Gosling Not Averse To The Idea, Interested In The Challenge Of Becoming A Triple Threat
Ryan Gosling and Derek Cianfrance‘s working relationship has already spawned the highly acclaimed romantic drama “Blue Valentine” with Michelle Williams and is set to continue with the newly-announced Jack London-inspired “The Place Beyond The Pines,” which will center on “fathers and guns, and it has motorcycles and guns in it.” But it looks like the duo are eyeing more potential projects to collaborate on.
In a profile in New York Magazine, Cianfrance is reported to be interested in reteaming with his leading man for a musical of some sort describing Gosling as “the closest guy that could be Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor, all wrapped into one.” And it sounds like Gosling isn’t at all averse to the idea either.
The actor went on to express his own admiration for the triple threats of yesteryear and their development through the classic studio system. “It used to be mandatory to sing, dance, and act—to do comedy as well as drama. You came out here and trained. Over time, [actors] got compartmentalized. If you tried to play a character that was south side of a character you were made famous for, you were kicked to the curb, or shamed into getting back in line. The idea is to go back to the way things used to be.”
Music has never been something far from Gosling’s wheelhouse. A graduate from the Mickey Mouse Club generation that produced the likes of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake, the actor also has a criminally-overlooked musical project in the form of two-man indie-folk-rock band, Dead Man’s Bones — who released their debut, self-titled record last year — and was also seen showing off his set of pipes in Cianfrance’s “Blue Valentine” where his own singing abilities were part of the love story between Dean and Cindy.
We all know the kid has the acting front covered so what then of last box to tick, dancing? “He’s constantly pulling things out of his pocket—secrets that seem to be in contradiction to who he is,” Michelle Williams, his ‘Valentine’ co-star, explained. “Can you imagine someone as masculine and alpha as Ryan also likes to take ballet lessons?”
The prototype definitely seems like something Hollywood has been gravitating towards of late — just look at the newest batch of “leading men” in Gosling, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and James Franco (or, for one of the older kind, Hugh Jackman) who are more like the Sinatras, Martins, Davis Jrs and Lawfords of the world than most before them. And we admire that they are using their clout to choose a variety of interesting projects.
“I know it sounds dramatic but every movie I make is the first and last,” the actor affirmed. “It’s important for me to think that the things you’ve made, they’re in the past. It’s what you’re making now that matters.” Amen to that.