Is it really any surprise that Ryan Gosling is the people’s favorite?

From child star in Disney films, to best supporting actor nominee of 2024 with his most critical role yet, Ken from Barbie.
Yeah, Ken, from Barbie.
A movie no one would’ve expected to be so good, a series that has been on a very steep decline since its heyday of old animated movies when animation barely had its legs.
Ryan Gosling took the weird, sometimes characterless role of Ken and elevated it higher than anyone could have imagined. A supporting character nonetheless, who completely stole the spotlight. But it’s not the first time Ryan has done something spectacular like this.

Another supporting role in which Ryan steals the spotlight in his 2016 neo-noir action comedy, where he plays a private eye hired to find an old lady’s missing niece.
In this movie and this role, Ryan somehow manages to perfectly play up a character who both lost his wife and grown completely cynical of his life, and yet is still so brilliantly human and a far more complex character than he was written. He somehow knows how to perfectly balance comedy with character, showing flaws in his character’s outlook on life while also addressing his character’s trauma in a way that doesn’t feel campy or ridiculous.
The role even earned him the best comedy actor award of that year.

Which leads me to the elephant in the room: Ryan Gosling’s most powerful trait, and the reason why he is so beloved, is his sheer versatility in acting. This versatility has been the exact reason why Ryan has been able to go from a drug addicted, struggling middle-school teacher one year and transform into a young, socially awkward and star-struck lover of an inanimate object.
It is how he is able to go from a beloved jazz pianist in La La Land to a self-questioning, robot hunting cyborg in Blade Runner 2049. Again, all a year apart.

His versatility is phenomenal, because the way he plays his characters are completely different depending on that character’s tone.
If that character is meant to be dark, thought provoking, and edgy, then he uses his eyes and facial expressions to tell the story. If the character is the opposite, as in maybe a comedy character or a romantic character, he lets his voice, cheery attitude, and inflections tell the story.
The major craft of his acting is subtlety, something that makes his deeper characters quiet but relatable, and his more cheery comedic characters loud, but enjoyable. When he is playing a character he knows is a cold-blooded killer, or a morally gray man who wants nothing but the truth, he turns back the dial on his expressiveness and relies on subtlety. When he knows his character is supposed to be spectacular, comedic, and over-the-top, he turns the dial all the way up– so you really feel the goofiness or charm.

Overall, Goslings’ work is impressive. Beyond impressive. Ryan is a fan favorite because he knows how to appeal to his audiences through his vastly different characters, and he certainly knows how to make his audience laugh.
He is charismatic, relatable, and “literally me.” He is the star actor of this generation, and in his words he is “Just Ken.”