Ryan Gosling

As Ryan Gosling ventures back into the spotlight, playing history’s most misunderstood doll, he’s got a happy new idea about the kind of films he’d like to make—and the off-screen roles he’s prioritizing in real life.

- ZACH BARON

RYAN GOSLING SUBSCRIBES to what he calls an escape-room style of being an actor. This is a little theoretical, because he's never actually been to an escape room, and he's not totally sure what happens inside of them. "Maybe I should do one," he says, "to see if this really works." But the general idea is: You're thrown into a particular set of circumstances and you've got to find your way out. Maybe you show up on set one day and it's raining when it's not supposed to be raining, Gosling says, "or this person doesn't want to say any of that dialogue, or the neighbour's got a leaf blower and they're not turning it off". What do you do next?

Over time, Gosling has discovered that this approach might apply to more than just acting. Maybe, for instance, you're a kid growing up in a town you don't want to be in and you're trying to locate an exit. Maybe you're looking for something you can't put into words and you make movies to try to pin down whatever it is you're looking for. Maybe you're a person who never envisioned raising a family and then you meet the person who changes, in some radical way, how you see yourself and your future. Life comes at you, in all its unanticipated and startling particulars; the thing that makes you an artist is the way you respond.