Ryan Gosling blew audiences away with his pink-clad performance of Barbie’s “I’m Just Ken” at the 2024 Oscars on Sunday, March 10 — and the epic homage to Marilyn Monroe was Gosling’s idea.
Referencing Monroe’s “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” performance in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Gosling, 43, donned a hot pink suit while surrounded by Kens in black tuxedos on the stairs. In lieu of the red hearts used in Monroe’s performance, the Kens carried large Barbie head cutouts while executing the choreography.
According to Oscars producer Molly McNearney — who is also the wife of the show’s host, Jimmy Kimmel — it was Gosling’s idea to pay tribute to Monroe in the performance. In fact, Gosling meticulously planned many details about the show-stopping number alongside his Barbie collaborators.
“Ryan Gosling is a true professional, that man — we met with him on Zoom months ago, talking about that performance,” McNearney, 46, told Variety. “Greta Gerwig weighed in creatively as well. He was so committed to it. His choreographer, Mandy Moore, is exceptional — she was on all the calls. So was [the song’s cowriter] Mark Ronson.”
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Moore, 47, who also worked with Gosling on La La Land and choreographed Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, elaborated on Gosling’s involvement in the planning process during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“[Ryan] was pretty clear about his overall structure of it,” Moore said. “He wanted to start in the audience, come up, see Mark, see Andrew [Wyatt, the other cowriter], ignite the Ken-delabras and then join the 10 dejected Kens on the stairs. From there he wanted the rest of the number to evolve as if Kens were coming from everywhere, ‘Calling All Kens,’ eventually ending in a huge celebration revealing Slash.”
The performance included several cameos, from Guns N’ Roses’ Slash on guitar to Gosling’s frequent collaborator Emma Stone singing into his microphone from the audience. Barbie director Gerwig, 40, and stars Margot Robbie and America Ferrera also had their moment to share the microphone with Gosling.
“It was really important for him to jump down and include Margot and Greta and America,” Moore added. “He said, ‘I really need those ladies in the front, because I’m gonna go over to them. I want them to sing.’”
Gosling also planned out the exact line he wanted Stone, 35, to sing. She responded to his “I’m just Ken” line with, “So am I.” The longtime friends have collaborated on several movies together, including Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) and La La Land (2016). When Stone accepted the award for Best Actress for her performance in Poor Things later in the evening, she revealed she might’ve split open her dress during the excitement of Gosling’s performance.
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Fellow Kens from the movie, including Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Ncuti Gatwa and Scott Evans, also joined in on the performance, which included a 40-piece orchestra, 62 other dancing Kens and 24 Barbie head cutouts.
“I’m Just Ken” was nominated for Best Original Song at the awards show, alongside Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie, Becky G’s “The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot, Jon Batiste’s “It Never Went Away” from American Symphony and Scott George’s “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon. Despite Gosling’s electric performance, Eilish, 22, ultimately took home the trophy, earning her second Oscar and the only win of the night for Barbie.
