Ryan Gosling absolutely smashed his performance of "I'm Just Ken" at Sunday's Oscars ceremony, but he didn't achieve it all alone.
The Barbie actor revealed that his wife Eva Mendes and their daughters, Esmeralda, 9, and Amada, 7, coached him before he took to the stage.
"They gave me some tips and some notes, all great notes," Gosling told People at SXSW on Tuesday. "They are such a huge part of this for me...it was my girls' interest in Barbie and disinterest in Ken that got me into this in the first place. It was beautiful to have them there at the end."
Speaking of his family's support, the actor added, "It was great. It was so fun because they came to the dress rehearsal the day before and so they were in the front row."
Gosling performed the hit song surrounded by Mark Ronson and a bunch of Kens, wearing an incredible blinged-out Barbie pink suit. The performance started with him singing behind Margot Robbie in the audience, then evolved into a full-blown choreographed extravaganza.
The song was nominated for an Oscar (though it lost out to Billie Eilish) and won a Critics' Choice Award earlier this year, but according to Ronson, it almost didn't make it into the movie in the first place.
The music producer explained recently that the movie studio wasn't into "I'm Just Ken" at first. "At that first screening, the song wasn’t working," he said. "I panicked. The humor wasn’t translating, and Greta had to fight. The studio asked her how much she really needed it and she said 'With every inch of my body.' And then there was a big swing."
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Phew, that was a close one.
Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Bustle and Shape. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.
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