- Ryan.
- Wow.
- It's good to see you, buddy.
- It's been a while.
- Do you know how long it's been
since we've sat down together in a conversation?
- Hit me.
- Nine years.
- That sounds about right.
[Laughing]
- Is that what you were -
- I was gonna say eight and a half.
- I'll see you in nine years.
It's honestly great to see you, man.
This movie's awesome.
So I'm gonna be un-ironic with you,
I'm gonna be legitimate for a change.
- Oh.
- I know, it's off-putting, isn't it?
- Oh, they didn't tell me that.
- It's the new Josh, I've changed.
- You should warn people about that.
- Sorry.
- I'm getting a different Josh.
- No. Do you want the old sardonic, asshole Josh?
Is that what you want?
- Yes.
[Laughing]
- Is that what you signed up for?
- Yeah.
- No, no. I'm gonna be sweet at the start.
- Oh no, serious Josh?
- Serious Josh.
- OK.
- You have great taste in film.
You are selective,
but when you choose, you choose well.
That's not a backhanded compliment.
I could see what you just did there.
- Do you want another take on that?
- No.
[Laughing]
- 'Cause you can, you can edit this if you want.
- It's the closest I come to a compliment.
Here's my question.
How do you choose?
Has it evolved over the years?
Are you more or less selective?
Is it more or less gut?
Like what's changed in how you choose roles in films?
- I have kids now, Josh.
I know, like, why I'm doing it now
and who I'm doing it for.
So that changes things.
I mean, before I was doing it for you.
- That's where the bad choices were.
Now the good choices.
- This one's for Horowitz.
And then I'd,
I'd take a swing.
- Without naming names,
how many films in the past do you regret doing?
Like, I think you're batting percentage is pretty good.
Do you agree or are you self-critical
about the stuff you've done over the years?
- There's some bogies.
- OK.
- You know.
- I mean, you can names if you really do want to.
- I'd rather not.
They're obvious.
- OK.
- You know what they are.
- I do.
We'll talk off-camera.
[Laughing]
Take me back to little Ryan.
You ready?
- OK.
- Yeah, little Ryan.
- Did your parents let you see
R-rated action films?
- My first film in a theater was 'Bloodsport.'
- Wow.
Van Damme.
- I was too young to see that film.
- Need to be like 25 to see 'Bloodsport.'
- Yeah, I was young.
But it made an impact, you know.
- A double impact?
- A double impact.
- Can you do the splits?
Have you practiced your Van Damme splits?
- No, but my cousin, who I got all my hand-me-downs from,
had a splits machine.
- What is that?
[Laughing]
- I would try it, I tried it to no success,
but like.
- Are you OK again?
- It's like a homemade splits machine
and it was very Van Damme-inspired,
but it was homemade and very scary.
And I got stuck in it a few times
and then they had to take it away from me.
- Wow.
So was Van Damme your guy?
Like who was,
if I had talked to 12-year-old Ryan?
You'd be like,
- 12-year-old Ryan,
take off the headband.
[Laughing]
- Stop dancing in front of -
- The muscles aren't gonna come.
- Oh, I see.
- Just chill out.
- Yeah.
- I think, look, [Sylvester] Stallone.
Stallone.
- Stallone.
He's such a good actor.
- He is, for sure, yeah.
- You know, he's such a good -
so you got action,
but you've got these like amazing characters
at the center of it.
- Yeah.
It was just like, it was a beautiful marriage.
I miss those days.
- You know, not to peg you,
but like, in films, you've often played reticent heroes.
- Mm.
- Men of few words.
And this character somewhat follows in that lineage.
- Mm.
- Most actors want more dialogue.
I feel like you want less.
- I went to the Marie Kondo school of acting.
[Laughing]
Some people went Adler.
- Yeah.
- You know?
- Yeah. Yeah. You're economical.
- I didn't.
I was like, does this line spark joy?
[Laughing]
If it doesn't, I cut it.
- Do you know when a line is going to spark joy?
Like over the years,
certain lines of yours
- Right.
- have resonated.
When you say, 'If you are a bird,'
are you like, oh wait, when I finish this line,
this is going in the cannon.
I'm gonna be quoted this line back
for the next 20 years of my life?
- That line I did not think was gonna spark joy.
It didn't spark joy in me.
[Laughing]
I said it and somehow,
you know, but it did.
It did.
- Do people ever?
- You don't know. You think you do, you don't know.
- Yeah.
- If I came up to you and I saw you on the street,
in the wild and I said, 'If you're a bird.'
- Yeah.
- Would you respond or would you just run away?
- I would call security.
- Yeah. No, I get that.
It makes sense.
[Laughing]
OK.
So this film is ginormous,
as the Russos do.
A usual action movie has two or three, four set pieces.
- Right.
- This has, by their count, nine.
- Nine.
- Is there a moment that stands out,
where you're in the middle of
one of these crazy sequences where you're like,
what the hell have I gotten myself into?
Or is it all sparking joy, to quote Marie Kondo again?
- There's a sequence in Prague that is,
you know, pretty epic.
And it ends with me,
running on top of these train cars as they're
- Right.
- falling away, as I jump from car to car.
And it did sort of sum up the experience of the movie.
- Like this is exciting but.
- It did feel like this is exactly what this movie is.
- Right.
- Has felt like.
[Laughing]
It's just, you know, barely making it
from sequence to sequence.
Just barely making it out of this thing alive.
And they saved it 'til the end of production.
- Suspect.
- It's the last thing we shot
and it did make me think,
do they think this might be the last thing I ever shoot?
Is that why this is tucked into the end?
- What a tribute though.
Yeah.
- Does the F-word,
and by F-word, I mean franchise,
scare you a little bit?
Because you really haven't gone down that road.
- Right.
- Over the years.
I mean, when you've been in,
a quote-unquote franchise movie,
spoiler alert,
you often die at the end.
- I know.
[Laughing]
I didn't think that through.
I was like, wait a second.
- Or is it that getting the best of both possible worlds?
You get to be in 'Blade Runner'
but you don't have to, like,
know you're doing six more 'Blade Runner' movies.
You're not tied down.
- Yeah.
This one is tough
because there are nine books,
as I think there are.
- Right.
- And I will be a gray man if I do all of them.
[Laughing]
- It's great marketing, actually.
[Laughing]
Ryan Gosling is the gray man as the Gray Man.
- The actual gray man. Yeah.
But I really like this character.
I always wanted to make an action film.
I grew up loving them.
They're probably what made me love movies
in the first place.
But as you know, there's a lot of good ones.
- Yes.
- And so finding, the right character
and what could you add to it,
if anything, was not easy.
- Yeah.
- Obviously working with the Russos,
they've been doing this for the last decade.
- Yep.
- They're the guys to do it with.
They've worked at this scale so many times.
You think you love action movies.
You don't love them as much as they do.
- Right. Right.
- But you know, the character was really,
I just really liked him.
You know, I thought this idea of a spy
who doesn't want to be a spy,
who'd rather be at home watching Netflix,
like the rest of us.
- Right.
- Who has no romantic notions about being James Bond.
- Right.
- He's pulled outta jail
and his options are you can die in jail
or you can die as a spy.
Either one is a death sentence.
- Yep.
- So he takes the latter
because it's like a way for him to live a little
before he dies.
- Right.
- And so it made it interesting
because every time, you know, when you meet the character,
he's eating dinner and watching the fireworks.
It's like he's on the job
but these are his only opportunities to live a little.
- Right.
- I don't know.
I thought that's somebody that I
wanted to see what happened next for them.
You know?
- Yeah.
- It's about what they want,
these characters.
And I think, you know, what he wants -
a lot of action heroes want
revenge
or they want power
or they want justice
and he just wants freedom.
- Right.
- So it's easy to root for
and it's something that like, you'd like to see,
I'd like to see him get.
So it was something where I thought,
well, I would actually like to do more of these.
- Part of the fun of this also is obviously
getting to see you and Chris Evans go head to head.
Did you guys cross paths in terms of
going up for the same roles?
Like when he got Captain America,
were you outside and waiting to get your audition?
Have you guys ever crossed paths in that realm?
- I was waiting for the Captain Canada call.
- It still could come.
[Laughing]
- How many superhero roles have you said no to?
- It doesn't matter.
- It doesn't. Oh.
- I wasn't right for them, you know?
But I would, I'd love to do it.
I just, what's the one?
- Well, the word on the street.
- What do your think?
- The word on the street, do you know this?
- I don't know anything about Nova,
if that's what you gonna ask me about.
You're asking me about Nova?
- You make me feel this small sometimes.
- Why?
- Because you're like, you're smarter than me.
I get it.
Yeah,
he's gonna talk about Nova.
Yeah.
- Josh, you're not the first person to ask me about Nova.
[Laughing]
- So you don't know about Nova?
- I'm sorry.
- Okay.
But Captain Canada or bust.
- I'm just saying,
I don't know anything about the character.
Is it -
- Got a gold helmet.
That's all you need, like a cool helmet.
- OK. Right.
- Are you a Nova fan?
- I can't claim to be a superfan.
No.
- OK.
But you want me to play him.
- I didn't say that.
I want you to explore.
I want you to find your joy.
- I do, too. Thank you.
- Since it's been a long time since we chatted,
I have some questions I've been wanting to ask you
in the last few years.
So let's catch up quickly here. OK.
- Here we go.
- Where's your MTV Movie Award?
What happened?
Literally, your hand is shaking.
I can see it.
- Well I've had a lot of coffee and I told you that.
[Laughing]
- It's like vibrating.
- This is coffee-related.
- OK.
- This is not.
- Mm. Do you know where it is?
- Maybe my mom's house.
- OK.
You love Disneyland as far as I know.
What are some go-to tips for doing Disney,
having been a Disneyland lover over the years?
- When it's hot, you go to the Tiki Lounge.
- OK.
- It's a great place to cool off.
They got pineapple ice cream.
- Sold.
- I think that's a good tip.
- Are you happy that the new 'Avatar' film
has abandoned Papyrus as a font?
- I am happy to see that they have looked at that,
although I don't think it's changed -
- Enough.
Yeah, it's pretty close.
- That much.
- Donald -
- It's still Papyrus-adjacent.
- Adjacent.
- Donald Glover says that you were almost in
Season 3 of 'Atlanta.'
True?
Are you a fan?
- Yes.
- Any other show that we should make a spot for you on?
'Euphoria'?
'Is It Cake'?
What do you want in on?
- I like '90 Day Fiance,'
but I don't see how I get into that.
[Laughing]
- There's always a way.
- Yeah.
[Laughing]
Yeah, I don't see it.
- This is a personal one.
- Oh.
- When someone says, "Hey girl," to you,
do you curse me under your breath a little bit?
- You were the head of the spear on that one.
- Did you blame me?
- Did you secretly make that meme?
- No, I didn't.
- Because you know, I never said it.
But now, when I walk on the street,
people just yell, "Hey girl," at me.
- Do you blame me a little bit?
Like, 'cause I have felt that was a part of why
we haven't talked for many years.
And I just want, this is the personal,
we're going deep now.
- This is deep.
[Laughing]
- I don't know.
Should I?
I mean, what do you feel your role was in it?
I don't know.
- I feel like you had a great time in that sketch we did
or it wasn't even a sketch,
it was a conversation many years ago.
- Yeah.
- And if it lingered past that joyous moment,
I blame myself and I feel badly.
- But do you think you or do you -
- It was already a big thing.
- I feel like this is more about,
now I'm getting personal.
[Laughing]
- It was already a big thing.
- I think you have some regret about this.
- I only regret that we haven't shared more time together.
OK, last thing.
You've got this lovely new hair.
You're filming this amazing new movie, 'Barbie.'
- Thank you. - The photos are remarkable.
Greta Gerwig. Margot Robbie. - Yeah.
- Just talk to me about friends and family
receiving this new look.
Are they supportive?
How are you feeling on set
when you're in the costume?
Put me in your headspace right now in this.
- It's been cathartic.
- Yeah.
- Because there's always been a Ken inside of me.
It's the role I was born to play.
- Yeah.
- I've had this Ken-ergy,
if you will.
- Don't. No, that's beneath you.
- And the Ken-ergy is,
is alive in me now.
- You're better than that.
- I feel a Ken in you.
- Really?
- It's buried very deep.
- You don't think so?
- No.
- You'll see.
- OK. Next summer.
- Wait 'til the film comes out.
You'll see.
You'll feel seen.
- Oh, I can't wait.