylish action thriller Drive (2011), and the acclaimed musical La La Land (2016), his role as a lovelorn, almost-villain Ken in Barbie instantly became a highlight of his career.
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The third-act performance of “I’m Just Ken” also became one of the most talked-about aspects of Barbie, with its abstract visuals, elaborate choreography, and Gosling’s own utter commitment threatening to overshadow the entire film. Although the song ultimately lost the Oscar to another song from Barbie (“What Was I Made For?” which netted Billie Eilish her second Academy Award), the actor’s live performance at the ceremony was one of the most anticipated events of the night.
And Ryan Gosling did not disappoint. Behold:
The performance included a 40-piece orchestra, over 60 backup dancers (including appearances by fellow Kens Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Ncuti Gatwa, and Scott Evans), guitars by Mark Ronson, Wolfgang Van Halen, and Slash, and 24 huge cutouts of Barbie’s face. Sharp-eyed viewers also noticed something else that added to the performance: the spirit of Marilyn Monroe.
It seems that Ryan Gosling himself was the main force behind the creative design of the performance (per Variety), and he insisted that the production be an elaborate homage to the iconic “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” sequence from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). Choreographer Mandy Moore says, “That’s where the pink suit, and everybody else in black came from — and the stairs in the back. And we had an homage to the candelabra girls: We had Ken-delabra men.”
Ryan Gosling’s all-pink suit is a clear reference to Marilyn Monroe’s pink dress in the scene (which has also been paid tribute to by Madonna, Gossip Girl, and Margot Robbie, among others), while the elaborate choreography of Barbie faces seems to be a reference to the “I Only Have Eyes for You” sequence of Dames (1934), which was created by legendary Golden Age of Hollywood figure Busby Berkeley.
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Notably, Gosling has been attached to a biopic of Busby Berkeley for almost a decade, so it is pretty clear that the actor planned to include some of his favorite things in this Oscar performance. If he can transform into a plastic doll cosplaying as Marilyn Monroe, why not a famous surrealist dance number as well?
While Barbie might have lost most of the notable awards of the night to its eternal rival, Oppenheimer (2023), it seems Ryan Gosling and Marilyn Monroe managed to seize a moment for themselves anyway.
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