Ryan Gosling receives honour by Santa Barbara Film Festival: 'Expanding horizons'

Ryan Gosling took time to consider his arduous road to becoming Ken, during his Saturday night honours address at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

At a banquet in Santa Barbara, after winning the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film, "Up until this point, I’ve only ever thought about just how much cinema had done for me, I had never really thought about what I’ve done for cinema.”

He remembered how he struggled academically and had a swearing issue in the third grade. However, one of his instructors arranged for weekly trips to the library, where they struck an arrangement that allowed the actor to rent a movie from the library's collection for each book he read.

The movies “were expanding my horizons but they were also teaching me how to dream, or how to dream bigger, anyway,” Gosling continued. 

“That whole experience, the filmmakers, the actors creating their own stories, my mother taking me out of school to show me how to create my own story — even at an early age film had opened a door that led to a world where daydreaming didn’t mean you were wasting time, it meant you were doing your job. A job I couldn’t wait to do, a job I started doing right away — if you count putting on hammer pants and dancing at the mall, or singing ‘When a Man Loves a Woman’ at weddings during the garter belt ceremony.”

Gosling praised his Barbie director Greta Gerwig, who was present at the function, for often reminding the ensemble of the movie how fortunate they are to work in Hollywood.

“I, for one, have been so lucky. I’ve gotten to go to the moon, be a motorcycle bank robber, a getaway driver, waltz through the stars, be an elementary school teacher — albeit a crack-addicted one — become a replicant from the future, a gangster from the past, a lovelorn stunt man, and most recently, thanks to Greta, a 70-year-old crotchless doll,” breaking down in laughter at the podium.

Gosling was given his award by Gerwig, who also praised him for his portrayal of Ken, saying, "He is such a delicious and unexpected combination of genius."

“He has the burning intensity of Marlon Brando, he has the exquisite comedic pang of John Barrymore, the tragic realism of Montgomery Clift and the virtuosic showmanship of John Travolta and the sly wit of Gene Wilder,” Gerwig added.